Try this at home (because it’s darn near impossible to show it in a magazine!): Take a spool or cone of a dominant-color thread, lay it on a contrasting background and stare at it for a few moments. Now quickly move it to a nearby white ground. Continue staring and see what color the white ground appears to be.

One of the most important components in the embroidery process is thread. Without thread, the needle has no purpose—might as well be a pin. The machine sits idle, the garment stays plain, and the cash register doesn’t go kaching!

Much thought is given to the selection of thread—brands, composition, colors. Brand names aside, the two most popular composition choices for embroidery are rayon and polyester, but the thread companies are always developing new and fun threads to inspire our creativity. Many of these novelty threads can be combined with the more customary poly and rayon to fashion eye-catching designs—fish that look wet and slimy, a mustache that looks real enough to comb, a puppy cute enough to hug.

These two characteristics have been discussed in shops, studios, plants, manufacturing facilities and trade magazines for many years now (see, for example, my “Embroidery Thread Practicum,” page 44, Printwear, Mar. ‘06), but the subject of thread color—no, not available colors, but how the color of thread can work for you (or against you, if you’re not careful)—has been largely ignored. So, after a few introductory words about how matters of basic composition affect thread-color selection, let us forge ahead into this neglected territory, shall we?

The challenge of thread

Rayon was long the thread of choice in embroidery because of its shine and wide range of colors. Polyester thread has closed the popularity gap with rayon, though, since the development of tri-lobal strands—three-sided plies that allow light to strike off more than one surface, creating a luster that competes very nicely with rayon’s shine. Polyester is stronger than rayon, fares well in the sun and in the industrial laundry and can’t be destroyed by bleach (read careless customers). Add to all of this the fact that it is less expensive than rayon, accepts neon dye (exciting colors) and is safe for children’s wear (won’t burn) and it’s easy to see why it is replacing rayon on many embroidery machines.

So, you’ve selected your thread of choice from the standpoints of brand and composition, you know what needle size to use to accommodate your rainbow of diameters. The easy part is over. Now you face the most challenging and often puzzling aspect of thread choice: What hue to select for the job at hand.

The true professional understands all the variables that go into color choice and communicates them to the customer. Not to do so is to invite the dreaded, “You didn’t use the right color,” even though you know you did. Still, the “right” color is the one that satisfies the requirements of the job, so call it what you will. Educating the customer is an on-going project and never is it more important than when you are selecting the threads for a design, especially a corporate logo. The first hurdle comes in the form of those ink chips called “PMS” colors.

PMS stands for Pantone Matching System which was developed for color identification and communication. The system helps designers, printers and clients communicate the specifics of color on printing orders. Each PMS color has a unique number and formula for ink mixing. Anyone who has ever tried to match thread colors using the Pantone system knows that ink colors do not a thread color make. So, it is important for the professional embroiderer to understand more about color than mere definitions.

For starters, a color is affected by the color that surrounds it. Hence, matching thread colors as closely as possible using Pantone ink/paint chips only works as long as the dominant color is white or neutral and does not affect the perception of the color of the thread. But, choose a blue thread based on Pantone, then stitch it on a red shirt, and you will discover the true meaning of “afterimage.” Any surround color has a significant influence on color judgment as two colors seen at the same time always create afterimage.

Restoring balance

Afterimage occurs when the color sensors of the eye are overexposed to a dominant hue for an extended time in strong light. We’re not talking about hours, though; the human eye is sufficiently sensitive that mere moments are enough to do the trick. The sensors related to that dominant hue become tired and malfunction. If red (the garment color) is the dominant hue, the afterimage of bluish-green (the complement or opposite hue to red) is sent to the brain; this is the color that will “wash over” a carefully chosen blue thread (for example), creating a blue-green tinge that will destroy a perceived color match.

Prove this by staring at red then shifting your gaze to a neutral or white surface, and see the blue-green that appears to float over the white space. Afterimage is an attempt by the eye and its sensors to restore a sense of color balance. The afterimage lasts until the color balance is restored. The fatigue of the sensors that causes the afterimage is always present when any dominant hue is perceived.

