More Gaudi Colours

After my recent experiments with Gaudi colours on my geometric vessels I have decided to bead some more of them in a different shape but with the same colours.

For these I decided to bead two different ones which are exactly the same size, shape and colours- the only different being that I would reverse the colours scheme.



The first pendant uses a very light, white cream as the main colour with a mix of the oranges, blues, black and yellow that I used for my previous pendants.

The second pendant swaps around the scheme with the mix of colours being much more dominant with the end result that the cream looks a lot whiter and even "harsher" with the lines seems to jump out from the vessel.

Gaudi Colours

I am busy working on the project I will teach at my "Inspired by Gaudi" beading retreat in September 2011.

When deciding on a theme for the retreat Gaudi seemed an obvious choice because of the geometry of his work and his use of mosaic and colour.

I have decided to bead a geometric pendant which can be opened.

My colour inspiration came from this photo and I decided to use a strong orange (which was shiny) a blue (also shiny), black (once again, shiny) and yellow (yep, you guess it, shiny).

Now, I know from experience that too much shiny is not good for a project so I added in a matte orange to try and counteract all the shine.


Here you can see my first attempt using these colours:



Not good!
As I thought, all the shiny beads meant that the pattern and different colours were lost in the mix.

So next I moved onto using much more of the matte orange beads:



This was much more successful
This time at least you could see the structure and pattern much better and I was happier.

However, I felt that the colours looked a bit "muddy" and none of them stood out and "zinged" as I felt the colours did in the photo.

So I decided to add in white (more of a creamy-white as I felt white would be too hard):


I love this!


I think the oranges, yellow and blue stand out much more- even though there's far less of them.
It's amazing how the simple addition of another colour can completely alter the look of a piece.

No Rest For The Wicked

I'm on a roll now- after months of not feeling very creative, this colour challenge has had the desired effect and I'm itching to create at any opportunity!

I'm currently working on a new herringbone rope necklace. I have made a couple of these before, see here and here.

This one will be like the second one and will have a hidden clasp.

To fit in with my colour challenge I'm going to make a couple of these based on red colour schemes.

My first one matches reds with greens, blues, violets, oranges, pinks, yellows and golds- in fact every colour on the colour wheel and every shade inbetween!

An analogous colour scheme is where you use colours next to each other on the colour wheel.
Previously when using red in an analogous scheme I have matched it with yellow and orange- but this time I'm matching it with every colour but using red as the dominant colour.

The reds I am using go from bright "red, red" to pink, to violet and to orangy-reds. Click on the photo for a larger view.


The contrast colours I'm using go from blue, to green, to violet, to gold, to orange, to yellow and just about everything in between- I just grabbed tubes and tubes of beads and went for it! Click on the photo for a larger view.

This will appear as a project in a future issue of Bead magazine.

Geometric 3-1-1

I finally finished my new set of beaded beads all done in reds with bright colours to match which I have been working on for a few weeks.

I decided I wanted to make these nice and bright so added in yellow, orange, blue, green, teal and purple.


You can wear them all threaded onto a bangle at once or indivually- or any combination inbetween.

Colourful Temari

I had a busy day today temari-ing- something I've been itching to do for a while. I love using threads and of course they're just another excuse to play with colour!

The first one I made was a Rose Garden design and, as I'm still working away using reds, I used an analogous scheme with red, orange and yellow.

The second was more complicated, and probably the most complicated one I have made, and uses an "interlinked pentagon" design.

Again to keep in with the challenge I used 12 different reds. Right from orangy-red, through pinky-reds and violet-reds, and teamed them with a green as the contrast colour.

As I made this one I used pins to help me see where I needed to work and planned to add another embellishement to the centre of each pentagon at the end.

But once I had finished I decided I liked the look of them so may leave them in, at least until I decide what else to do.

Reverse Chilli Bead

I have now beaded a new version of my Chilli Beaded Bead- but this time swapped around the orange and purple beads and used purple crystals instead of orange.

I was interested to see how different they looked and although it's a simple colour swap it really does make a different.

The bead with more orange looks a lot larger- this is because the lighter colour 'expands' it visually. That's why people tell you to wear black if you want to look slimmer!

A similar effect is apparent in my piece Geometric 3-4-4.
3-4-4a looks a lot larger than 3-4-4b as the use of colour in the 'valleys' makes them visually expand and when the two bracelets are put next to each other it is hard to believe they are exactly the same- just the use of black is swapped.

