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".

To Get Your Juices Flowing

It's collection day and I thought I would offer up some inspirational pieces for your perusal.

Up first are some amazing lampwork beads available on Etsy.....there was another bead....but someone bought it (looks over at Ms. Cindy)...fortunately the artist had tons of gorgeous goodies in her store to choose from.

Click on the collection to be taken to it....just in case you feel like shopping or something :)

Next is an Artfire collection with thought given...and a nudge...to those of you thinking of entering the section of the Bead Maven's 'Vernal Visions' challenge where your entry is based on a Maven's tutorial.

Here, I've paired up some of our tutorials with focal beads that might give you the inspiration you need to get cracking on your entry.

So...hopefully these will give you some inspiration and not stretch the credit card too far :)

Run, Hamster, Run!!!

If you didn't know already "Run, Hamster, Run!" is the Maven's chant and hopefully we do it with style though I know personally I look more like the image below than above :)

As a team we encourage each other but I think we also challenge each other to produce more than we might on our own. This is a good thing I think.

I am so impressed with all the work coming from the Mavens Dens lately and it makes me very proud.

So....I hope you will forgive us if we don't always make our deadlines with the Mavens...yes, I'm late with this post.  Also the forum is quiet lately mostly due to how hard we've all been working but I figure you're all more interested in seeing what we create rather than us just talking about it.  If you have a question and you post it in the forum and we don't get right on it....try posting on our Facebook page as we all tend to see that more than anything.

One thing I did want to mention is a fabulous contest Nancy has going on her blog right now.  She's "Playing Favorites" with a contest to win something from either her Artfire or Etsy store up to $150!!!

If I won, my choice would be this beauty, Industrial Asymmetry

And all you have to do to enter is shop at one of her favorite stores and leave a comment on her blog about what you bought and from whom.  What a great deal!

Nancy has inspired me and I'm working on putting my own, similar, contest together and will announce as soon as I've figured it all out :)

Watch out for my Collection of wonderful things on Wednesday...I'll actually be doing two...one Artfire and one Etsy....some yummy things I've been finding.