An Urban Palette

What do you think of when you think of "Urban Skyline"?

Living in London my palette may be greyer than yours.

Does yours have a blue sky? Colourful buildings?

I am using such a palette at the moment and so far it's pretty grey.

But looking at my photos of skylines and urban scenes:



A poster of the London skyline:


and some palettes called "Urban skyline":


Color by COLOURlovers


Color by COLOURlovers


Color by COLOURlovers

I think I need to add more colour and make my skyline one I want to see

Oops...

... it's been a while!
but in my defence none of my recent work has seemed to be very "colour based" so I didn't feel I had much to update you with

But here are some of what I have been working on with some words on the colours I used:


Interlocking Crystals
Usually I try to completely avoid galvanised beads but when I was beading my samples for this project I was just drawn to them.
Fortunately as I beaded it (a good 150-200 hours) none of the coating came off so I hope they stand the test of time for a while longer!

For this piece I knew I wanted an opulent look and olivine is one of my favourite crystal colours so I figured if I was going to spend a lot of time looking at it as I worked it might as well be a colour I loved.
I paired the green with silver rather than gold partly because I prefer it, and the necklace wire I had was silver-coloured, but mainly because I wanted a brighter look and felt silver would give me this.



Interlocking Crystals bangle
Having worked for so long on the necklace using just two colours I was desperate for a change!
So, for this bangle I chose to use a wide range of colours of crystal and resisted the temptation to pair them with silver
Instead I added in black and white (well, a very light grey really- I usually avoid white as I find it too harsh) to use as neutrals.




Work in progress
This crystal and geometric piece is still very much a work in progress.
I chose to pair the "crystal coloured" crystal with silver as it match the "cold" look of the crystal and when it came to the other colour I resisted what would have been my usual choice- green- to instead use a blue which works with the silver but also has a finish with brings in some other colours to add extra interest

Sparkly Crystal Wheels

I'm working on series of beaded beads for Bead magazine and these sparkly ones will be the first published.
I began making them in lots of different colours but then ordered some violet crystals just for them to fit in with my new colour in the colour challenge- finally I am on violet (just 2 months behind now!)

I matched them with a lovely grey to keep them toned down. My previous use of violet was at the start of this challenge when I was working with yellow so I was looking for a subtler way of using it.

A day in Paris

I am in Paris, the sun is shining, I have no-one else to think about and no time to be home by. Could this day get any better?
Well okay, I could have found beads but that's a minor complaint!

It seemed that all around me today was colour. From the food I ate, to the museum pieces I saw, even down to the building works I walked by.

My mind was especially focused on looking for oranges as that is the colour I'm now working with, but that didn't limit the photos I took.

My trip to Paris began with lunch and this great colour combo of melon gazpacho- some sort of sweet sorbet (the taste bud explosion wiped out my memory of what it was) and yellow bread (not nice to eat but set the colour combo off great!)


My next stop was a visit to the Museum of Decorative Arts.

This cabinet of a dark oak with a strip of cobalt blue took my breathe away and I wish I had a picture that captured it better. I will definitely come back to this combo when I work in blue!


I love glass in many forms and this arrangement of mixed colours and shapes looked fabulous.


This piece of glassware with its two different 'blues' was interesting.


These multi-coloured works which used pink, blue, green and purple were, inspiring.


On the look out for orange combinations which appealed, I found this chair with its use of orange, white, yellow and a navy blue. I like the idea of the blue as I think black would have been too 'garish' or 'warning sign' if that makes sense- the blue definitely works to bring the sharpness down. Blue is orange's complementary colour.


More orange- here is orange, white and black- although I like this combination in the plastic I do think using navy- such as in the photo above- would have been nice and altered how the orange looked.


Here orange is mixed with a khaki green- I like this and would never have thought of it.


Once I'd finished in the musuem I was off to wander and take more photos.

I came across these wonderful blue doors and couldn't resist a photo- I think the redish-gold door furniture subtly makes this colour work so well.


Green and grey- who knew?


In a shop, looking for beads, I came across this range of jewellery focused on orange and pink- I think this is my favourite way to use orange!

Geometric 3-4-6 (boat floaters)

Finally!
This bracelet has taken me many months to make as I have been so busy when in reality I could have done it in a week- such is life.

I'm really pleased to have her finished, not only because she looks so nice, but also because she was a successful experiment in both executing the idea of using the larger beads inbetween the beaded triangles, but also in colour.

When I started this colour experiment I said I has never used yellow and hated it- well now I really have used it- and love it!

This bracelet definitelty changed my feelings towards yellow and I have learnt a lot about how to use it in a way I like it and that overcomes the problems I have with it.
Most of this was to do with combining it with the right other colours- so all my seeking out the right palette (and here) paid off.

I'm looking forward to using yellow a lot more in the future as I don't feel so "scared" of it now- so much so that I don't want to move onto orange!

Thank goodness I sneaked some in already so it's not all new to me.