Another visual difference is that the green on the 'purple' bead looks a lot darker than it does on the 'orange' one. On the orange it is a lot 'springier'.


I am teaching these beaded beads in New York in November.

Chilli Bead

A new beaded bead today- I'm loving making these at the moment!
I need to move onto red soon but I'm away and didn't realy pack any red beads with me so am sticking with orange instead.

The colour scheme for this one was inspired by a plant I saw on my recent trip to Arundel Castle.


I loved the mix of green red/ orange and purple and couldn't resist translating that into a simple colour scheme.



The original photo/ plant had more green in it but as I'm working with orange I upped the use of that colour instead.

Analogous Beaded Bead

My new beaded bead is all done- I can't wait to start using red in October!

Analogous Orange Scheme

After working in a monochromatic colour scheme for the past week and watching everyone else having fun with colour I'm itching to spice things up.

I'm still working on my Colour Challenge and the colour I'm using now is orange.

So far I've mixed it with blues for a complementary scheme, browns and yellow for a toned down look and pink with teal and gold for a sunshine look.

This time I have gone for an analogous scheme so am using red, orange and yellow.

Color by COLOURlovers

Inspiring Orange

A visit to Arundel Castle and its gardens again today.

Last time I was looking for yellow but this time it was orange I was seeking out.



Also loved the texture of this bobbly plant


Great orange chillis


Loved this scheme- red, orange and yellow are to be expected but the added bonus of purple is fab!


A close up of the mixed scheme.


Purple and green- will file away for future use!

St Petersburg Pots

For the next issue of Bead I'm making little pots using St Petersburg chain- an old project I came up with a few years ago but never did anything with.
So of course I'm working them in orange, brown and yellow- trying to keep to the challenge!

Onye 3

I'm on an Onye Roll!

As soon as I came up with original pendant I knew I wanted to bead a version with eyes in.

It took me a while but I eventually manged to track down ones in the right size and colour, now how to complement blue eyes?

Well, orange and blue are complemenary colours so they work perfectly. But after already beading 2 of these in strong oranges I wanted to tone it down so based the sheme on browns and oranges.

This pendant will appear as a project in issue 19 of Bead magazine.

Onye 2- (Tropicalimso)

Well, she's all done and I love her!

In the end I used orange, pink, teal and gold- sunshiny, happy colours.

This will appear as a project in issue 19 of Bead magazine.

Orange, pink and ?

I know for my next version of my Onye pendant I want to still use orange but don't want to make it too similar to the one already beaded- which just used oranges and yellows.
I have often loved the colour combination of orange and pink- such as the jewellery in this photo:


But I want to see if I can come up with a scheme that uses 'colour rules' and both those colours which I like.

My previous pendant was boldly orange- so this time I want to see if I can use orange in a more subtle way.

So I headed to Color Scheme designer.

Putting in a bold orange gives me this at first- nice but basically too orange
A complimentary scheme is this- nice but I want to throw in at least one more colour
Triadic results in this- still too bold
Tetradic- again nice but still bold
Analogic- very nice- and the mustardy yellow/ orange tones it down for me
Accented analogic- yum! I love the tealy colour in there- my kind of colour combo!

But the search is still on.

A recent Colour Lovers blog post - on Tropicalismo- leads me to a fab colour combo:

Cell Division

Color by COLOURlovers


A search for orange and fuschia colour palettes gives me this:

Color by COLOURlovers

and this one

Color by COLOURlovers

A google search for pink and orange colour schemes gives me some good results:

Here are some schemes using orange and pink also with white and yellow- very nice
This subtle orange and pink scheme make sme think maybe I need to tone down the fuschia?
Orange and pink in fashion
An orange and pink art challenge

Soon my head is spinning and I decide the only way to work out my colours is to actually look at what I own!
Check back to see what I end up using.

2nd day in Paris

Still in Paris and a busy day before the start of my course (read more on my blog here)

These are some of the extra colour photos I took today.

The graffiti outside an exhibition at The Cartier Foundation- you could take any section of this for colour inspiration!

Some close-ups of La Fée Electricité (The Electric Fairy) by Raoul Dufy.


Blue to purple to green to yellow.

Red, Yellow and green.


Green and blues.


And on the look-put for oranges I found:

'Les Cing Sens' by Georges Valmier


'Composition' by Auguste Herbin

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!