Cohesive Variety

Sophy Dumoulin uses a plethora of different textures in these contemporary pendants but somehow they all work together without any sense of chaos or clashing. Why does this work?

As long as there is consistency and cohesion in the rest of the piece, a great variety in one aspect will be balanced out.  In these pendants, the muted tones in gradated reds, grayed whites, and dusty blacks bring a cohesive calm to the pieces. That along with the simplicity of the shapes–rectangles and dots with even the dots arranged in rectangular patterns–makes these orderly and pleasing even with the variety of textures.

Now if these had been done with bright colors, it probably would not work as well. Instead of a calm orderliness, we’d feel high energy and maybe a little tension as the bright colors accentuate the many different textures. Cohesiveness has as much to do with  matching the tone and feel of the rest of the components as it does with the more tangible characteristics.

Sophy Dumoulin plays quite a bit with texture and more often with brighter colors. Flip through her blog if you have a moment. Her work is delightful. She is also a Craft Art Edu instructor now with a couple of her classes up and ready to learn from in English and her native French.