Jodie Marshall has been making beads based on palettes I offer in my latest book, “The Beader’s Color Palette.” She’s used the palettes either as they are presented, or as a starting point for her own creative color use. These are gorgeous beads! You rock, Jodie! Thanks for sharing your talent so freely.

 

Temple Doors. This palette was inspired by doors to a Laotian temple and use a simple yet stunning palette: crimson and gold.

The Sudan. A warm palette from across the plains or desert, and found on African wood carvings all over the continent. Topaz lifts the scheme with its light, and orange injects vitality. Matte finishes provide a chalky, dry, earthen texture.

Red is such a strong color, and it is used for so many purposes - always to drive people to some kind of action. As I wrote in The Beader’s Guide to Color:

“Red is the passionate call to action: buy this product! stop your car! exit here! do not smoke! stand up and fight! indulge in this pleasure! you’re bleeding, DO something!

Red demands attention, broadcasts danger, commands strength, declares devotion, quickens the heartbeat, incites aggression, inflames passion, and proclaims love.”

The ColorSchemer Blog posts an interesting, informative entry on the use of red in the logos of stores and restaurants that sell food. I think you’ll find it valuable:

http://www.colorschemer.com/blog/2007/07/17/why-food-companies-use-red-colors

Companies like Pottery Barn, J. Crew, and Target are catching on to what Apple has known all along: consumers love color. Brighter colors appeal to many people - and compel them to spend their money. These 3 companies are among many who are using bolder, punchier colors to increase sales, especially in this fearful climate of impending recession.

Look at some of Pottery Barn’s new colors: less neutrals and faded earth colors this season. More pop!

And get a load of some of J.Crew’s brilliant handbags! Especially the hot pinks, yellows, and magentas!

And check out Target’s kitchen store online - they let you shop BY COLOR! I see the same mixer in 6 colors, including pink. Drill down and you’ll find a:

• pink vacuum cleaner
• pink cookware
• pink dirt devil
• pink food processor
• pink stockpot
• pink bakeware
• pink ice cream maker
• pink popcorn popper
• pink teakettle and more

Ahhhh…. so much color is music to my eyes!

Artist Dale Taylor sent me a link to Chromo, a color clock that “helps your body understand what time it is.” The researchers are trying to find out if color can help you cure jet-lag and SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder).

Their research states that certain colors help your body release the right amount of natural hormones at the right time. The hormones serotonin and melatonin play a vital role in balancing your body clock (daily and monthly and annually).

I’d like more explanation on the site than is given - I am not sure how I am supposed to use the information. If I learn more from their newsletters I will let you know.

As I write this, yellow-orange and pinks are the Chromo standards.

           
Barcelona Transport

Originally uploaded by acastellano

What a beautiful color scheme. I’ve always enjoyed lavenders/violets and orange together, but throw in a splash of bright yellow green… now that takes verve! (Another great photo by Andrew Castellano.)

I’ve extracted the colors from the photo and laid them out so you can better see the palette itself. I invite someone to bead a bracelet or necklace in these colors - I’ll post it here.

Celeste Fugazzotto sent me a photo of a beautiful multi-strand bracelet she made - prior to seeing this photo - that matches the palette. Using carnelian, coral, peridot, and amethyst, the proportions are different, but the color families remain that of the photo. See how the abundance of orange heats up the piece. This is a brave scheme! (Click the image to see the entire bracelet.)

  

Kathmandu Colors

Originally uploaded by acastellano

Check out these brilliant powdered dyes! I can’t help but smile when I look at this array of luminous colors. The photographer, Andrew Castellano, did nothing on the computer to enhance this photograph.

It is strangely disorienting to finally hold my first copy of a book I have created.

So much effort, passion, love, frustration, elation, compromise and heart have gone into every choice and decision. Years of dreaming and years of physical work. At least another year of waiting while the publishers and printers do their part.

Then it arrives. No angels, no trumpets, no fanfare. Just a manilla envelope surrounding bubblewrap and a UPS label with my name on it. A sample copy. (The commercial shipment is floating over the Pacific Ocean right now.)

I open the envelope. There she is. My dream manifest. Alive, it has a body: corporeal, breathing, I can turn the pages, see all its beauty, all its flaws. 

I am thrilled and yet disoriented. The dreaming, preparing, planning, working and waiting is over. I have to compleletly change gears, change mindsets. My dream is manifest: The Beader’s Color Palette is born.

Now my role changes. I’m letting it go - sending it out into the world to let it do what it came to do: inspire people to find their color voice.

The heat of spring and summer always calls for cool palettes of blue-greens, aquas, and teals. But how about the citrus colors? Think “a roll of lifesavers”: tangerine, lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit (writing the words makes my mouth water). A fresh palette that captivates with its warmth and vitality. Try citrus colors in their pure, saturated versions, or tint them up with a little white.

I love ancient jewelry! Look what I found on National Geographic! See the earliest known gold necklace created in the Western Hemisphere-found in a burial site near Lake Titicaca in Peru.