Color Inspirations & Rotting Fruit

Where does one find colors to inspire?

Everywhere!

Where do I go if I'm in a color rut?

First stop.....Google!

I will do a search for fabrics....kimono fabric, sari fabric and it's always inspirational for me. Here are a couple of sari fabrics that inspire in color and design...and colors I wouldn't normally put together.

I also Google things like images of rotting fruit..."weird" you say...maybe, but look at the colors in there :)  There is really no limit to color inspiration if you keep an open mind. 

Another way to be inspired is by the stone or bead you're working with.

Here I used the colors from the stone to create the setting and necklace....I also let the designs in the stone tell me where the colors needed to be by letting them flow from the stone.

For the Ipil Ipil pendant I took the colors of the cabochon and incorporated them into the rope.

I confess to getting stuck in color ruts all the time and the best way for me to get out of one is to play with clay...for some reason I put colors together better with clay than I do with beads.  Sometimes I take designs straight off my beads for my flatwork designs.

I think the best tip I can offer is to not let yourself become limited as to where color inspiration comes from....nature is always good but often the effects of Mother Nature are overlooked.  Rotting fruit, moldy things, rusted things all make for great colorways. It's also fun when someone compliments your color choice and asks you what inspired it....and you get to answer "I was watching a peach rot".