Custom colors for a custom weave of MacRurie tartan

[Barb T]

Thought I'd make a post about a recent custom weave that nicely illustrates two things: 1) a tartan sett can be woven in a variety of shades of the specified colors (beyond the standard Modern, Ancient, or Repro/Weathered!) and 2) seemingly unlikely colors can combine to make a sensational weave.

Last fall, I had a customer who was interested in a custom weave of the MacRurie tartan. As most of you know, D.C. Dalgliesh will weave a single kilt length, and they offer three standard color palettes for the MacRurie, as shown below:

Modern MacRurie



Ancient MacRurie



Reproduction MacRurie (akin to the Weathered MacRurie)



My customer wasn't fond of the standard colors and asked if he could see other options for the red, green, and yellow. So, I asked Dalgliesh if they would send threads, which I passed on to my client. He chose the following three colors: a dark green, a deep purplish maroon, and a very bright orange.







I'm not going to lie. I would not have picked these myself and was not sure this would come off well. But....holy schmoly!!!! The tartan is FABULOUS! If you want to see the finished kilt, you can go to the following post: http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...51#post1271651

[David Dubh]

Wow Barb looks really great. I'm not a fan of the orange personally, but I love the red and the green! I might have gone with a really mustardy yellow. I'm sure the owner will love it and of course it's a true one off kilt
Cheers David

[Barb T]

I'm sure I wouldn't have gone for the orange, either, but it is truly a sensational choice in this tartan. Just enough pop to make you look twice, and three times, and.....

[OC Richard]

Very interesting!

I'm working my way through Peter MacDonald's The 1819 Key Pattern Book and my 'eye' is getting used to seeing a lighter green used (as Peter has pointed out).

By the way I find the design of that tartan very interesting, the way it has (I can imagine) been created by a series of modifications upon a very simple design.

Let's say you have a simple check, with two green bands. Next add two narrow green stripes in the middle of the red ground



Now let's remove every other red ground, thus in effect shoving two of the two-green-band things together, creating a four-green-band group



Lastly let's put a yellow stripe to one side of every other four-green-band group, and offset the pair of green lines in the middle of the red ground to make room

[figheadair]

It's turned out nicely. The green and red are pretty good matches to Wilsons' Green and Madder . I'm not a fan of gold and would have gone for their standard yellow which was a sort of English Mustard shade. But that's just a personal preference. Overall so much better looking than Old or Modern shades.

[mookien]

Barb: Your customer has a great eye for color. It's a beautiful tartan and a beautiful kilt. I like the orange, especially with the "purplish" color where the red and green stripes intersect. And the pleating with the orange flash is spectacular!

John