Wardrobe Inspiration: Summer Berry

While putting together our Pantone inspired fashion picks last month, I came across this fabulous chunky bead necklace and bookmarked it for later. It has an amazing palette of deep raspberry, orange currant, cream, and black. The contrast between the neutrals and the incredibly juicy colors was very inspiring, and I couldn’t resist using it for this month’s fashion picks.

Summer Berry by mortira featuring leather handbags

I considered going with a colorblocking theme for this collage, and started with a colorful geometric frock with hints of orange. I loved the purple that it added to the mix, and things just started rolling along from there. I found lots of fun accessories to go with a palette of red, orange, purple, and cream. The damask bangle in bright purple is definitely a favorite.

I wasn’t able to find any tutorials for such a chunky beaded necklace, and that’s okay. Assuming you could locate (or make) the big beads, all you’d have to do is string them. Instead, I found some other chunky necklace projects that are great for summer outfits, and a lovely damask pendant project with an easy painted patina.

I love the ingenuity of DIY jewelry designers.
The magpie in me can’t stop looking at this wrapped stone necklace project by Trinkets in Bloom.




The custom clay beads in this chunky necklace project by Katie at Crafts Unleashed make it really adaptable.
I’d love to see it in lime and turquoise!

The floating glass pearls in Beadaholique’s Sea Treasures Earrings have
the same dew-drop effect as our red leaf ones. Very pretty!




These super-easy stamped polymer clay pendants from Doodle Craft are so pretty
they make me want to drop everything and get out my paints.

What’s your favorite berry-inspired palette?

Mortira

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Wardrobe Inspiration: Seaside Picnic

Our last Pantone-inspired color trio of the season includes a classic combination of turquoise and coral, plus a little of the blue half of this year’s signature colors. As with the Pantone bead picks, I didn’t find any trios that I liked for Rose Quartz, so the final palette includes Serenity, plus Limpet Shell and Fiesta. Pale blue and intense red are always a great combination for summer, so I was really looking forward to exploring jewelry and garments in these colors.

Seaside Picnic by mortira featuring silver earrings

I started with a very beady cluster necklace in pale, smoky blues that are a pretty close match for Serenity. I wanted to maintain a theme with the other jewelry pieces, with round shapes and lots of chunky elements. I was able to find lovely round earrings in both Fiesta and Limpet Shell, plus a great geometric bangle.

Although I really like this palette, I think I would have preferred it with amber and other warm neutrals in place of either shade of blue. The designs themselves definitely work though, and I was able to find a few tutorials to match. These are my favorites:

My Girlish Whims has a great tutorial for a cluster necklace that would work with almost any of your favorite accent beads. The design has lots of potential for layering and patterns, if you want to go with an ombré look as well.

For a slightly less bead-heavy variation, Panda Hall has a great dangle necklace project using a handful of chunkier accent beads. This would make a great stash buster project.

There are a million and one ways to make medallion earrings. This medallion earring project from Jane Chew and Handmade Jewelry Club uses circular brick stitch to create many lovely layers of color.

There are so many great findings for creating your own cabochon settings. This easy photo bracelet project from by Anna H. on Cut Out and Keep can be adapted with any bezel shape and fillings of your choice.

Happy spring, beaders!

Mortira

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Wardrobe Inspiration: Strawberry Soda

Mixing up the Pantone Spring 2016 picks again, I came across another gorgeous trio using Snorkel Blue, Peach Echo, and Iced Coffee. I love the contrast of the blue and pink, and either color would pair off so well with the earthy neutral. Once I had decided on this trio, I couldn’t wait to start looking for jewelry and garments to work with. The colors are fresh and exciting without looking too organic or floral. This is the kind of combination that would be right at home in an ice cream parlor – the perfect place to hang out when spring arrives.

Strawberry Soda by mortira featuring beaded jewelry

I couldn’t resist going with another multistrand necklace for this collage. The cascade of intense blue beads is totally captivating. Rather than contrast it with chunky accessories like in Spring Crunch, I went with very beady earrings and a wrap bracelet. The cut-out sandals and fringed bag join in with the tiny-scale theme as well.

I love how grown-up and vivacious the pink looks in this trio, while the dark blue just sings. So far this is definitely my favorite color combination of the season. The jewelry designs are also very do-able, and I was able to find lots of great projects to recreate this look.

