Color Play with Marsala: The Pantone 2015 Color of the Year

Marsala: Pantone's Color of the Year for 2015

I decided to try to make some beaded pendants using the color marsala, a brownish light red wine color that's also Pantone's Color of the Year for 2015. You can click over to Pantone's official site to see some of their examples of this color in action. I also colored a few of my beading illustrations using this hue:

(I should note that my illustrations tint marsala to the lighter side; the dark parts of these illustrations are closer to the official Pantone color).

First Color Experiment: Marsala Tints

I started with a monochromatic color palette made up of seed beads, Rizo beads, crystals, and freshwater pearls, that ironically enough had been sitting together on one of my bead trays since last August. Out of all the beads in my stash, a copper-lined seed bead that I found at Creative Castle most closely matched marsala, so I used this seed bead in each of the projects in these color experiments.

I decided to try to create the Tropical Dahlia Pendant with these beads, substituting drop-shaped freshwater pearls for the Czech drop beads called for in this pattern.

Unfortunately, these particular freshwater pearls are too thick at the base of the pearl, so they don't fit into this design when substituted one-to-one for the drop beads. I tried adjusting the seed bead count to compensate, but it still ended up too wonky.

So, for my next attempt, I found some reddish-brown iris Czech drop beads and also changed the color of the Rizo beads to a pink opal/sunset color, for a very monochromatic take on this design.

(Incidentally, while I was hunting for these drop beads, I learned that I have the same beads with the same color number from two different dye lots in my stash. In this case, the color difference is quite substantial!)

Second Color Experiment: Marsala with Purple

For my next experiment, I tried combining marsala with purple; I substituted shiny purple lentil beads for the outer ring of crystals, and I also used purple drop beads.

I like the look of this result, but in this particular pendant design I prefer a more even tint progression from the inner rivoli crystal to the outer edge of the pendant, so I tried again with a slightly different purple lentil bead for the outer edge, and one of those new patina rivoli crystals for the center.

I was drawn to this result color-wise, as I love purple and I like the tint progression in this beaded pendant. However the patina of the crystal competes with the complexity of the overall design, and this version has the least marsala out of all the experiments.

Still, I had to create a pair of matching Sakura earrings before continuing :)

Third Color Experiment: Marsala with Magic Wine

For my third experiment, I wanted to get back to the red wine flavor of marsala that Pantone shows off on their website, so I switched back to a mahogany rivoli crystal and added magic wine Rizo beads, cranberry drop beads, and a light magic green shade of lentil bead:

While it's on the darker side, I think this Tropical Dahlia pendant most closely matches the red wine richness that's most appealing about the marsala color.

Fourth Color Experiment: Marsala with Matte Sunset/Tan

For my final experiment, I switched to the Rivoli Kaleidoscope design, and used lighter, browner shades of lentils, crystals, and drop beads for this pendant.

The result is more monochromatic and, with the addition of the matte sunset drop beads, a little more on the Desert Sand side of the marsala spectrum. It's probably not the best representation of this color, but I think this palette could benefit from more light peach Duracoat/PF seed beads.

I also couldn't resist making another pair of matching Sakura earrings :)

Marsala Color Experiments: Results and Conclusions

My takeaway from these experiments? I think the marsala color has a lot of potential, particularly when paired with darker, richer wine-like reds. It also blends with purple, so it could be used as a secondary or tertiary color to warm up a purple-heavy color palette. At least in my hands, marsala is less effective in a monochromatic color palette, particularly with related colors of similar value.

I was also glad to learn a couple of design lessons from these experiments. Namely: freshwater pearls don't work very well in the Tropical Dahlia design, but lentil beads substitute for the outer crystals quite well.

What do you think of Pantone's choice of marsala for 2015? Love it? No? Drop me a line in the comments :)

Saving Leftover Beads, or Bead Cores

I've embarked on a bit of a bead science experiment, and I already have some preliminary results!

Neat vs Not Neat Beading

As you may or may not know, I'm a rather neat beader. When I'm working, I tend to keep all my bead shapes and colors in neat little piles on my bead mat. A typical example of my bead mat can be seen in the left portion of the photo below, which is what it looked like when I was weaving the third colorway of the Water Lily Windows bracelet. (For contrast, at the time, a rather famous beader was working from a bead soup on the tray to the right):

I have been known to bead messy on occasion though. The only photographic evidence of this is seen in the photo below. This is from when I wove a beaded version of an Arixtra molecule.

Saving Leftover Beads

Why am I talking about neat vs. not neat beading? Well, as a neat beader, it's relatively easy for me to sort out all of my leftover beads back into their little tubes and baggies. If I didn't naturally bead so neatly, I probably wouldn't take the time to sort them all out. I'd likely still save these beads though, perhaps as a "bead soup" for later reference into my colorway and bead choice habits.

