Saturday, June 9, 2012

Bead Color Ideas: Pink Pearls

For this month’s bead palette solutions, I wanted to tackle some beads that have me stumped. A gorgeous strand of dusty rose pearls is too pretty not to use, but what a difficult color to complement! Although the color isn’t so pale that it gets lost easily in a palette, it is very soft and delicate, and deserves gentle treatment.

Both the color and the shape of the pearls create a sense of feminine sophistication - they might not be your grandmother’s pearls, but they do invite design choices that would suit a classy lady. For each palette, I wanted to enhance the softness, as well as the hint of sweetness in the pearls.

I started with something easy. The most surefire way to enhance a subtle color is to back it with black. Although the pearls have a lustered finish, shiny black seed beads didn’t seem sophisticated enough, and a little too flashy for such a soft pink. Matte black has a more velvety look, which is perfect for these pearls. To make Vintage Vixen a trio I added matte vanilla, which gives us another neutral to play with, but is less stark and more interesting than white.

Vintage Vixen Bead Palette Idea


The true color of these pearls dances just out of reach, being tame and daring at the same time. I wanted to play up the strawberry-cream sweetness a bit, and added a little pistachio. White lined peridot makes the perfect contrast for the pearls - it’s not too green and not too garish. Dark beige plays the party of caramel or coffee cream in Dessert Cart.

Dessert Cart Bead Palette Idea


Pink and green always make for a pleasing palette, and I wasn’t satisfied with just one example. To create Little Mermaid, I started with opaque turquoise blue. Then, to eliminate any traces of baby blanket vibes, I finished things off with some beautiful transparent teal. Although these colors are very bold, they don’t overpower the pearls at all - they seem right at home together.

Little Mermaid Bead Palette Idea


What’s your favorite color to pair with pink?

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13 comments:

  1. Hello,Mortira:-)
    Fine play with colors.I like it.Those pink pearls are very beautiful in themselves,but very difficult to compose with other colors.In all those three tries-You've managed to do it perfectly.I like all three of them.The pieces in such color compositions can be very interesting in final effect.
    Warm Greetings-Halinka-

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  2. Me, too. Little mermaid. But I also wondered about some deeper pink color with off white. ???

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  3. I love pink with brown--from cafe au lait light to chocolate brown.

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  4. I love those pearls. I think the Vintage Vixen is a great combo.

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  5. I really love the Little Mermaid as well :D
    Personally, I like to mix pink together with black, specially black matte tbh as in your fist palette :)

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  6. I really like both the black/white and blue color palettes with the pink.

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  7. I like vintage vixen. Nothing better than black and pink!

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  8. Have always loved turquoise with pink, so the Little Mermaid really caught my attention. Although I love the other two combos, too. You have quite the eye for this sort of thing! Peace and joy . . . Catherine

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  9. Nice combinations, I like matt charcoal with that soft pink and I love pink and grey together.

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  10. Hi Mortira, thanks for posting these colours. Always loving the matte black cream and pink but it was great to see your other combinations of colours. The teal and pink really popped. Have a great day or evening depending on what time it is where you are. It is 7:30pm in NZ on 12th June. :)

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  11. Hi, thank you for showing us all kinds of inspirations andpossibilities of these colours. I love the classy matte black, cream and pink but it was great to see your other combinations of colours. The Little mermaid- rocks too :)

    Love your blog :)

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  12. My favorites are Pink with Brown, Pink with Cream (actually Il ike everything with cream) and Pink and a soft Green. I myself don't wear soft pink, too girly for me, but I do like shocking pink. Anyway, I love the looks of the bracelet featured in beading ethics 2, it's a great color & technique combo though it's soft pink.
    Thanks for your great blog.

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