In search of colors, not clans

[Balaamsass51]

Hello Okiwen.

You might try this. Go to www.tartansauthority.com and click on the Tartan Ferret. Then you may pick a color (from 10), or several of them. Then click on search. You'll get a list of tartans which have those colors. Still quite a long list, but even so it will not be all 6,000 or so.

Matt

[MacWage]

Hello Okiwen.

You might try this. Go to www.tartansauthority.com and click on the Tartan Ferret. Then you may pick a color (from 10), or several of them. Then click on search. You'll get a list of tartans which have those colors. Still quite a long list, but even so it will not be all 6,000 or so.

Matt

The Tartan Ferret (on the Scottish Tartan Authority site) ONLY shows the PATTERN of a tartan. The ACTUAL colors of a woven cloth will vary by mill. Also, each can be made in several ranges of colors. The most general ranges are:
-Modern- dark darks and vibrant hues (rich colors), the "standard" colors
-Ancient- a "faded" version of modern, like it is old
-Weathered- SUPPOSED to replicate tartan left buried in a bog. There is a good argument that that WHOLE notion is off base, but that was/is the claim.

-Also-> the mill that makes most of the small run custom orders can make it in several other color ranges, including the original tones of Wilson and Sons of Bannockburn (THE classic mill, closed since the 1920s), thanks to the work of Peter MacDonald.

For your purposes, the "weathered tartans" (there are several other terms used by mills for the equivalent range) should work as MOST tartans take on an "earthy" or "brownish" coloring.

[Thebes]

There is a Reverse Tartan Search at House of Tartan. You can enter a single color, even, if you wish, or a full patern. You can also exclude various colors.

The wonderful links you collect when you have a blog