Creating the Color Coded Series

I started exploring codes and embedding them in my designs in early 2021, starting with the Cryptology Collection. I had looked at all types of codes, such as Bar, Morse, and Braille, and created a few of my own.

Thinking about a variety of codes, I decided to explore color coding. It became popular in the pre-digital days with color-coded file folders and markers. You would hear phrases like “in the red,” which is an expression for a company losing money, vs. “in the black,” hence the phrase “Black Friday,” which expresses a profitable business.

I thought it would be interesting to color-code my days with my moods. You can see “My Year in Color” with the original watercolors and cipher color palette.

Loving a good grid, I translated each month into a punch needle. In my usual fashion, I had to add another code element to each piece. I overlayed the alphabet onto each month, and the raised areas represent the letters of that particular month.

My process:

Researched yarn and color palettes and landed on these beautiful Palette Boxes from Knit Picks
Overlayed the alphabet on each watercolor
Created templates to keep me organized
Organized my yarn color to match the watercolors
Punched each piece, which took about four hours each
Built frames, wrapped each piece around the frame, then finished them off with a decoding card.