Sometimes, when I make temari, I like to play design games. Often, this means I’ll make a succesive series of three or four temari with essentially the same base design, but I’ll tweak it differently for each ball. I often think of these as siblings—similar, clearly related, but different nevertheless.
This time, I used a slightly different process. Instead of reinterpreting one design several times, I made four temari with completely different designs, but using the exact same 4-color palette paired with a fine bronze metallic thread:
I also used four background colors echoing this same palette, and created four totally different temari that are linked by color rather than design. I named this grouping Quartet:
As in a classical string quartet, this one is composed of four movements. First, Allegro:
Followed by Adagio:
Then Minuet:
And concluding with a sprightly Rondo:
I love how the same colors interact so differently over the four temari, as determined by the background color and varying arrangements and relationships of the threads, and yet the four balls work together because of the shared palette. I expect I’ll explore this exercise again.
