The subject of this Jewelry Artisans Community blog carnival is "Use of Color" which is something I've given a lot of thought since our topic was announced. What I've realized is that I have yet to meet a color I don't like; I love and appreciate colors of all shades including black and white. I also realized that I don't give much thought to use of color in the early design stages.
I've never been much of a planner when it comes to creating jewelry. I make it up as I go along including deciding which colors I will use in any given piece. I might start out deciding I want to use a particular cabochon or a strand of beads that caught my eye. Or, I might be influenced by the seasons or something I saw in the yard.
This is not to say that I don't coordinate the colors I use; it's just that I don't start out thinking about color. Like most people, I am drawn to certain colors which does have some influence over what I use in my work. I like earthy tones, blues, greens and reds. Black is a favorite as is pink. I rarely use purple, yellow or white, not that I don't like those colors, but they don't look good on me which tends to take them off of my radar when I'm buying beads or making jewelry.
In the case of this necklace, I started out wanting to use the cabochon and turn it into a pendant. I knew I wanted to use a wire netting technique, so the first thing I had to do was select which color of wire to use. My go to is copper, but the colors in the stone sometimes determine the color of the wire. A cool blue might look better in silver or an emerald green might be more at home in gold or bronze. Although, I have found antiqued copper wire to be a pretty good fit for just about every color, but that might be my bias towards copper coming through.
For this stone, with its earthy colors, copper definitely felt like the best choice. Once the netting was done, it was time to decide if I wanted to let it be the star of the show and suspend it from a simple chain or did I want to dress it up with some beads or other findings? I decided to dress it up.
After selecting several different types of beads in the same color family and placing them next to the pendant, I found the beads that seemed right. They had the same earthy tones and looked like they could have been cut from the same stone. Now, I don't always try to perfectly match beads to a cabochon, sometimes I like to use contrasting colors. In my world, there just aren't very many rules when it comes to color.
Which brings me to my main point about color. It's a really personal choice. Use what you love. If you are drawn to blue and brown like my good friend, Mindy, use blue and brown. Mindy often says that she needs to expand her wardrobe colors, but she always goes back to blue and brown. I once told her if that's what you like, don't worry about wearing other colors.
On the other hand, my close friend, Bonni, loves color. She wears every color in the rainbow and her home also reflects her love of color. She'd die of boredom if she was limited to two or three colors. I always look forward to seeing her latest outfit because I never know what she will do next with color.
A few of my personal favorites - you'll see that I go for the earthy colors, but I also like bold choices like red.
And, this one just happens to be yellow - I just surprised myself. Go figure!
Sure, colors trend, they come and go and it's perfectly ok to make jewelry in trending colors to add to your business inventory if you are selling your jewelry. But, even then...make stuff in the tones you like as well regardless of whether or not they are trending. I guarantee that you will have more fun designing and creating and it will show in your work.
To see what the other members of the Jewelry Artisans Blog Carnival have to say about color, please click on the links below:
