Color Inspiration is everywhere

Well especially on Pinterest which at the moment is capturing my attention. I created a board for color inspiration, but now see that categorizing my color inspiration might be a better choice, blue greens, purple reds hot pinks, greens and bronzes....

I searched on beaded jewelry and found my very own Carousel on someones color inspiration board.



It was on a board with this excellent color inspiration photo



A google image of The Monarch Butterfly Dress — Luly Yang

I also created a Santa Cruz board with images and memories from my life there.

But back to color. Very soon I will get serious about creating the projects for my second book, and I want to have a very informed color story. But since I'm fickle, or I might say easily influenced, I change my mind about what strikes me as an excellent color combination on a moments notice. Add to that the translation from web photo to actual bead colors and it is not always what you expected. On top of that is proportion which I learned from Margie Deeb is a very important element to pay attention to. So I will continue to put some color boards together and sit with them for awhile, picking out my favorites and then picking out the beads.

Another reason for the importance of this task is symbols. Rachel taught me about symbols and symbol libraries in Adobe Illustrator.



My plan is to make several symbol libraries with the colors and shapes of beads I will draw with. There will be size 15's, 11's and 8's in all the colors I plan to use, then crystals, and pearls and fancy stones and pendants. Bonnie just graciously showed me how to draw a Swarovski pendant. Adding to an already built symbol library is just a touch tedious so I would like to have a really good reference to start with,which means knowing my colors. The other huge benefit of symbols, click on a symbol (bead) and replace it with another across the entire drawing with one keystroke. The bead used to be bronze and now you've made a purple sample....change the bronze symbol to the purple symbol and you're done!

I'm beginning to love what I'm able to do with Adobe Illustrator which is significant given that three weeks ago I wasn't sure I was up to the task of learning it and now I'm eager for each new tidbit. And fortunately I have any number of beaders who have gone before me and are willing to share. I'm grateful to each of them!