Bead Color Ideas: Earthy Hanks

For our first trio of bead palettes of the year, I thought it would be fun to change things up yet again. This time around, I started with two seed bead colors, then added an accent bead to coordinate. For the sake of exploring possibilities, I chose the first hank of seed beads – mint green AB – because I have yet to find a project for it. Then I added some transparent medium topaz to make a fresh, earthy palette.

The first accent bead was an easy choice. I still have lots of two-tone ivory and black moon coins for embroidery projects, and they work so well with the topaz. The darker side of the coins also plays nicely with the green. The whole palette has a sort of fairy door feel to it that would be great in a statement necklace or embellished cuff.

I finished the next trio with a strand of polka-dot Java glass. I’ve been dying to use these beads for many months now, but the right inspiration has yet to come along. I hope that the more I experiment with them, the closer I’ll get to the perfect design idea. I like the way that the green and topaz mellows the colors of the polka dots, but I think it washes out the gray too much, which should really pop in whatever design they decorate.

The final accent was a little tougher. First I tried some red bone tubes, but the color looked to garish with the softer seed bead shades. Right next to them I had some ivory bone tubes with a hint of dark purple – an excellent pairing for either brown or green. Like the previous palette, there are elements here that I like, but it doesn’t have the wow factor that I was looking for. I do think this trio would look great in a fringe design with some additional accent colors.

What are you favorite earthy colors for beadwork?

Mortira

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