Bead Color Triads: Patriotic

I find it interesting that Canada and the US both celebrate their national holiday in the same week, and our flags share very similar colors. It’s not that much of a coincidence, since combinations of red, white and blue are common on national flags, but it is nice that we share so much in common with our neighbors. We should all get together for a block party some time.

For this month’s color trios, I thought it would be fun to take a look at some patriotic palettes in red, white and blue. The trick was to combine beads that would look good with our without the addition of blue. It was a fun challenge, and I think some of the palettes are more successful than others. Working with these colors has definitely put me in the mood for some summer celebrations.

Glacier was the toughest palette. For white, I really wanted to use my last ceramic maple leaf bead, which has a really interesting decoration. The motif seems like a perfect marriage of pine and maple, and it always reminds me of the Great White North. But really nice trees grow south of the border too, so I paired it with opaque red seed beads, and transparent sapphire hex cuts. I’m not sure I like the combination of finishes - an opaque blue would be better, but the colors are very lively.

July is a month for Fireworks, so I started the next palette with some silver-lined red delicas, which have a festive sparkle. These matched up easily with silver-lined 6/o Czech seed beads for white. Finding just the right blue was a challenge, but I finally settled on cobalt AB druks. Though the base blue is quite dark, the AB finish lightens some areas, and provides lots of shine.

The final palette is my favorite, and it reminds me so much of Cool-whip recipes that you often see in magazines around this time of year. Block Party started with a strand of Czech glass rice beads which are so pretty that I have yet to find a project that is just right for them. To these I added 11/o seed beads in white Ceylon and lustered blue.

I will probably end up making something with part of this palette in the future, because as I was shooting these beads, I dropped my camera, and this happened:

It’s really interesting to watch 10 grams of seed beads jump into the air all at once. Luckily, they all landed in pretty much the same place, so clean up was easy.

Happy Canada Day and Independence Day!

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