Color for Bead Artists

I’ve teamed up with Beverly Ash Gilbert (author of Beaded Colorways and designer of the Eye for Color system) so we can offer color lovers everywhere just what they want: even more color in their lives.

We have a lot of goodies in the works for color lovers, including a quarterly PDF downloadable “Ask the Color Queens” Color Journal. We’ll be sharing all kinds of fun, valuable color info. And we’ll be answering your color questions. Not just bead related, either. Beverly and I both have a lifetime’s experience working with color in other areas such as graphic design, photography, interior decorating, painting, and more. So I ask of you…PLEASE SEND ME YOUR COLOR QUESTIONS! Any and all of them! Email them to:

color@margiedeeb.com

Maybe your question will get answered in the summer issue.

To sign up for the journal, either leave a comment here, or email me at color@margiedeeb.com and type “SUBSCRIBE” in the subject field.

excerpt from the May 2011 Margie’s Muse column

I’m going to focus on design this month.

I want to explore what I call “intangible weight,” which is so important in jewelry design. This concept plays a critical role in the balance and proportion of your designs. I refer to this weight as “intangible” because you can’t measure it. Intangible weight does include what you can measure. And it also includes what you see, feel, and most important, what you sense. Rev up your intuition for this, folks!

I was pleased with the earring to the right. I liked the width-to-height ratio. The colors were perfect. The pair looked lovely on my work table, so I finished them.

When I tried them on, they didn’t work.

They looked clunky. Since most women don’t do “clunky,” and I intended to sell these, they needed to be a bit more elegant. “Longer” was the first solution that came to mind. But not just longer…I knew the fringe needed to be both longer and more substantial to balance the bulk of the earring itself. But whoa… these were already large, dramatic statements. Dare I make them longer?

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After measuring, comparing proportions, and trying various fringe variations, here is the final pair (on the left). They look beautiful hanging from ears. They were purchased before the show began, by a black-haired beauty with dark eyes, whose fashion style flows effortlessly from dramatic to elegant, and always makes a bold statement.
Let’s examine the width-to-height ratio to see what we can learn.
Note: In my measurement of total width I’ve not included the width of the fringe because when the earrings hang, the fringe width will narrow to match the width of the top.

The initial earring width-to-height ratio is 1:2.25.
In looking at the purple rectangle, I find that ratio very pleasing and elegant. It’s very close to 1:2, which is a standard, commonly agreed upon as harmonious ratio. But given the intangible weight of the top of the earring, which includes the visual density, weight, texture, color, and substance, the earring needs to be somewhat longer to be just right.

The final width-to-height ratio is 1:2.6
In addition to making the fringe longer and wider, I made it more substantial by adding more beads to thicken each strand. If I’d not taken into account the intangible weight and made the earring longer – not more substantial – the outcome would have been unbalanced. The fringe required more substance to balance the intangible weight of the top.

Interestingly, the first earring I made, the one that looked so clunky when worn, does not look as clunky when presented by itself. Even now as I look at it on the page I really like it. But believe me, it looked bad when worn. The imbalance was so much more obvious when in context, i.e.: on a person.

Lessons Learned

• Always look at the piece in context before finishing
• Take into account the intangible weight: how heavy (or light) you sense the piece (or part of the piece) is. Color accounts for part of this intangible weight. So does texture.
• A standard harmonious proportion (like 1:2) is only going to work if the intangible weight is taken into account

Accents of fuchsia ignite the yellow greens, creating an electric color scheme.

Complementary contrasts are the most dynamic contrasts available. If a strict complementary scheme is too bold for you (like the one on the right), thinksmall. Used strategically, a hint of the dominant color’s complement can turn an ordinary palette into an extraordinary delight.

Complementary colors sit directly opposite one another on the color wheel. Their harmony provides the most dynamic contrast in hue possible.

Successful combinations depend on getting the proportions right. A tiny accent of a complementary can suscitate the weakest color scheme. Too much of one or both complements can collide and pulsate uncomfortably. Balance the contrast by quantity, value and intensity.

Excerpt from the April 2011 Margie’s Muse, which is available free every month at:

http://margiedeeb.com/html/muse.php

HONEYSUCKLE’s elegance radiates when it is combined with light tints, as Candace Cloud McLean has done in this sweet springtime-fresh necklace of glass and freshwater pearls.

Last year the color of the year was a refreshing, relaxing Turquoise, which you can read about in the February 2010 Margie’s Muse.

This year it is Honeysuckle, a delicious, alluring pink. The saturation is rich and the color warm and inviting. Here’s what Pantone® says about it on their website:

“While the 2010 color of the year, PANTONE 15-5519 Turquoise, served as an escape for many, Honeysuckle emboldens us to face everyday troubles with verve and vigor. A dynamic reddish pink, Honeysuckle is encouraging and uplifting. It elevates our psyche beyond escape, instilling the confidence, courage and spirit to meet the exhaustive challenges that have become part of everyday life.

“In times of stress, we need something to lift our spirits. Honeysuckle is a captivating, stimulating color that gets the adrenaline going – perfect to ward off the blues,” explains Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Honeysuckle derives its positive qualities from a powerful bond to its mother color red, the most physical, viscerally alive hue in the spectrum.”

Eiseman continues, “The intensity of this festive reddish pink allures and engages. In fact, this color, not the sweet fragrance of the flower blossoms for which it was named, is what attracts hummingbirds to nectar. Honeysuckle may also bring a wave of nostalgia for its associated delicious scent reminiscent of the carefree days of spring and summer.”

Honeysuckle is guaranteed to produce a healthy glow when worn by both men and women. It’s a striking, eye-catching hue that works well for day and night in women’s apparel, accessories and cosmetics, and in men’s ties, shirts and sportswear. Add a lively flair to interior spaces with Honeysuckle patterned pillows, bedspreads, small appliances and tabletop accessories. Looking for an inexpensive way to perk up your home? Paint a wall in Honeysuckle for a dynamic burst of energy in the family room, kitchen or hallway.”

In a CBC Radio interview, color forecaster Keith Recker said Honeysuckle “speaks to our happy rediscovery of positive thinking, of growth, of energy, of looking forward rather than bemoaning what we’ve lost in the recent downturn.”

Recker went on to describe the reasoning behind the choice of Honeysuckle as the 2011 Color of the Year, “It is time for us to walk forward with a lot of energy, to think positively, and start to discover what the new era contains rather than mourning the loss of the old.”

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.

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

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.