Friday 13 January 2012

Some new bracelets, and colour questions

This year has been quite a funny one so far. We are still feeling the loss of our little baby girl and things just feel a little out of sync. But I've been trying to sit down and create when I'm in the right mental space and it does help. Bead therapy, eh?! As usual, I seem only capable of creating bracelets and earrings - I find necklaces so challenging! Maybe it's because I rarely wear them, I'm not sure. Anyway, after a few days of making bracelets and earrings, I decided I just had to at least try and make at least one necklace! I actually have managed 5 (five!! Count them!) necklaces, over the past three days and I am quite pleased with most of them (one needs to be taken apart and redone but even that, I think is essentially ok). but as usual, I can't manage to take photos of them that look any good! So they will have to wait for another day. 

HOWEVER, I have managed a few half-decent photos of the bracelets. (And PS, if anyone has any top tips for photographing necklaces and earrings, please leave your comments below! I struggle...) Here's one I posted on facebook the other day, with a clasp by Jo of DaisyChainDesigns and an antique copper link by MissFickleMedia. My 2012 jewellery resolution is to be more adventurous with colour. I so often stick to monochromatic colour schemes (or turquoise and red of course...!) and whilst i do love them, and the textural possibilities they offer, I want to branch out. Two people who I really admire for their colour choices are Malin and Lorelei. They put things together in such a beautiful way. And I'm going to use Design Seeds as inspiration also (thanks, Erin!) So I'm trying to branch out and this bracelet was one of my first goes at that:

Gardenia

I've had some pretty positive feedback on it via Facebook, and I am quite pleased with it myself! It's a little different in design from things I've done before, so I'm pleased with that too. And isn't Jo's clasp stunning? I love working with them, they really make any piece pop. She's got a really good selection available here.

Another colour branch out for me is Sun Street. Originally I thought Rainbow Street, but then I noticed that along with Elukka's gorgeous house being in sunset tones, all the Czech ovals have little suns pressed into them, so Sun Street seemed more appropriate. What do you think of these colours? Do they work for you? I am quite happy with them but they certainly are out of my usual colour comfort zone!

Sun Street 

Elukka's houses just kill me every time - they are a real staple for me at the moment. In particular, this sunset orange glaze, absolutely gorgeous to my eyes.

How do you all feel about colour? Do you have certain combinations that you always fall back on? Do you instinctively know what goes together, unlike me?! I am so interested to hear your thoughts - I love colour, but it's something that I find it easy to be intimidated by.

Hope you are all gearing up to a great weekend! We are off to our friends Andrew and Tom's camply fantastic WInter Wonderland belated Christmas dinner tomorrow and it's always spectacular. Will be great to take our mind off the past two weeks.

13 comments:

lynsey said...

Oooooh Rebecca they are both stunning Gardenia is my favorite though. I love those clasps, i had a go at making one in that style as it was a project in Beads and Beyond, I used a butterfly design in mine.
I adore colour, being a bead weaver allows me to explore colour loads.
I've been following Design Seeds too, i'm using it for future projects, it's a great tool x

Niky Sayers said...

Really beautiful bracelets I love the colors, and Jo's clasps are stunning!
I found this site really useful for advice on photos
http://www.slideshare.net/meylah/perfecting-your-product-photography
Its some thing Im still struggling with

Unknown said...

wow your bracelets are fabulous. The colours in the first one really drew me in and the house detail in the second one is just gorgeous x

Mary Ann Tate said...

Love love the bracelets. Thank you also for the link to Design Seeds...loverly:) I love colour. Someone pointed out to me recently that I always wear dark colours in my clothes (lots of black) and bright colours in my jewellry. Works for me:)

Unknown said...

Rebecca, your bracelets gorgeous. If this experimenting with color keep doing it because the color palettes on both of these bracelets are delicious. My favorite is Gardenia, I love anything with flowers and I think it would just look stunning on my wrist, it is going to be Favorited. Thanks for sharing Design Seeds that is going to be a great inspiration board. Have a wonderful weekend!!

Take care,
Penny

Christals Creations said...

They are great. I love the first one. The second one is not so much to my taste but the colours are really pretty.
:o)

Malin de Koning said...

Darling Rebecca, you make me blush. :-)

Yes, I absolutely love to work with colours. Colour could definitely be a topic for a blog post of mine, or even a few. I guess we'll see if I get around doing one in the end ...

Your bracelets are fun and super nice, both of them. So much color! That Elukka house is wonderful! I envy you having loads of them in your stash. I don't have one single one yet. But I do have some pretty houses from Jubilee that I haven't used yet. Jo's clasp really is fantastic also.

steufel said...

Love your bracelets! And my fav color combo green and turquoise throw in a little bit of purple - yummie:-)

TesoriTrovati said...

Such rich color palettes Miss Rebecca. I was particularly smitten with Gardenia. I don't wear bracelets (must be why I don't create them much like you are challenged by necklaces!) but I had that one in my cart. So bummed that it sold and that I was not fast enough, but so great for you! I put a challenge of color out to myself in 2010 and it really exploded for me. I now feel comfortable with most any color. Yellow is the hardest for me, but I am trying to work with it more! Enjoy the day!
Erin

Lisa said...

Hey, Rebecca! Hope you had a great weekend! Haven't been on blogger in a while, but when I do log on, I always come to your blog to see what beautiful things you are working on! Love, love, love the bracelets! I love color, but understand your hesitation with using more. But, as I've said before, everything you make is beautiful and you are always an inspiration to me!

SueBeads said...

Love love love your sun street bracelet!

Lori Anderson said...

I am SO incredibly sorry about your bunny. Losing my cat not so long ago was horribly difficult.

I LOVE that first bracelet -- want want want.

And check my blog in a few, I have a sneak peek of your Bead Soup!

Jo said...

I love both of those bracelets! Of course, I am slightly biased about the first one :) but I just love the bright colours in Sun Street. The bright colours are perfect for the grey weather we're having at the moment. I'm finding working in colour quite a bit easier than I used to, mainly thanks to Erin's colour challenge and the bead soup party.

Lynsey, if you read this, I'd love to see what you made following my Beads and Beyond project!
I find necklaces really hard to photograph properly, trying to get at least one shot of the full length with everything lying neatly. I'm a bit better at earrings. I've got a couple of small jars and vases (the off-white vase I use is from ikea) that I hang earrings on. I've also seen people use pretty cups and saucers, and maybe they would suit your style? Not ones with lots of busy patterns as they would distract from your gorgeous work, but cups and saucers in pretty colours.

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