Even when thread manufacturers  make a concerted effort to match their threads to the Pantone chips—as they have done—the professional embroiderer will still need to understand the greater story of color perception, and the simple color commandment: Color is affected by the color that surrounds it.

In order to level a playing field made extremely perilous by the eye that communicates the hue to the brain—and the added pitfalls of afterimage—the embroiderer must make choices based on the whole color story and communicate (and sell) those choices to the corporate customer. The most careful Pantone match between ink chip and thread will not satisfy the corporate customer if the garment choice adds a surround that compromises the perception of the carefully chosen logo color.

Thread has a great capacity to change color, especially when it’s enhanced by a third dimension. Note not only the differences in sheen in the word “Rams” when stitched over foam, but also the fact that the flat “Football”—sewn in the same color—looks so different.Note, in this close-up, that the claws, stool and feathers are all sewn in one color (each). It is the different directions in which the stitches are arranged that causes the viewer to see so many more colors than are actually there.

Angles and textures

It is important, therefore, when choosing your threads, to understand the difference between color and color appearance. Threads are opaque so they do not transmit light. When light strikes the thread a small amount of that light is reflected back from the surface. Threads observed from an angle near this reflection appear light. When the thread is angled away from the reflection, the color appears to darken. When you observe thread, this first surface reflectance is always included in the eye’s determination of the color. In this way, color is different than color appearance. And it is more the appearance that we are concerned with in embroidery. View your thread from more than one angle when making color choices. When making your stitch and angle choices in digitizing, keep in mind the ways that hues appear to change, and the reasons they do.

Our perception of color is also affected by the way the thread or garment distributes or modifies the light rays that interact with it. When we alter the direction of our stitches, when we divide a pattern for a fill that molds the thread to the design in various ways, we cause the light to strike the thread differently throughout the design.

Dull matte colors absorb light, while shiny colors reflect it. A smooth texture reflects light evenly, while a rough surface causes uneven wave lengths to strike the eye. The light is slowed and affects the opacity of the color.

Texture is another component of color perception. We perceive texture because of the effects of light and dark. In embroidery we create the illusion of texture with shades and tints of thread or the use of lines and fills, patterns and satin stitches, placing the stitches in a way that suggests texture. Stitches that run in different directions fill patterns, and distortion such as caused by the use of lofting underlay or foam, can change thread-color appearance.

It is part of the magic of embroidery that we can make many colors from a single cone of thread by utilizing stitch patterns, loft and other digitizing tricks. It can be more difficult to try to accommodate the directions and dimension that are inherent in the fabrics and threads of our profession in order to achieve some “perfect” match. We can try to minimize thread angles and control the appearance of color but, at the end of the day, we (and the customer) must realize that we are dealing with fabrics and threads that have direction and dimension. Sometimes the best and only thing we can do is, again, educate our customers, making them understand the life and magic of thread, versus ink, can go a long way to satisfying their embroidery needs.

The color perceived is also affected by the color vision of the viewer (color-blindness can vary and is rarely present in women), the light source, and the relative direction of the stitches. Evaluate threads and garments in a neutral surrounding. White should be judged against a white background, dark and gloss should be viewed against a matte background. When colors match in only one light source, they can be totally different in another.

Test your designs by viewing them in two different light sources. Colors that match under cool-white fluorescent light and north sky daylight (from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.) will probably match under all lighting conditions.

Vive le thread

For most embroiderers, a thread chart is a wondrous thing. We can spend hours picking and choosing, wishing and making up an order . . . trying to decide how many blues we really need. Thread is the rainbow of our day, the magic that holds our designs together and—if the choices of color are made right—the very thing that sets our work apart from any competitor.

Write to the thread companies and ask for samples. Test those samples in different designs, trying angles and fills that will teach you all about color appearance. Educate yourself to the potential that exist within each spool or cone, then share that with your customers.

Presented correctly and professionally, what could be the minus of thread versus ink becomes a plus. Educate yourself and then your customer to the dynamic, ever-changing possibilities of thread. Showcase your professional style and make your customer understand that embroidery is more than just matching colors—it is bringing life to a logo in ways that will be noticed.