... a small Japanese book which I absolutely love:
A Dictionary of Color Combinations,
by Sanzo Wada,
Seigensha Art Publishing Kyoto, 2011
(foreword in Japanese)
Sanzo Wada (1883 - 1967) was a Japanese costume designer, art teacher and painter. He developed and collected color combinations and created a six-volume-oeuvre in the 1930s.
These volumes are summarized in this edition.
These volumes are summarized in this edition.
This small book is so rich with the loveliest color combinations (348, with an extensive glossary of single color shades at the end of the book): he formed groups of two, three or four colors.
To me his color combinations seem to be like Haiku-poems, weightless, shining, luminous!
The name of his colors alone are pure poetry:
Cerulian Blue, Vistoris Lake, Orange Rufous, Glaucous Green, Pyrite Yellow, Ochraceous Salmon, Eugenia Red ...
I am experimenting with his color-groups and decided to make some bookmarks which show a simple pattern-design in order to give enough room for the colors to shine.
It turns out that I also can use my self-colored fabrics with their delicate shades here perfectly.
I'm so grateful I found that book!
(the book shown here with the bookmark is very lovely:
"Commonwealth", by Ann Patchett, 2016, HarperCollins)
