How to join a path that connects two parts of a circle

Question

I am working in Adobe Illustrator on creating a logo for housegan.com and I'm having trouble joining the path so that I can fill different color in the top and bottom portion of the circles (see image)

What I've tried so far:

• Object Join - complains that I need to select two separate path
• Direct selection join (is this the same thing) - to join, you must select two end points of the same or two different paths.

I need to do this all the way down the circle but I figure the same technique can be applied multiple times

Answer 1

To have different fills you need to have separate objects.

1. Create your paths across the ellipse to define the shapes you want.

2. Select all the paths and the ellipse.

3. Go to Pathfinder (Window> Pathfinder) and choose Divide (far left of the lower row).

4. Go to Object> Ungroup.

5. Select each individual shape and add Fill color of your choice.