Category Archive

For a limited time I’m giving away free instructions for making SaraBeth Cullinan’s Dolphino Beaded Beads when you purchase the Spring/Summer 2011 Color Report. (Upon purchase you’ll receive a link to download the free PDF instructions).

Dolphino Beads by SaraBeth Cullinan

You won’t want to miss this opportunity to receive anything free from SaraBeth. Her designs and instructions have appeared in Beadwork and Bead & Button, Creative Jewelry and Stringing magazines. Her beautiful color choices and designs are in all of my Color Reports and both of my color books, The Beader’s Color Palette, and The Beader’s Guide to Color.

Check out the Color Report, and learn all about the colors of this season: what sells and what designers are using. And get great ideas about how to use them.

Spring/Summer 2011 Color Report

$9.95 (U.S. dollars) PDF download

Necklace made with Dolphino Beads

"The Light of Hope" by Margie Deeb; Oil on canvas; 32" x 32"

Do you find it difficult to go about your daily activities while people are suffering so catastrophically in Japan? I grapple with this. Though I don’t know their pain, as humans we are all connected. I can imagine the terror, loss, hopelessness, and despair. I want so much to help and give. To ease some suffering, no matter how small.

So what to do?

I know that my energy can help when I consciously direct it to places and people in need: it makes a difference. Some forms this energy takes are prayer, meditation, or visualization.

Another form of sending energy I use involves my creative pursuits. Beading included. This is an open eyed, meditative activity.

As I sit down to bead, I consciously dedicate the session to those in need of my help in Japan. I direct my love, compassion, and hope onto each bead I pick up, each stitch I take. As I weave, I imagine these energies, as if traveling on a pink laser beam of light, finding a landing place where they are most needed. Maybe in the heart of a someone too hungry or scared to hope they’ll find their missing child. Or in the mind of someone trapped in a home by the radiation-filled air outside.

I do this very consciously for as long as it feels naturally focused. I don’t force it. Then I continue to bead as I normally do, letting my mind go where it wants. I know that with each stitch my healing energy is going to Japan, even though I’m no longer consciously directing it.

It’s gorgeous, beautifully photographed and written, and oh-so-inspiring. I expected no less, but… this is still far more than I expected. Sherry’s work is breathtaking, and I love how she is inspiring bead artists to create their own vision, using techniques she explains. Beaders, don’t wait a minute longer, go get this! Read Sherry’s words and be inspired by her. Manifest your own vision in beads. Don’t try to be Sherry, because there is no one like Sherry. And we are so lucky to have her in our beading community!

Here’s what’s inside:

Delica browns and flesh tone samples

2011 Color Tip #2: Weave or string samples.

Keep reading!

Don’t skip over this post because the thought of making samples sounds like drudgery!

I’m big on the discipline of planning ahead: sketches, samples, and test-runs are part of my design process. I do this for all my paintings. Because of their surface finishes, sample work is even more critically important in bead work.

Beads are like living organisms: you can’t truly know how they’ll interact until you corral them together and watch what happens.

I’ll say it again: YOU CAN’T KNOW HOW BEADS WILL VISUALLY AFFECT EACH OTHER UNTIL YOU WEAVE THEM TOGETHER. It’s impossible. I’ve been beading over 23 years and still make samples to learn from the beads themselves.

The smaller the bead, the more true this is.

When you weave together samples, you’ll see how they visually interact. Like siblings, some get along beautifully, while others were not meant to be strung side-by-side.

Delica pinks

Keep your samples for future referral. I keep mine in binders, so I can pull them out when necessary, and store them neatly when not in use.

If you really want to improve the color in your jewelry, make and learn from samples. Study them carefully in all kinds of light: fluorescent, sunlight, tungsten. Sample making doesn’t have to take a lot of time, and it’s worth the effort, especially for more elaborate finished pieces.

Learn more about color in my comprehensive color and beading book, The Beader’s Guide to Color.