I realized that, just because I'm a neat beader, that shouldn't stop me from saving a gram or two of leftover beads on my tray (unless the beads are too expensive, like crystals). I started doing this a few weeks ago, and I saved them in a narrow tube so that they would settle into thin, discrete layers for each project that I worked on, like an ice core. This way, I could return to this "bead core" later and see what kinds of beads and colors I was using at that time, the same way that scientists analyze ice cores from Antarctica to see what the climate looked like thousands of years ago.

Bead Core

This experiment has already yielded some preliminary results! In my current Bead Core, I can identify the beads that I used for that third colorway of the Water Lily Windows bracelet, two colorways of the Half Tila Technocluster beaded beads, and the beads I used for the basic dodecahedron beaded bead that accompanies the Half Tila Technocluster pattern. The latest beads that I added to the core are from a project that I just finished, and I hope to show pictures of it soon.

After I finish this bead core, I hope to start my next one in a longer tube such as a serological or titration pipette, as if my background in science wasn't clear enough already ;)

What kind of beader are you? Tidy? Messy? Write a comment in the comments section below!

Multicolored Wildflower Fields Beaded Bead

I wove a Wildflower Fields beaded bead using six different colors for the flowers.

I describe this color distribution in the Tila Garden Pendant pattern, where each color of flower is next to a flower of a different color. I tried to use the same colors that I used for the original Tila Garden Pendant, but since the Wildflower Fields design uses additional peanut-shaped beads, it ended up a little more colorful.

I think both of them would look great in the same piece together... Perhaps at the ends of a lariat or other long, drape-y necklace. What do you think?

Raindrop Flower Necklaces in Four Different Colorways

I finished the additional colorways for my Raindrop Flower Necklace class next month!

Lavender Glow

This version combines glowing lavender drop beads with a collection of dark purple, teal, and metallic matte seed beads for a nice variety of colors and textures. Also, petrol crystal pearls, which really seem to set off the lavender beaded beads.

Egyptian Queen

This version was a last-minute idea inspired by the color work of Margie Deeb. I love cobalt glass beads, but they can be quite challenging to pair with other colors. Margie's book reminded me that cobalt glass looks a lot like lapis, which pairs well with turquoise and hints of gold in a classic Egyptian color scheme.

Blue Ice

Finally, this version combines transparent, slightly icy blue teardrop beads with silver seed beads and tahitian-look crystal pearls for an elegant, cooler color palette. I'm quite proud of this particular photograph because I shot it using the manual mode on my camera, which I'm usually too timid to tackle, but I couldn't get it to look right on a black background with a single light source without adjusting the ISO, shutter speed, and aperture by hand. I think it came out rather well!

Here are all four necklaces hanging out together:

I'll be teaching how to make the Raindrop Flower Necklace on Thursday, June 6 at the upcoming Bead & Button Show. More information about Bead & Button class registration, as well as general show information can be found here. I'd love to see you there!

Which necklace is your favorite?

Raindrop Flower Beaded Bead Sets

I finished the matching beaded beads for three of the Raindrop Flower focal pendants that I wrote about this past week. I'm patiently waiting for an order of crystal pearls to come in so that I can string them into their respective necklaces!

I also had a bit of fun arranging them into different poses for these photos. Here's a family portrait of the icy blue silver set:

And here's an "album cover" shot of the lavender glow set:

I think the style of the dark lapis set is somewhere in-between:

I'll be teaching how to make this entire set in the Raindrop Flower Necklace class on Thursday, June 6 at the upcoming Bead & Button Show (only one month to go!) More information about Bead & Button class registration, as well as general show information can be found here. 

I'd love to see you there!

Another Attempt at a Cosmic Nocturne Colorway

I wasn't quite satisfied with the dark blue and rusty bronze colorway of my Cosmic Nocturne Pendant, so I made another attempt with these colors.

More Silver

I asked for feedback on this colorway on my Facebook page, and Sharri Moroshok kindly suggested that I add more silver to this pendant. A simple change from bronze to silver seed beads was all that was needed for this result.

For comparison, here's the previous attempt:

Side-by-Side Comparison

I think the silver definitely brightens up this pendant, adding overall contrast and setting the outer layer off from the inner layer. Plus the bright silver on the darker background makes for a starry effect :)

What do you think?

The Cosmic Nocturne Pendant is just one of the projects that I'll be teaching at the Bead & Button Show this June. The class for this particular project is on Friday, June 7, from 1-4 PM. More information about the show can be found on their website.

Cosmic Nocturne Pendants

Having finished the class kits and instructions for my classes at the San Diego Bead Society this weekend, I switched gears and put together a few new Cosmic Nocturne Pendants in preparation for its corresponding Bead & Button class in June.

Ways to String the Pendant

One of the fun characteristics of this pendant is how it can be strung through several different openings. The first time I created one of these pendants, I strung it on a sterling silver headpin before stringing it on a chain. This will still be an option for the students in class, but for this latest version, I left off the headpin and just strung it on the chain through two of its many openings.

