when is black not black ?

I remembered a book gifted to me about world textiles by Catherine Legrand and was delighted to see how many traditional forms of textile decoration uses black fabric then embellished with sharp bright colours. I chose the Pupeo skirt from Vietnam as inspiration for my pieces of embroidery on black silk.

I was suprised the effect the black background played in the exercise. It seems to highlight the play of one colour off another which is very pleasing. I felt some colours spaced out along the black fared better than others. I usually like blue with black but was disappointed with the effect of blue running stitch it seemed to lose its vibrancy.

I am not usually a pink person but liked the effct of pink and green very much.