(excerpt from the March 2011 Margie’s Muse)

Twice a year I create the Color Report for Bead & Jewelry Designers. Within it’s digital pages, by way of instructions, examples, proportion-specific palettes, and beadwork, I demonstrate how to work with the 10 specific colors that Pantone has forecasted for the current season.

How do the color forecasters at Pantone choose the seasonal colors? There’s a lot more to it than you might think.
One of my readers in Canada directed me to “Q,” a national arts and culture interview program on CBC Radio in Canada. I listened to a fascinating interview with color forecaster Keith Recker, who forecasts for Pantone and WGSN (an online trend forecasting firm).

Recker says “In forecasting we try to sniff out what people are thinking about, what they will be needing, what they are lacking in terms of psychology, spirituality, sociology, their economy, then we start to find our way into color.”

“One of the factors that came into play when forecasting this time around is the U.S. presidential election cycle. Events from the last days (he refers to the shooting in Tucson in January 2011) tell us it is going to be high-volume, high-conflict. A lot of people will be either embracing that conflict and wearing colors of protest: patterns that are graffiti-like and maybe a bit angry and maybe a bit lost, suspecting that our institutions might not be representing us appropriately. And other people will be having the opposite reaction: to find the most peaceful, least conflicting, most nourishing position away from all the conflict. Both of these narratives will have pretty specific color values associated with them.”

In her book Color: Messages and Meanings, Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute® writes “Don’t make the assumption that all the new color trends come from fashion.” She describes the influence the Apple iPod commercials had on color (remember the dancing silhouettes on brightly colored backgrounds). This is an example of color influence coming from the graphic design field. All the greens being used in the past decade have come from the emergence of environmentalism in the 90s.

As to the application of the forecasted colors and how to work with them, I’ve always encouraged my readers to use them as a starting point. You need not use the exact colors presented. Let those colors inspire you. Recker says “Use the forecasts as the beginning of the creative conversation. We put together these narratives and do our best to describe why the color palettes are relevant and perhaps how to use and combine them. Professionals take the forecasts and use them as the beginning of a process of tailoring the information in a way that’s right for their product and their customer base. A fashion designer with a presence in a cutting-edge market will use the forcast in a very different way than a fashion house selling in the mass market, and the same thing [applies] in the home furnishing industry.”

My 2011 Spring/Summer Color Report for Bead & Jewelry Designers (PDF) is available for download for $9.95.

Last week, after reading my newsletter and column about pink, my friend, Marie, lent me her copy of the March House Beautiful: it’s all about pink. The feature begins by talking about the spicy, sensual colors from India (sound familiar?), then goes into floral pinks and crimsons. It suggested combining deep indigoes and eggplant shades with pink, and I love that idea… I’ll be playing with palettes that include those. Can’t wait to see the impact that deep, dark indigo has when combined with hot pink, pale pink, and medium shades of pink. I’m foreseeing some very unpredictable harmonies on the horizon! I’ve suggested eggplant and pink in past Color Reports. Here’s a quick study: rich eggplant as the dominant, a low-intensity mauve as the secondary, and a bright (but not screaming) pink as accents. You have to use gold to finish this off elegantly. If you make something in this palette, send me a digital photo!
Pantone has choosen an exquisite pink for the 2011 Color of the Year, which you’ll hear more about in the coming weeks, when I publish the Spring Color Report for Bead and Jewelry Designers (on Valentine’s Day). This is a pink I think everyone will swoon over (my iPod Nano is this shade of pink).

Marie also gave me the latest Chico’s catalogue, filled with pale pink clothing and jewelry. I enjoy all the pale pink, but was dissapointed at the lack of stronger and brighter pinks. The Chico’s website will show you more. Check out the Pensee necklace and it’s bib-like mass of pink beads.

And just for fun, take a look at this pink vacuum cleaner  I wrote about on my blog in May 2008.

from my February 2011 Margie’s Muse column

With winter dragging on, Valentine’s day ahead, and spring on the horizon, I am thinking pink. I’m eager for it’s sensuality, vitality, and charm.

