On our recent trip to Nicaragua I had the privilege of seeing color through someone else's eyes. Color has always been my greatest inspiration and I've taken for granted just how much of it I get to experience in my world. The rooms in my home consist of shades of green with pops of coral, Maui ocean blues, and a pinky shade of violet that is reminiscent of an orchid. Needless to say it was a very hard decision to paint the bathrooms the same shade of dull grayish-green, but I was incentivized by the fact that I got to pair that color with the most beautiful handmade tiles in subtle shades of the sea. But, I digress.
As Creative Coordinator for Bead Amigas, one of my jobs is to teach elements of design which, of course, includes color theory. About 9 months ago we had the opportunity to employ another woman, Lorena, in Los Rotarios. Her job would consist of painting drab wallpaper and cutting the paper strips which our beaders would roll into beads.
When Lorena began working with Bead Amigas I was not there to introduce her to color and Rachel, our Field Coordinator, seemed a little nervous about taking on this task. I advised Rachel that she and Lorena should spend some time together experimenting...mix this and that and see what you get. How hard could it be, right? I thought this would be the most fabulous experience for a person who may have never used crayons much less had access to paint. (As an artist, having the opportunity to work with new materials is very exciting.) Lorena revealed later that her hands were trembling the first time she picked up that paint brush. Yikes! That's not the excitement and joy I had hoped for!
I prepared to teach Lorena by creating a reference book of sorts. It contained swatches of the primary colors that we use and swatches of the resulting secondary colors when the primaries are mixed. I also went through kids wallpaper books and pulled out border pieces in bright, vivacious colors for her to draw inspiration from. I wanted her to be able to pick a color from one of those border pieces and match it to a color in the swatch book and to feel confident that she could mix it.Teaching day came and we got down to business. The first thing we did was mix pastels using the primary colors Lorena had on hand. She patiently tested stripe after stripe of pink creating tints by adding more white as she went along.
Then we moved on to secondary colors starting with purple. Our final challenge was mixing one of our beaders' favorite colors, "celeste." After a period of trial and error we achieved a beautiful blue inspired by the Nicaraguan sky.
On our last day in the village, as we approached Lorena's house, we encountered the most beautiful site. Fluttering in the breeze were freshly painted wallpaper pages.
The truth is Lorena was doing a great job painting paper before our training session. But, I'd like to think that by teaching her a few simple tricks of the trade that her world of color has been expanded if ever so slightly.
When presented with the idea of taking on another pre-production job, Lorena said, "I never thought that I would be able to paint, but I've learned to do it. So, I know I can learn to do the new job as well."
(set of kids paper bead bracelets - $25)
An artist in the making. Who knows? Maybe one day Lorena will be a famous painter. I love Bead Amigas!
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