Meet Caroline of Life in the Long Grass, one of the dyers for this year’s MKAL: Color Kaleidoscope
Caroline is a lover of tonal, blendy palettes, with bright flashes of contrast that catch your eye without taking over. Her inspiration often starts right outside, where weather, light and time do all the colour mixing for her.
"I rarely sit down and decide on a palette. Nature puts colours side by side that you'd never think to pair yourself, and they hold together because they came from the same light and the same weather."
That love of nature goes way back. As a child, Caroline could spend hours watching insects, completely absorbed in their tiny worlds. These days, she’s drawn to the same kind of details: a faded petal, a weathered stone, a wilting plant, its colour draining but somehow becoming even more beautiful.
"I’m drawn to things that are slightly faded, worn or imperfect, where you can see traces of time and the elements."
That feeling follows her straight into the dye pot. Caroline loves marled fades and the slow movement from one colour into another. When a shade catches her eye, she likes to really chase it, pushing it lighter, darker, softer or more intense.
"I love looking at the colours that sit adjacent to a particular colour and those that are slightly different in value or hue. I might follow that thread and end up with lots of semi-solid variations moving in one direction."
And her colour pairing advice?
"Push a colour before you change it. Even with contrast, they should read as though they belong to the same story."
We love Caroline’s particular way of looking at colour. Because isn’t that what a kaleidoscope does best? It takes familiar colours, shifts them around, and suddenly you’re seeing them in a completely new way!
