Name: joan
Message: please a need ideas as to how to combine various colors to achieve a good effect

This is a difficult question to answer, because it is very much a matter of personal taste.

For example, I myself like to do rainbow dyeing, in which adjacent colors are the same as the colors that are next to each other in the rainbow. This means place red between purple and orange, or blue between green and purple, or orange between yellow and red. Here is the order of colors in the rainbow:
Red - orange - yellow - green - blue - violet
The one exception, for the brightest designs, is to use black in between colors, or, when tie-dyeing, to place one side of the tied disk of fabric (which is your shirt) in a very shallow pan of black dye. Black makes the other colors seem brighter.

I very much like using just a few adjacent colors, such as green, turquoise, and navy, in one garment.

However, Michael Fowler, in his DVD "The Art of Tie-Dye", recommends placing complementary colors on opposite sides of a tied garment, so that these two colors are right next to each other, in stripes, on the finished product. The complement of red is green; the complement or orange is blue; and the complement of yellow is purple. Combining opposite colors can result in more subtle colorations, or sometimes only in muddy-looking effects. Michael has great results in his dyeing. There are different ways to approach anything.

In my own work, tie-dyeing with complementary colors has too often produced garish or muddy results; however, I love combining complementary colors in low water immersion dyeing. I also enjoy using a premixed color, such as grey, in low water immersion, but allowing the colors in the mixture to spread out and separate, often with surprising and yet subtle effects.

A great way to combine colors is to choose your own very favorite color, and then choose just one or two other colors that go well with it and with each other. Before starting a very large project, such as a bedspread, practice on something small and inexpensive, such as a t-shirt.