09/16/2026
For anyone planning to participate ANWC 2027 Conference June 14-19 in Portland, OR they have announced their color theme. I’m placing an order with Maurice Brassard this week.
“In choosing colors to represent the 2027 Association of Northwest Weavers Conference, we are honoring all of the northwest, as well as our own Portland environment and cultures. Rivers and Bridges are intertwined and woven into our lives, as vital arteries flowing between communities. They connect each of us to other communities throughout our entire northwest region.
2 Greens – Alongside rivers a multitude of greens display in valleys and hillsides, across tundra and boreal forests of the north, coastal and mountain forests, and east across the high desert sage regions, or fields of ripening crops, all relative to the changing seasons.
Gold – On the east slope of the Cascades in the fall are larch trees turning gold as they shed their needles for winter, fields of golden wheat waving in the wind, the high desert landscapes, the brilliant golden-yellow of Balsam Root blooming in spring, and summer prairie grasses of Alberta, Saskatchewan, eastern Montana and Oregon.
Red – Red is one of the two traditional colors used by Northwest Coast Indian tribes in their art, from the Columbia River north along the west coast of Canada and into Alaska. Several salmon species exhibit bright red on their backs as they swim up river to spawn. Think also of the apples, many red varieties, grown east of the Cascades along the Columbia River.
Blue – The waters carried by rivers and streams feed into lakes, bays and inlets, and ultimately into the beautiful Pacific with its crashing waves upon the shores of the northwest, reflect the blues, blue-grays, and blue-greens of the sky overhead and vegetation along their shorelines.
Purple – Shades of purple are displayed in late evening sunsets, reflected as shadowy tints of purple on distant mountains, show in many wildflowers that bloom in mountain meadows and the high desert, and even in our own gardens. Purple also represents grapes grown in wine country all across our region – in western Idaho, eastern Washington, and in the Willamette Valley.
One other color was considered, a gray, inspired by the rains, fog and watery skies common much of the year, and also seen in sea stacks, driftwood, and sometimes in tide pools, as well as in the geologic rock formations found throughout the northwest. As you begin your thoughts about creating with fiber, consider adding a middle value of gray, as a toning accompaniment.”
