White is a Color

I try to always carry a little spy camera around with me to snap photos for my inspiration files -- especially ideas for color schemes. And often while getting haircuts, I've admired this little box from afar, but yesterday I finally got out of the barbar chair to capture it.

My hair stylist says this company has been making bob pins since the 1930's and probably never redesigned the package in this time. Good thing! because I think it's so handsome in simple pink, black and white.

It's a great example of something a friend taught me -- white is a color. Previously I knew that white in terms of light is a mix of all the colors of light. And white in terms of pigment, as in mixing paints, is an absence of color. But once while judging a student logo competition, my friend Mary who runs her own graphics studio, turned to me and said, "These students haven't learned that in graphic design, white is a color."

I've thought about that often since then. In some of my quilts I've used white as a color, as you can see in The Singing Telegram and Blue Christmas. When you use white, you have to be more careful while working -- not to get it dirty! My dog Mochi walked through the warehouse one day, smelling every odd thing, then smelled Blue Christmas which was on a low table. Horrors -- a dirty smudge! Had to ban the dog after that, but the spot came out and you can't blame her really -- she's so smart, maybe she knew the quilt was about her!

So here's a toast to white (as I raise my morning glass of milk!)