Need Help - Give me some colors

Trans Med Amethyst, Pastel Uranium Yellow and Black

aquas and pea green

coral and black

ink blue, cobalt and white

a random suggestion came to mind.

Why not go through ebay when you have time, and copy pics of beads you like (if possible, take a large pic, and cut out just one bead). Then put them on index cards. When you get "stuck", flip through the cards until you find a color combo you like.

Or an alternate to it. go through eBay. Find those same pics. Find the colors used. Either write the colors down, or copy splashes of colors onto the card.

The reason why I was trying to say take a small cut of a large picture, was so that you wouldn't inadvertently try to copy the beads, too...

mary

peridot and rose

purple and pink

bugundy and pink

oh my gosh...what's with the pink???!!!

I have a book that I find helpful when I'm at a loss for new color combos when beading or quilting:

Designer's Guide to Color, intro by James Stockton. Chronicle Books, San Fransico; 1983

There is some text regarding color theory, but most of the book is color swatches in combinations of two or three colors. It comes with cut-outs that you can place over the swatches to isolate them from the other combos on the page. Oviously, the book doesn't cover every possible combination of every possible color, so you are still required to use your imagination to visualized different shades and tones. However, there are also Volumes 2 and 3 in this series, which I haven't seen personally.

For me the book operates on the coin-flipping theory, i.e., if you're trying to make a decision by flipping a coin, you immediately know what you want the second the coin is in the air. So, with this book, I look at the combinations, and viola, I suddenly know what I want, even if it didn't come from the book! :-)

Arondelle

Here's something I do when I am at a loss - I have a small container of rods that are half used. I close my eyes and pick one rod. Then, no matter which rod I have chosen, I have to then pick a couple of colors to go with it, with my eyes open this time. Then I proceed! Works every time.

Jade green, soft yellow, orange (all opaque).

black and raspberry/magenta ~~ Sooz

------- "Those in the cheaper seats clap. The rest of you rattle your jewelry." John Lennon (1940 - 1980) Royal Varieties Performance ~ Dr. Sooz's Bead Links

Starlia, the Links List has a COLOR section. You can use the sites listed to choose colors. ~~ Sooz

------- "Those in the cheaper seats clap. The rest of you rattle your jewelry." John Lennon (1940 - 1980) Royal Varieties Performance ~ Dr. Sooz's Bead Links

Starlia -- not to be contradicting Mary all the time, but please don't look to other people's beads for color combinations. If you like what they did, you will just end up making a sorry copy of someone else's work.

Go with what inspires you -- is it antiques? Then hit an antique shop, or go through the antique portion of Ebay. Remember a few years ago when everyone and their brother were copying the colors from art paintings? You will find both interesting styles (renaissance, art deco, victorian). How would you interpret renaissance in a bead? AND interesting colors, to finish the sentence from above, LOL. Start with what inspires you the most, and go to town.

Here are my two suggestions to get you started. It is about color and style:

Flow Blue -- as someone else suggested, ink blue, lighter blue and gilt. But think Flow Blue while you are making it (I am a total flow blue freak)

I have no idea what a "putto" is (the cherubs?) but interpret Meissen china in beads. How would you do that? A trial of green foilage, clouds and faint flowers in the background, with the stronger colored decoration on top? The shape of the fuschia draping underneath the dark-haired putto? (LMAO at just saying "putto"), which resembles a Monty/Clark freeform, which you know I love? Porcelain colors with gold layering just over the ends? If you do anything along this line, please call it "blank blank blank with puttos" LMAO (you can fill in the blank blank blank part, I wasn't actually suggesting you use those precise words). I would love to see beads with puttos, especially since I am not sure what that means but I love the words. And one last suggest -- victorian lace. How would you do lace, in glass? Please note I am steering you towards ultrafeminine color combinations, which I love. But the colors may take you somewhere else. And, look for the design in the example -- to push yourself towards making new shapes.

I'm done now. Going back to my own antique inspirations.

Fabulous! (I am a flow blue freak too)

Actually, the plural is "putti". You were right, they're the cherubs.

WOW!!! Becki's GOOOOD. ~~ Sooz

------- "Those in the cheaper seats clap. The rest of you rattle your jewelry." John Lennon (1940 - 1980) Royal Varieties Performance ~ Dr. Sooz's Bead Links

Thank you Becki. I do get inspiration from a lot of the things we own and see. I try to take photos when we are out and about, but I forget the digi camera sometimes.

> I have no idea what a "putto" is (the cherubs?) but interpret Meissen china in > beads. How would you do that? A trial of green foilage, clouds and faint > flowers in the background, with the stronger colored decoration on top? The > shape of the fuschia draping underneath the dark-haired putto? (LMAO at just > saying "putto"), which resembles a Monty/Clark freeform, which you know I love? > Porcelain colors with gold layering just over the ends? If you do anything > along this line, please call it "blank blank blank with puttos" LMAO (you can > fill in the blank blank blank part, I wasn't actually suggesting you use those > precise words). I would love to see beads with puttos, especially since I am > not sure what that means but I love the words. >

Chocolate, orange, almond Kharki, cyan, salmon Cyan, bright green, mid purple

Purple, red, lime green, electric blue. Barbara Dream Master

If you want to make God laugh, tell him your future plans. Woody Allen

What about pink, peach, and ivory?

Celine

I'm working on those colors now. LOL Great minds and all...

I love to look at garden magazines - with great big closeups of the flowers - ain't nuthin' prettier than nature itself IMHO. I also like to look at home decorating mags - it's really neat to see what combos of colors and textures are put together. Bead and jewelry mags are great too. I look until my heart fills up with color, and then somehow sooner or later it is transformed into inspiration for something creative. I don't copy what someone else does - but I find when I let all the ideas simmer and cook together, something comes out of it.

Azure, celadon, cerulean, lemon cream, grassy green... soothing and cool. Lavendar, periwinkle, purple, rose AB Gold, coral, bronze Royal blue, Green, Red & Gold (if you get the right shades, this looks King Tuttish) Putty Putti puttering past puffy pink powderpuff clouds... sorry Becki, I couldn't resist. LOL

Moi? Heavens! Thank you!

Speaking of painters, lately I've been perusing museum websites and looking at great paintings to get design ideas. Part of this is due to a giant special-order I'm doing of Starry Night beads; my patron asked me to attempt Van Gogh's "Irises". After laughing heartily and thanking her for her confidence in my abilities, I thought, "why not?" and have been stuck at moma.org ever since.

I also suggest staring wildly at your glass rack and yanking out the first two colors that catch your eye... and then, unless they already do, finding a third color that makes them "work" together.

Some color combos that I think automatically work no matter what you do with them:

Coral, Uranium yellow, Pea Green

EDP, Opal yellow, Coral

Nile green, lapis (light, medium, or dark... or all three), dark ivory

Red, Black, Lavender

Ochre, Light Sky Blue, Violet

Have fun!

-Kalera

starlia wrote:

Ooooh....

-Kalera

Barbara Forbes-Ly> Jade green, soft yellow, orange (all opaque).