‘Growing’ Geometric Designs

First draft of a new geometric design, future project

You readers have been so responsive and enthusiastic about the new 8-way design that we published last month. Thank you so much for your interest and supportive remarks. A number of you have asked for more information on expanding patterns. That is a subject that I have touched on several times over the years we have been doing these posts, but I am always happy to return to it. This article is going to focus more on design, rather than on specific projects. In our January 1st post of this year, we showed how to rotate a simple one-and-a-half inch pattern on quarter-inch graph paper to make a symmetrical three-inch design which could be repeated over and over again to make it as large as you wished — up to the size of a patchwork quilt top, for instance. Each of the little squares in the design could represent a single stitch on canvas or even-weave fabric, a much larger square of fabric, or even a floor tile. Let's revisit one of those designs. Instead of taking one of the little squares as the basis of our design, this time let's consider the entire three-inch square as a single, repeatable part of our design.

Central square from the 8-way needlepoint

Alphabet chart for the design

If you are going to follow along with me directly, you will need quarter-inch graph paper, a sharp pencil, an eraser (preferably a kneadable one, to get into the small squares), a straight-edged ruler or triangle, and a selection of colored pencils that can be erased. You can use pens or crayons, but they will not correct easily and can make the process frustrating. Or you can use an alphabet letter for each color written in plain pencil and fill the colors in later.

Central square in light blue, turquoise, and deep violet

The first thing I did was to center the design on my graph paper so I could work around it in all directions. The next thing I did was to change the color scheme of the design, leaving out the white, which is not a color. (You may want to use black, white, or gray in your design.) I chose to make this design in analogous colors (colors next to each other on the color wheel) because I wanted to make some points about color combinations. Analogous colors reflect wavelengths of colored light that are closely related.  Since these colors are closely related, we are pretty well assured of a pleasant design. I chose blue-green, blue, and blue-violet for my color combination, but you need not use those colors if you want to try others. For a trio of warm, bright colors, you might choose red-orange/orange/yellow-orange (the exact opposite of the three I chose), for example.  For more about color combinations, see our "Pigments and Palettes" article. A word of caution about colors. What I see on my screen in the office is not necessarily what J.D. sees on his screen in the workshop or what you will see on your device. And if you are printing something out, there are even more possible differences. That is why I identify the color range that I am using each time.

Central square in royal blue, medium violet, and aqua

Notice that I have used one light color, one medium color, and one dark color (a tint, a tone, and a shade) in each design. I do this to make it easier to place each color when I begin ‘growing’ the design. Each color is in the same set of squares on all three versions of the design; only the intensity of the colors changes. As you can see, which color is emphasized most does alter the design — a fact you will need to consider not only when growing your design, but also before choosing the yarns, fabrics, paints or other materials for your final project. Changing the positions of the colors as well as the intensity will give you even more varied results. I ‘grew’ all three of the blue-green/blue/blue-violet designs. You can see illustrations of the set at the end of this article.

Central square in aquamarine, medium blue, and lilac

Now that you have chosen both your color combination and your plan of light/medium/dark placement, you are ready to 'grow' the design. The simplest way to grow this design is to treat it the same way we did the little 6×6 square to get the 12×12 one we have now. If you want to proceed in this fashion, you may want to cut out your chosen 12×12 square and place it at the lower right-hand corner of a new sheet of graph paper. You can copy the pattern from your screen or print it as many times as you need it. You can then reproduce it immediately to the left, directly above right, and diagonally to the left of your original design. From there you can expand the design in any direction you desire.

Here is an outline pattern of the design to download.

Click here to download

Detail of mosaic from Ur, circa 2500 BCE

This design technique is called tiling. It is an ancient art process used primarily for creating inlays and mosaics. It was used in Mediterranean civilizations long before those of the Greeks and Romans. The earliest known mosaics were made in Mesopotamia before 2,000 BC (BCE)  Just last month there was news of a remarkable mosaic discovered in the ancient city of Hippo.

J.D. preferred the sample design with the light blue/turquoise/dark violet combination, so I tiled it first. Once I had a completely correct 4-part design, I reproduced it in colored pen for J.D. to photograph. I went through the same process with the other two samples. Somewhere in the midst of all this, he slipped up behind me and snapped this picture of my worktable, with the designs in progress. (He says he wanted to show you how much work I do before I publish anything for my readers. I think he just wanted to show what a mess my worktable usually is!)

Annake at work, designing

Expanded center square, stage 1

Now I turned my attention to the original black-line design to see how it would work as a 4-way or 8-way bargello design. Once again I placed the 12×12 pattern with the empty squares in the center of my graph paper and began to expand the design. I did this in plain pencil so I could erase any lines I didn't like. I worked strictly with lines and shapes at this point. (Although I planned to use some of the analogous colors in my final design, I intended to incorporate a variety of warm-color contrasts to the design, and I didn't want to be influenced by colors at this stage.) Since the top, bottom, and sides of the design were flat, I decided to begin there. I extended the lines that formed the sides of the squares outward in a stepped pyramid pattern of varying lengths. Once satisfied with one side of the design, I repeated it on the other three sides.

Outline of completed design

Then I turned my attention to the corners. Instead of closing the corner to make it the center of a design like those already completed, I opened it out with a stem-like addition and spread the arrowhead-like ends.  I returned to the north/east/south/west areas of the design and repeated and capped the pyramids with a small motif that I had used around the original center..Then I looked for ways to connect the corner designs to the expanded side designs. I decided not to connect them completely, but to leave areas where the background color could fill in around the shapes. The small center shape of the design was used in a detached fashion and repeated around the entire pattern in places where groupings seemed too empty.

Once the pattern was complete,  I went about filling in the colors.  I used many of the blue-green, blue, and blue-violet colors again that I had used in the trio of original designs — but sparingly. The feeling of the new design was rather heraldic for me, so I decided to incorporate reds and golds liberally in the final version. You can see the result at the top of this post. I left the background white so that the color details would be clear. I have saved an electronic copy of the design, however, and am planning to 'flood' the background with other colors later in order to compare the results. I also have some ideas for varying the central design. I haven't decided yet on what form of needlework I will make with this design. The design will probably change somewhat as I translate it for the medium in which it will finally appear. I'm already considering using a metallic thread, floss, or yarn in some areas — an antique gold or perhaps a copper tone. I will show the more interesting of these experiments in future posts.

I hope you have found this demonstration and discussion useful, and that it has encouraged you to experiment with designs of your own.  If you would like us to feature your design or designs on this blog, you can e-mail them to us at annakes_garden@yahoo.com .

As always, have fun!

Tiled versions of the analogous color design squares above

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.