A hands-on textile design workshop exploring color theory, composition, and creative reuse through reclaimed cashmere.

Explore color through the hands-on process of designing a miniature cashmere collection.

Using my original miniature fashion patterns and reclaimed cashmere, participants create a series of small designs while learning how color relationships influence the way we see and respond to a composition.

We’ll use the color wheel to explore primary, secondary, and tertiary colors, complementary relationships, contrast, harmony, and proportion—then put those ideas directly into practice through textile design.

Rather than learning color theory only as an abstract concept, participants experience it by making choices: placing one color beside another, changing proportions, adding trims and embellishments, and watching how each decision changes the finished design.

EXPLORING HOW WE SEE COLOR

Color is not only something we choose, it is something we perceive.

Through a simple visual exercise, participants explore how our eyes respond to color and discover what happens when we look at one color for a period of time and then shift our gaze to a neutral surface.

The surprising result provides a memorable way to experience complementary color and introduces the idea that the colors we see are influenced by the colors around them.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

• How to use a color wheel to understand primary, secondary, and tertiary colors
• How complementary colors interact
• How proportion and placement change the effect of a color combination
• How to build a cohesive palette for a small collection
• How to cut and compose miniature textile designs using patterns
• How trims, beads, feathers, yarns, and other embellishments can alter color and texture
• How reclaimed cashmere and textile remnants can become material for new design work

FROM COLOR THEORY TO DESIGN

Color theory becomes much easier to understand when you can move the colors around.

Working in miniature allows participants to experiment freely—changing a sleeve, introducing a contrasting trim, repeating a color, or removing one entirely—and immediately see how the composition changes.

Each individual piece becomes a small color study, while the group of pieces begins to function as a collection.

VARIATION ON A THEME

Working from the same pattern provides another way to explore design. By changing color, material, trim, and embellishment, participants can see how many different interpretations can come from a single starting point.

The structure remains the same, while the design choices completely change the personality of each piece.

FROM INDIVIDUAL PIECES TO A COLLECTION

As participants create additional pieces, they begin to think beyond each individual design and consider how the collection works as a whole.

Colors can be repeated in different proportions, an accent used in one piece can reappear in another, and trims and embellishments can create connections throughout the collection.

The goal isn't for every piece to match. It's to develop a visual relationship between the designs while still allowing each one to have its own personality.

Cashmere & color testimonial with Lara Borrego —Click image to watch video

Cashmere & color testimonial with Lisa Newberry —Click image to watch video

BRING THIS WORKSHOP TO YOUR COMMUNITY

Cashmere & Color: Designing in Miniature can be presented for schools, colleges, community organizations, creative groups, private gatherings, and special events.

The workshop can be adapted to suit the age, experience level, group size, and setting. Materials and tools are provided, allowing participants to focus on experimenting with color, composition, and design.

Interested in hosting a workshop?
Contact me here →