Two multistrand bracelet projects from Beadaholique could easily be adapted to make a gorgeous cascade necklace. The Ahava Bracelet tutorial includes a lovely palette in Snorkel Blue, while the Square Root Bracelet has the cascade look that works so well in our inspiration necklace.

Mini scale maille earrings are the perfect way to recreate our Iced Coffee dangles, and this tutorial by Karen Karon on Jewelry Making Daily is great for beginners. These would look gorgeous in just about any color.

The Peach Echo teardrop and bugle earrings would be super easy to recreate. For variation, I found a gorgeous tutorial for extra large teardrop earrings with a wirework frame by Rena Klingenberg at Jewelry Making Journal.

There are oodles of tutorials out there for making leather wrap bracelets with crystal cup chain instead of individual beads. I like the Leather Wrapped Cup Chain video by The Potomac Bead Company. To get the same look with another take on the traditional method, try the Sonoran Sunset Bracelet project from Artbeads.com.

What’s your favorite combination for salmon pink?

Mortira

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Copyright 2016 Inspirational Beading and Friends

Jewelry Resolution Update

We’re now about 10 weeks into 2016 and I’m pleased to report that most of my creative resolutions are still going. I’ve been chipping away at my goals to make more tutorials and frog old designs, though I’m still a bit behind on my commitment to stay organized and put away my beads on a regular basis. I have managed to keep my desk from getting completely out of control, but I haven’t yet done a 100% overhaul of my workspace. I’m sure I’ll find the time sooner or later.

Meanwhile, I’ve been sticking to my challenge of wearing every single piece of beaded jewelry in my stash. I haven’t been moving through them quite as quickly as before. Back in January I wasn’t wearing a uniform to work every day, so I had many more opportunities to layer on multiple designs. Lately I’ve been sticking to just one necklace or bracelet, with the occasional combination.

One of my favorite combos of late was an embroidered medallion which I paired with two cuff bracelets in similar palettes. I’ve nearly worked through all of my favorite pieces and I’m now finding it more difficult to choose designs that I want to wear. I want to say that I had more time to pick pieces to complement my outfits back in January, but I think it’s more likely that I just need more time to decide on which of the remaining pieces I actually want to wear.

My out-box of worn jewelry is starting to overflow now. I’ll be moving these pieces to a new container to wait until the challenge is complete and I can reorganize my wardrobe. On the plus side, this challenge has provided yet another opportunity to stress-test my designs. It's always nice to see how well they hold up when I treat them with the opposite of proper jewelry care - like stuffing them into a tiny shoe box at random.

How are your creative goals going so far? What’s been your biggest challenge this year?

Mortira

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Copyright 2016 Inspirational Beading

Wardrobe Inspiration: Spring Crunch

I didn’t expect to have quite so much fun with the Pantone-inspired spring bead picks this week, but once I got going it was hard to stop. By removing the least inspiring color – Rose Quartz – I was left with 9 gorgeous colors to experiment with. Three color trios just weren’t enough! It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a fashion collage, and I always like to play with different jewelry styles to see how they’ll look in an ensemble. Pantone colors are one of my favorite inspirations for the Wear It Twice collage, which features one great statement necklace and two outfit options to showcase it with.

Spring Crunch by mortira featuring flower home decor

I decided to start the first palette with Green Flash, which I think had a lot more potential than just an aquatic-looking palette. I was really wishing for a more orange-y color to work with here, which I think would have made for an awesome tropical themed palette. Instead, I added Buttercup yellow and Lilac Gray for a rather crisp and fresh palette. This trio really brings to mind the first flowers of the season, as well as those first few shoots of wild grass and the subtle sunshine of spring.

The necklace I found is so delicious with loads of chunky yellow beads in a multistrand design. I also included some lovely leaf earrings and a super chunky lavender bangle. It was rather difficult to find garments and accessories that were close in hue to Green Flash. For the casual outfit I ended up subbing Buttercup for a pale crème yellow top. The green frock dress is definitely my favorite of the two, and would make a gorgeous backdrop for our necklace.

Multistrand necklace tutorials are always easy to find – the trick was choosing just a few to share this time! My favorite is a wonderfully chunky multistrand necklace by Restyle Restore Rejoice featuring multicolored stones. This one would be super easy to adapt to any palette that you like. The best feature is the variety of textures and shapes in the strands, which really brings out the beauty of the beads.

