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Color Theory for Stained Glass

© Sue Kimbel

As I am building stained glass projects, I have been experimenting with different color combinations and learning more about color theory. While color perception is personal and the "right" choice of color combinations ultimately is the one you like, the interaction of color in glass is different than in paints. The effects of the changing light through the glass over the course of the day and the amount and type of inside lighting on a piece also changes the way it looks at different times. With the different textures in glass and varying degrees of translucence versus opaqueness, there are many qualities all playing together in the finished piece.

Last fall I took a short color theory workshop where I learned about some different ways to combine colors using a color wheel. Using one of these combination schemes and the color wheel, I discovered I like a most unexpected combination - lime green, red violet and cobalt blue (complements with an accent). I would never have thought of combining these three without what I learned in the workshop! I finished this piece just in time to take it with me to an artist's coffee house event and someone wanted to buy it on the spot! You can see a picture of this piece below.

[Lime-violet-cobalt.jpe]

Basic Color Theory:

Primary colors: red, yellow and blue. Combining other colors cannot make these colors. All the other colors are mixtures of the primary colors with black and white.

Secondary colors: a mixture of two primary colors to make orange, violet or green.

Tertiary (Intermediate) colors: A mixture of one primary and one secondary color resulting in yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, red-violet, red-orange or yellow-orange.

Complementary colors: colors, which are across from each other on the color wheel. Examples of this are red and green and blue and orange.

Here are some different color combination schemes I learned about in my class. Referencing a color wheel is the easiest way to work out these combinations. It has been very interesting to set up some possible combinations on paper and then put together glass pieces to see the effect.

Side-by-Side Color Harmony

Three Side-by-side Example: yellow-orange, orange, red-orange

Three Side-by-side with an accent Example: yellow, yellow-green, green Accent: red (The accent is always across from any one of the colors.)

Five Side-by-side with an accent Example: green, yellow-green, yellow, yellow-orange, orange Accent: violet

Complementary Color Schemes

Basic complements Example: red and green

Complements with an accent Example: violet and yellow Accent: red (The accent is 2 colors over from one of the original colors.)