Colour and the missing yellows

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At the Html Patchwork meeting at Access Space we had an interesting conversation about colour. There are lots of reasons why screen colours can't be accurately matched with fabric colours. Obviously colours on screen are lit by the light behind the screen, rather than light reflecting off them, so they have a luminescence impossible to replicate with an opaque material. But there's also a particular characteristic of the red/green/blue (RGB) mix that is a bit odd. This is something to do with the fact that Green is not a primary or pure colour. So the hexidecimal colour pure green 00FF00 is what James described as a gamut colour. There's lots more info on wikipedia if you search for 'gamut'.

There also seems to be a general lack of yellow in the world. Lisa spotted the limited yellow colour range on our patchwork design, whilst Tricia at the Patchwork Garden tells me there are few yellow fabric's. Can anyone offer a reason why? Is it due to the influence of RGB without yellow as a mixer colour?

In the meantime Keith and Jake have been busy creating embroidered electrical circuits through their clothing.. wired up to a rather curious beetle synthesizer - and it works! photos to follow.....