To get a look that’s a little more similar to our Buttercup necklace, this turquoise necklace project from Panda Hall is a great way to go. I love the suede cord straps and the easy seed-bead gather. You could also do this project with a spreader bar. I’d love to try it with some wood or tagua hoops to anchor the strands.

I wasn’t able to track down any faceted bangle tutorials, but I did find one amazing polymer clay project that would look gorgeous in our palette. This tutorial is by CW Art and is featured in the Craftster forums. The two-tone design is great for showcasing a favorite palette. I’m particularly fond of the striped embellishment!

For the leaf earrings, I found a wonderful embellished earring project on Fire Mountain Gems that uses leather scraps and an assortment of tiny beads. This design would be so easy to adapt for your tastes and stash. Just picture it in bright green with little aqua dew-drop crystals, or perhaps some lampwork ladybugs!

What’s your favorite color palette for spring or floral inspired projects?

Mortira

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Bead Color Ideas: Pantone Spring 2016

In previous years I’ve always been quick to snatch up new color inspirations via the Pantone Color Institute’s spring and fall picks. This year I’ve sort of dragged my feet, mostly because I find the Colors of the Year totally uninspiring. For the first time ever, there are not one but two annual highlight colors. This should have been pretty exiting except that the colors Pantone chose are Rose Quartz and Serenity – basically baby pink and baby blue.

I know that I was quick to reject Rose Quartz and Serenity partly because I’m so very opposed to gendering colors and toys, and these two colors are a pretty strong reminder of a tired custom. But it wasn’t just the baby-ness of the colors that makes them fall flat for me. Although either shade would look fine in an adult garment or piece of jewelry, they’re not exactly exciting. The pink hue in particular, Rose Quartz, looks sun bleached, especially when held up against most of the other colors in this year’s fashion palette. Serenity has a hint of steely gray with lots of potential, but next to an equally soft pink it’s hard not to see outdated onesies. With these two colors leading the pack, I just wasn't eager to explore the new picks.

When I finally got a chance to really browse through the eight other colors in the Spring 2016 color line-up, of course I found plenty of inspirations. Nothing gets ideas flowing like playing with color. Once I tossed out Rose Quartz there were lots of possibilities for trio palettes to experiment with. I wanted to avoid making obvious choices like combining the very crayon-like Fiesta, Buttercup, Green Flash, and Snorkel Blue, as well as find a way to use Serenity that would bring out its moodier, less baby-blue undertones.

I started with my favorite color in the mix, Snorkel Blue. I’m always keen on shades similar to cobalt, so I wanted to begin where I saw the most potential for inspiration. It took some time to finally decide on a palette for this color. I felt that Fiesta red would be too obvious and Buttercup yellow too easy. I finally matched my blue up with Green Flash, then tried on a few different colors until settling on Limpet Shell, which completes the trio perfectly. For beads I chose transparent cobalt and transparent lime, with some aqua blue Czech teardrops. I love the light in this palette, which would be so great in a lightweight collar or some super long duster earrings.

Spring Lagoon

For the next trio I started with Buttercup. I knew that Fiesta would have to go with it, as it’s much too orange and would look garish next to most of the remaining colors. The final addition was Serenity, which looks much more blue next to these bright hues. Likewise, the softness of the blue seems to have a cooling effect on the red and yellow as well. For the beads, I picked some lustered lemon seed beads and lovely translucent red Java glass rondelles. The closest thing in my stash to Serenity blue was a pair of Picasso coins in a pastel aqua. I’d definitely want to use this trio with bead embroidery with lots of overlapping circles and whorls.

You Can't Take the Sky From Me

The three remaining colors make up a lovely pastel palette with Peach Echo, Lilac Gray, and this year’s neutral, Iced Coffee. I love this trio for spring, especially with the watermelon-esque Peach Echo. This is a hardworking pink that look's like it would be at home just about anywhere. For beads I started with my closest pink match – gel sol rainbow rose seed beads. Lavender-lined 6/o seed beads stand in pretty well for Lilac Gray and are a good match in finish. I finished this trio with some voluta shell heishi which look gorgeous next to these two candy hues. Although I’d love to use this palette in a multistrand piece, I think the voluta spacers would look much better as accents for a cuff or a fringed lariat.

