I’ve been teaching color for tapestry weaving in Vermont and New Hampshire this month and I was excited to add this color tool to my toolbox just before I left on the trip. We were able to use the Palette Scout in both of the workshops I taught.
Palette Scout on the color table next to a tapestry exercise in color harmony by Karen Hartwell.
There is a lot of power in a color swatch tool like this. There are many color tools out there and I introduce many of my favorites in various online classes such as Design Solutions, but this one is different in that each hue is on a different card. That means that you can move the cards around as you create a palette and that makes all the difference.
Palette Scout is made by Zollie which is a sister company to Gist Yarn which makes Array tapestry yarn among other wonderful yarns.
There is a stack of cards that contains a purely saturated hue, two tints (white added), and two shaded (black added) versions of each. Then on the reverse of each card (and I love this!), are those five hues in tones which means gray has been added. This gives you ten different hues from just one color. I like this because when choosing colors using a color wheel, we’re mostly looking at the purely saturated color and it is hard to envision how that color will change when it is a tint, tone, or shade.
Palette Scout also comes with a master card for each of the 18 base hues in the box that shows you at a glance the pure color and all the tints, tones, and shades. On the back of each of those cards is a list of color harmonies you could use with that color.
Palette Scout components clockwise: The box it comes in, the pamplet explaining how to use it, challenge cards, color cards, and the stack of hue cards. Professional photos in this post are provided by Zollie.
I build palettes for my own work using color harmonies and I love that you can choose a primary color and then find the different harmonies listed. From there I can pull out those cards and start playing with the various combinations to find a palette I want to test out in a sample.
Palette Scout components: Master card with the 18 colors to the left, then clockwise to the pamphlet, palette idea side of the color cards, and an example palette.
There is a pamphlet that tells you how to use all the pieces in the deck, but there is also a fantastic video that walks you through using the tool.
Lastly, I really like that the colors are named such that you can put your deck back in order by alphabetizing them. Initially I wondered why we had color names like Daylily and Quetzal in the deck, but once you start using it, it is really nice to be able to put it back in order using the alphabet.
The video below is a sort of unboxing video where I show what is in the box and talk about why I like it.
I also made a much longer video showing me using the tool as I chose colors for one of the Summer of Tapestry 2024 projects. If you’d like to see the longer instructional video, I’ll be sharing that in two online classes. In Summer of Tapestry 2024 the video will be added to the Prompt 4 material* and in the Tapestry Discovery Box the video will be in the Curves box material which opens July 15**. I hope you enjoy Palette Scout as much as I do. If you’re in one of those online classes, let’s practice using it together!
If you get the blog via email, you can find the video on YouTube HERE. Please subscribe to my channel while you’re there!
Zollie is currently doing pre-orders for this tool. I was lucky enough to get a copy of it early! You can find more information and see another video which is more professional than mine here: https://zolliemakes.com/products/palette-scout-color-theory-101-pre-order. They’ll ship the tool in July.
I do not have an affiliate agreement with Zollie nor do I make any money off of sales of this tool. I simply think it is a really nice way of creating color palettes. I also want my students to be successful with using color and choosing palettes for their tapestries and this tool is very helpful for that. And as a bonus, Gist Yarn is working on an information sheet that matches colors of Array tapestry yarn as well as their other yarn lines to the colors included in Palette Scout.
Palette Scout cards matched to some of the Gist Array tapestry yarn colors
What color tools do you like to use when planning your tapestries? Tell us in the comments!
*It is not too late to join Summer of Tapestry! We have a lot of summer left to weave and I intend to make full use of it. Prompt 4 opens on July 8 and will include the Palette Scout demo video along with a PDF you can use to match Array yarn to Palette Scout card colors.
**The next Tapestry Discovery Box opens July 15th and will focus on curves, circles, and using hill and valley threads to your advantage. You can register for it starting July 1 at Gist Yarn.