In her lighter, brighter versions, pink is such a flirt. She’s a coy, coquettish version of red; a siren luring you to sensual pleasures. After these last months of bundling myself in sweaters against the teeth-chattering temperatures, I welcome her seductive warmth.

Magenta is one of my favorite versions of pink. An alluring purplish-red, more luminous than true red, magenta exudes luxury. The color itself seems to have a texture of damask, or silk, or perhaps taffeta. Indeed, the Victorians reveled in fabrics colored with newly discovered synthetic dyes of magenta and fuchsia. Think hot pink, neon-pink. Geraniums, cyclamen, fuchsia, primroses, orchids, peonies, and bougainvilleas are but a few of nature’s blossoms that seduce with magenta.

Most publications printed in color use a four color printing process referred to as “CMYK.”  The “M” stands for magenta. Magenta is responsible for every printed color that has a reddish tint. Magenta is the “red” primary of printer’s inks. As a primary it creates brighter, more luminous oranges, purples, and violets than does its red counterpart.

Magenta and most pinks pose one major problem. They are insufficiently lightfast, especially in the medium of glass beads. Many magenta and pink glass beads will fade from exposure to cleaning agents or sunlight. Test beads for lightfastness by setting a bowl of them in the sun for a few days. If the beads are to be worn, wear a strand against your skin for a few days. Many dyed beads will not pass these tests as dyed beads are coated with color which can rub off. Glass beads, however, are impregnated with pigment, which produces a more stable color.

Because it is often an unstable hue, you won’t find many natural materials for jewelry in shades of magenta (though some rubellite tourmalines come close). Wood, shell and howlite beads are dyed in shades of magenta. Glass, or plastic if you want a less sophisticated look, is the best way to charge your work with magenta and fuchsia tones.

See the entire Margie’s Muse archive

Strong 2-color palette from "The Beader's Guide to Color"

Some people erroneously equate more color with better palettes. At the beginning of a class they tell me they want to learn to be great at color so they can use lots and lots of colors in a piece. Using lots of colors simultaneously represents  their idea of what it means to be good at color.

Using many colors successfully in one piece is one very tiny representation of what it looks like when you are good with color. To me, it is one of the weakest.

Far stronger are the color palettes of 2 or 3 colors. These make more of a statement. They take more conscious planning.They require careful proportions. They demand attention be paid to value and intensity of each of their members.

Strong 4-color palette from "The Beader's Color Palette"

The foulest color concoctions in the bead world these days are the free form, chaotic stews of 10+ colors with no order, no form, no design.

Challenge yourself to build palettes limited to two or three colors. Employ a family of colors to work as one: in other words, if one of your palette members is red, use various shades, tones, tints, values, and intensities of that red. Teach yourself to lean on proportions, value, intensity, rather than relying only on hue to create enduring  color combinations.

Strong palettes forged from two, three, and four colors will be your most memorable.

Learn more about color in Margie’s comprehensive color and beading book, The Beader’s Guide to Color.

from Margie’s Muse
January 2011

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” -Scott Adams

The tangled remnants of treasures revealed.

As a creator, I’ve learned a lot about destroying. In order to create, we must destroy. It is a part of the creation process. Destroying makes the space for new creation.

We destroy a hank of beads so that we may order its pieces into a necklace. We destroy old ideas to make way for new. We destroy empty space to fill it with a new painting. We destroy a design that doesn’t work in order to create a new one that, hopefully, works.

I was faced with this last dilemma recently. Off and on, for the past 8 months I’ve been working on an intricate piece. I’d made prototypes out of rope that indicated that my idea would work and I was so excited. However, to see if it actually worked, I had to weave it together. After 60+ hours I realized that what I had created would not work like the vision I had in my mind’s eye. So I had to rip it apart. Did I mention it was 60+ hours of work over 8 months time?

I’ve come to realize that destroying is as much a part of creating as the act of creation. I used to resent having to destroy my failed beadwork, regarding those precious hours spent making it as squandered and meaningless because they lead to failure. I saw it as a waste of time. As I’ve matured, I realize that time is only wasted if I refuse to learn from the errors I filled it with.