Iced Peaches

Now that I've given the Spring 2016 colors a chance, they're providing all kinds of inspirations. The round up is much better off without Rose Quartz, although I wouldn't mind seeing that one with some chocolate and mint, or perhaps midnight black.

Which Spring 2016 color is your favorite?

Mortira

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Copyright 2016 Inspirational Beading
Pantone, Emilio Sosa and TOSIA

Jewelry Resolution Update

When I made my New Year’s resolution to wear more jewelry, I didn’t really think much about my methods for achieving that goal – so long as I was putting on a piece or two every day, I’d be winning. As I started to look at mixing and matching pieces in new ways, I decided it would be a fun challenge to quarantine everything I’d worn and work my way through the entire stash a bracelet and necklace at a time. Not only would this give me a chance to wear some of my oft-forgotten designs, but I would have to make some interesting choices in how to mix pieces with each other, and my wardrobe.

So far things are going really well, and at this rate I’ll probably be through the stash in no time. It’s a bit difficult to set aside some of my favorite pieces – especially the ones that I already use to combine and bring together different designs. I can’t promise that I won’t cheat and pull out some essentials here and there when I need a dash of something or other.

The first combination that I wore was my new floral chevron bracelet and a fish leather pendant. Normally I don’t worry much about matching color in accessories, but I like the way the reds connect these two pieces together. I'm a little sad to be putting the pendant aside as it's one of my go-to pieces when I just want to throw something on and run out the door. It goes with basically everything and it's a really fun piece to wear.

Some days I kept it simple with just a cuff or a pendant. Other days I want to experiment. A few times I went with old stand-bys.

I really like to wear a big stack of bracelets whenever I’m in a fun mood, or when I’m wearing a top that doesn’t work with a necklace. I always start with 3 or 4 simple stretch bracelets and an ombre crochet chain wrap. Then I layer on some petite bangles, and maybe a leather cord bracelet. I’ve already used this combo twice, so I’m running low on options. Soon I’ll have to discover new combinations from the bottom of my bracelet box.

One of my favorite new combinations so far was a German glass scarab pendant with a super long St.Petersburg chain necklace. When doubled or trebled, the chain creates an awesome cascade look. With the scarab at the center it looks even better. Once again this combo has a few hints of similar hues, so it really comes together.

At some point I’ll have to transfer the ‘used’ jewelry to a new location, as my current out-box gets filled up. This will give me an opportunity to really reorganize my collection, so that’s a nice bonus.

Are you sticking to your creative resolutions? What’s your biggest success so far?

Mortira

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Wear it Twice: Mother of Pearl

It’s been far too long since we’ve had a look at ways to style a great statement necklace. There’s something incredibly inspiring about experimenting with fashion looks for great jewelry, especially when working with a beautiful palette. For this collage, I wanted to create a little farewell to summer with pretty aqua and sandy browns.

Last Day at the Beach by mortira featuring sea home decor

A mother of pearl bib turned out to be the perfect necklace for this palette, with its subtle blue and soft shimmer. First I paired it with a great dress in aqua blue, followed by a gorgeous taupe blouse and sea foam jeans. A set of gold and turquoise bangles blends perfectly with both outfits for a breezy day at the beach.

These jewelry tutorials use similar materials and textures as the pieces featured in the collage:

Beachy Keen Bracelets Tutorial - FusionBeads.com





Moroccan Princess Necklace Project - Beadaholique.com





Tubular Square Stitch Bracelet Project - TheHeartBeading.com





Boho Blue Necklace Tutorial - Artbeads.com





Boho Button Necklace Project - DishfunctionalDesigns.blogspot.com

What’s your favorite palette for aqua blue?

Copyright 2015 Inspirational Beading and Friends
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Pantone Spring 2015 Bead Color Ideas

A new color of the year has been presented by the design teams at Pantone Color Institue, and it is easy to see a change from last year's picks. This year’s spring lineup has a great mix of hues, with some interesting possibilities for palettes and trios. Just a few bold colors are playing backup to softer shades of blue and a handful of airy neutrals.

For this month’s color trios, I divided up 9 out of ten selections in the Spring 2015 Women’s Fashion palette to create three exciting mixes. It took a little trial and error to get the balance just right, then find perfect bead colors to match, but I’m very excited about the results.

I started with moody Marsala, the color of the year. It almost looks out of place with the other colors, being so earthy and dark - better suited to summer than spring. