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The Color of the Year 2010…TURQUOISE!
But its not the turquoise hue you may be imagining… this one leans heavily toward green. It’s PANTONE©15-5519.
From the PANTONE website:
“Combining the serene qualities of blue and the invigorating aspects of green, Turquoise evokes thoughts of soothing, tropical waters and a languorous, effective escape from the everyday troubles of the world, while at the same time restoring our sense of well being.”
We’ll be exploring this in the Spring/Summer 2010 Color Report for Bead & Jewelry Designers. I’ve already shot some beautiful pieces to represent this beautiful color.
This is a partial excerpt from the December 2009 Margie’s Muse. Read the entire article here.
As we steer our way toward the holidays, sparkling lights and flickering candle flames beckon. When attending holiday celebrations, we want to dazzle at least as much as the room decor (hopefully more!) so let’s delve into surface finishes best suited to the glamour, glitz, and glitter of the holiday season.
True metallic finishes like hematite, copper, and bronze add richness and depth. Muted in color, their non-distracting reflectivity lends an air of traditional elegance.
I have a stash of 24kt gold-plated glass seed beads to last a lifetime. They are among the most gorgeous of all beads, and the gold plating doesn’t tarnish or rub off. Expensive and worth it, these beads make stunning accents. Or, when used exclusively in weaving, they achieve a look of intricate, gold filigree. (I use these gold beads as the foundation for the Collar of Glass & Light.)
The Beader’s Color Palette has been voted by the prestigious Library Journal as the BEST HOW-TO CRAFT book of 2009. This is quite an honor and I am proud and thrilled!
This means the best of all how-to books, including knitting, crochet, beading, wirework, scrapbooking and all the other hundreds of crafts books published in 2009. Yes, I am tooting my own horn because this book deserves it! 🙂 It is rich with ideas, creativity, culture, history, inspiration, and gorgeous art by over 40 of today’s finest artists.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6707422.html?q=best+2009#Best%20How-To%202009
(Search my name or scroll way down to see the listing).
I’ve created three FREE PDF previews of the book you can download here.
What a dedicated, creative, active bunch of artists these women of the Toronto Bead Society! If you live anywhere in Ontario and love to bead, you are lucky. (Their next meeting is “Techniques Night”… wish I lived in Toronto!)
I had so much fun, and was inspired by their color, their skills, and their creativity. Thank you, Toronto Beaders! (Thank you, Jo-Ann Woolverton for the photos.)
I just finished making a pair of earrings for a dear friend’s birthday… she loves purple as much as I do. Now I gotta make a pair for me!
The myPANTONE application for iPhone has stolen my heart. It’s so much fun!
You can make palettes straight from photos (which is what The Beader’s Color Palette is all about).
You can then email palettes to other bead artists. You can look at several of the PANTONE Color Libraries in traditional fandeck fashion.
You can create color schemes by dragging and dropping right from the color bar on top, and save them for later use or inspiration.
My family and I were lucky last month when the floods ravaged parts of Atlanta: we sustained very little damage. But our backyard was deluged. I made a color scheme out of it using the myPANTONE app.
You can make palettes straight from photos (which is what The Beader’s Color Palette is all about).
You can then email palettes to other bead artists. You can look at several of the PANTONE Color Libraries in traditional fandeck fashion.
You can create color schemes by dragging and dropping right from the color bar on top, and save them for later use or inspiration.
My family and I were lucky last month when the floods ravaged parts of Atlanta: we sustained very little damage. But our backyard was deluged. I made a color scheme out of it using the myPANTONE app.
Here’s the photo I took:
And here’s the palette:
If you have an iPhone or iTouch, you’ll definitely want to check this out. Here are useful links:
YouTube video about myPANTONE
iTunes (where you can download iTunes if you don’t have it, then purchase the myPANTONE app)
And lastly… a link to the app on the PANTONE website
I’ve just returned from teaching, coloring, and getting to know some of the wonderful artists of the Rocky Mountain Bead Society. During my class, “Courting Complements,” many a groan was emitted when we began exploring the unique characteristics of blue and orange. Turns out that pure blue and orange are everywhere the media is in Colorado, because they are the Denver Broncos football team colors. The RMBS artists are, understandably, tired of seeing it.
“OK,” I said, “Then here’s your challenge: design a blue-orange color scheme that could not possibly evoke mental images of the Denver Broncos in any form or fashion.”
This lit a fire under everyone and they excitedly rose to the challenge.
Because everyone keeps the color creations they make in my classes, I don’t have the exact swatches to show you. But they concocted some of the most gorgeous blue-orange palettes that I’ve ever seen. And not once did the football team come to mind.
The RMBS bead artists accomplished this by using tints and tones: they altered the value and intensity of blue and orange as much as possible to distance the combo from the fully-saturated one of the Broncos.
Remember, tints are colors lightened with white. Tones are colors to which a complement has been added. Tones are lower in intensity than the pure color. They also altered the value (value refers to a colors’ lightness or darkness).
Here are replicas of some of the combinations they created.
I’ve just returned from teaching, coloring, and getting to know some of the wonderful artists of the Rocky Mountain Bead Society. During my class, “Courting Complements,” many a groan was emitted when we began exploring the unique characteristics of blue and orange. Turns out that pure blue and orange are everywhere the media is in Colorado, because they are the Denver Broncos football team colors. The RMBS artists are, understandably, tired of seeing it.
“OK,” I said, “Then here’s your challenge: design a blue-orange color scheme that could not possibly evoke mental images of the Denver Broncos in any form or fashion.”
This lit a fire under everyone and they excitedly rose to the challenge.
Because everyone keeps the color creations they make in my classes, I don’t have the exact swatches to show you. But they concocted some of the most gorgeous blue-orange palettes that I’ve ever seen. And not once did the football team come to mind.
The RMBS bead artists accomplished this by using tints and tones: they altered the value and intensity of blue and orange as much as possible to distance the combo from the fully-saturated one of the Broncos.
Remember, tints are colors lightened with white. Tones are colors to which a complement has been added. Tones are lower in intensity than the pure color. They also altered the value (value refers to a colors’ lightness or darkness).
Here are replicas of some of the combinations they created. (By the way, if you live in Colorado and are not a member of the RMBS… check out the great bead programs, classes and events they support – they are one the happiest and most fun bead societies around!)
To learn more about complementary colors, check out The Beader’s Guide to Color, or read through the Margie’s Muse archives at www.MargieDeeb.com
I learned the following from Sara Hardin’s Softflex Girl blog, (Oct. 12)
This is a report from CHA about jewelry making and the crafting industry in general being as healthy as ever.
“The A&U results also show that heavy crafters, those completing 21+ projects, are frequently involved in jewelry-making, in addition to other craft segments…
Nine million households participate in jewelry-making, spending $1 billion dollars in the past year…
In addition, the CHA A&U Study tracks cross-participation behavior. For example, 44% of jewelry-making households also participate in scrapbooking/memory crafts.”
Thanks, Sara!
Artist and author Robin Atkins (whose work and approach to art and life I am always inspired by) got a hold of the Fall/Winter Color Report for Bead & Jewelry Designers and has been swept away by the colors Pantone recommends. She reviewed it in her blog, BeadLust, and began designing her own palettes.
Robin Atkins' BeadLust Blog
There’s no substitute for great color. You can be a brilliant designer, but if your color is weak, so is your jewelry.
Buy the Fall/Winter 2009 Color Report for Bead & Jewelry Designers and use colors that turn heads and drop jaws. Make jewelry that sells. Here’s what you get:
Seasonal color inspiration for your contemporary designs
Forecast information designated by individual PANTONE Color #
Suggested gemstones, Delica and Swarovski Component colors
Gallery of beaded jewelry in the seasonal colors by top artists
It’s finally here! The beaded pieces this time around are stunning. I guarantee you’ll fall in love with some of them (especially the cover necklace by Derra McMaster!)
And the colors are sumptuous! Pantone chooses gorgeous classic colors, and then the most unusual accent colors you’d never expect to find in a seasonal palette.
Check out the promo page for a peek:
http://margiedeeb.com/html/product.php?productid=268&type=15
Color for Bead Artists 