When possible I save my beaded failures to refer back to what made them fail. In this case, I’d woven together a costly amount of beads that I needed to un-weave so I could use them. I spent hours pulling apart lovingly crafted rows of weaving.

For the first time in my 20+ years of beading, the destruction process fascinated rather than frustrated me. I felt I was watching portions of my life in rewind. As I unravelled, I relived the hours spent weaving while watching a Frank Zappa concert DVD with my husband. Then came memories of my trip to San Diego as I tore out loops made during the summer. Backwards I wove through the section of rows completed in July when we lost our Greyhound. Then the part I’d made during the last weeks of our Dalmatian’s life in March. I deconstructed the parts that I’d shared over lunch with two bead artist friends at a French restaurant. And finally, the very first rows I’d made (while my head spun with excitement) became shreds of thread and loose homeless beads.

As I ripped, cut, and pulled, I experienced – in the most tactile way – my methods of ensuring my work for posterity. I also cursed them. Overkill here and there, as I sawed apart six and seven passes of thread through one bead.

From this destruction emerged not only the space for my revised design, but also (and this came as a surprise) a more compassionate view of myself. Unwinding months of my life captured in thread and glass offered me a broader perspective of myself. As if watching a film, I saw a woman – in between the mundane and sublime moments of her life, the peaks and valleys, the joys and losses – quietly, methodically building something of beauty. Small and striking. Maybe not a masterpiece, but a creation that would mean something to her, and hopefully to others. I saw someone wanting, from the depth of her heart, to create beauty: beauty that will last and adorn and inspire others to create more beauty. Each fragment of thread and released bead illuminated that part of me that thrives on inspiring beauty, creativity, and excellence in the world.

It was an enlightening time of destruction. And at the end of it I felt wiser, more confident, and more excited about rebuilding my vision in a new way. Not a moment has been wasted.

(Download the PDF column)

from Margie’s Muse, December 2007

Each year the mansions in the historic district of my town are decorated for the holidays and opened to the public. I toured them, enjoying the beauty of the sounds, scents, and colors.

One of the rooms in a Civil War home was decorated in white: white tree, white wrapping papers, white antique Father Christmas dolls, white flowers, all aglow in candle light. The textures were soft, making gentle what might have felt stark. The lightest shades of ivory and cream softened the overall feel as well.

Colors and candlelight speak so much to the ambience of the holidays. And yet, I find that white touches me deeply during the holidays.

To me white symbolizes hope born of an innocence and purity. As if a promise that from the cold of winter hope is gestating, waiting to arise. White is the purity of light. It symbolizes the sacred, the divine from which we came.

True white light is the greatest luminosity known, holding within it the entire spectrum. Pass white light through a prism and watch it fan out into a peacock tail of rainbow colors.

White makes a clean background from which other hues can shine, and it harmonizes with nearly every color. Vivids look exceptionally vibrant and tints especially charming against white. Low-intensity colors work better with an off-white, one that leans toward another color, like ivory or beige.

The simplest palette of maximum contrast is white and black. For chic sophistication, string together beads of these opposing colors. To avoid clinical starkness, select luxurious finishes or shapes. Lustrous pearls of white and black are far more intriguing than the absolute white and black of opaque or matte finish beads. Color-lined and hex-cuts offer visual interest. Grays (including snowflake obsidian and hematite) also add depth to the white and black duo.

White whispers innocence. Combine it with pink (such as rose quartz) to create a petal-soft, pastry-sweet delicacy.

White and red, in tandem, can become either distinct (pearl and garnet) or flashy (snow quartz and scarlet red jasper).
Use white to freshen and lighten a color scheme. Or use it as a fashion statement of refined grace. Nothing says elegance like pearls. Attired solely in white, one is perceived as cool and polished.

White occurs naturally in beads of milky, semi-translucence agate, dolomite, chalcedony, howlite, and trocha and puka shells. Warmer white beads are those of bone hairpipe. The iridescence of mother-of-pearl is a colorful alternative to stark white.

As long as there is light there is white, luminous and bright, bringing its promise of hope.