I've had some requests to explain how I used a spreadsheet to choose the colours for my Bag of Beads project for the Toronto Bead Society. So, here goes:
1. I selected a colour strip in a palette that I liked (from a book).
2. I identified the 8 colours that made up the strip and named them.
3. I measured each instance of the colour and recorded it in Excel (spreadsheet software).
4. I then sorted by the name I gave, totaled the area for each colour and calculated the percentage. I grouped some together into a colour group, so that I ended up with 5 categories and a percentage of each to use.
5. This mainly told me that the primary colour to use were greys, minimizing the whites and reds.
6. I DID NOT measure my beads by these percentages. I just paid attention to the mixes as I went along.
Hope this explains it!