I like this orientation the best because it accentuates the pointed ends, making it look more star-like (hence its namesake). But you can also string it through two different points, making it look more like a box standing on one edge:

It looks especially cube-like when it's strung this way:

The colors in this pendant match that of the geode colorway of the Fiberoptic Dodecahedron, though the Cosmic Nocturne looks a little more purple than its dodecahedron counterpart.

Other New Colorways

I also wove this design in two additional colorways! I'm still not quite sure what to think of this one:

I was looking for a different way to use those blue iris magatamas, so I paired them with bronze seed beads and reddish-bronze SuperDuos. It's somewhat outside of my usual color schemes... It's still dark, fulfilling the cosmic, night-sky theme of the pendant, but I'm not sure if I like it. What do you think?

I also wove this version in green patina with a touch of bronze a while back.

The Original Colorway

This is the original colorway, in black, silver, and purple, with just a touch of blue iris:

The Cosmic Nocturne Pendant is just one of the projects that I'll be teaching at the Bead & Button Show this June. The class for this particular project is on Friday, June 7, from 1-4 PM. More information about the show can be found on their website.

Which colorway is your favorite?

Definitely a Dahlia!

What's in a Name?

Thanks to everyone who contributed a name idea for my new beaded pendant with rizos and rivolis! After consideration of the suggestions made on this blog and on my Bead Origami Facebook Page, I took to Google's image search to see how the subjects of these names matched the original pendant.

A close second was an anemone flower (a name I, embarrassingly, first took for a sea anemone), but when I came across this picture of a gorgeous dahlia, it was a perfect match!

via Wikimedia Commons, user Dinkum

Color-Matching Exercise

I also learned that dahlias come in several different varieties and colors, from pure white to speckled dark purple. On occasion, I like to do color-matching exercises by creating a piece of beadwork from a photo, and this photo of an orange dahlia looked like a challenging candidate for this exercise.

via Wikimedia Commons, user Dinkum

I chose rose peach Swarovski crystals and matching rizo and Czech drop beads for the petals, and a luminous green crystal for the center rivoli. The crystal in the center is a little big compared to the center of the dahlia in the photo, but the orange beads are a great match!

Again, thanks again to everyone who contributed name ideas for this design! The pattern is coming soon!

Scene From the Beading Tray

I started a new beading project the other day, using bicone crystals, Japanese seed beads, and bugle beads. They got a little jostled on my beading tray, so I took a picture:

I don't usually work with bugle beads, but I'm really digging these little sterling silver-plated 3 mm bugles. I can see why they're sometimes called "liquid silver."

New Kits: Crystal Helix Beaded Beads

New kits are now available for the Crystal Helix Beaded Bead design. The first uses blue zircon Swarovski crystals with the AB2X finish in a color palette that reminds me of a tropical ocean:

Crystal Helix Beaded Bead Kit - Ocean Breeze Colorway

The next colorway uses the crystal silver night shade of Swarovski crystal, and ends up looking a lot like hematite. I paired a collection of very similar beaded beads with actual hematite in this necklace a while back.

Crystal Helix Beaded Bead Kit - Hematite Colorway

Finally, kits for the peacock colorway are back in stock.

Crystal Helix Beaded Bead Kit - Peacock Colorway

All three kits are available at beadorigami.com, and make two small (~10 mm) and one large (~ 17 mm) beaded beads. The kits include all the beads needed, a beading needle, plenty of thread, the Crystal Helix pattern (automatically delivered after checkout as a PDF download), and shipping is included in the kit price! They can be incorporated into an easy earring and pendant set, or into a more elaborate necklace!

Scenes From the Beading Tray

I thought I'd take a quick snapshot of the seed beads on my beading tray right now:

I've been using these beads in a new beaded bead design using SuperDuo beads, which I hope to finish up pretty soon.

As you can see, I've been on a purple-bronze-silver color combo kick. I really like Toho's dark copper seed bead (mid-upper left in the photo below), which is redder than both Toho and Miyuki's dark bronze seed bead (mid-right), but lately I'm using a little of both. I think that the bronze color is a more commonly-used bead though. Which one do you prefer?

2013 Bead & Button Class Catalog Now Online

The class catalog for the 2013 Bead & Button Show is now online. I'm teaching six classes at this show, including this new class called the Sparkling Compass Set:

It was difficult to photograph both the bracelet and the earrings in the same shot, so the earrings look flatter in this photo than I'd like. Here they are on their own. Aren't those rhombus Swarovski crystal pendants awesome?

I just wish those rhombus crystals came in more colors - that would make it much easier to come up with alternate kit colors. They do come in jet black, so I've managed to put together this combination in a dark, cosmic color scheme:

The 2013 Bead & Button Show will take place in Milwaukee, WI from May 29-June 10. Class registration opens online on January 8 at high noon, Central Standard Time. At this point, I'm scheduled to teach all my classes in a small room in the Milwaukee Hilton, which means that, at 10 students per class, I will be able to more-readily attend to everyone's needs and it should be a quieter space too. However, last year one of my classes sold out within 24 hours, so be sure to register early to secure your space in the class!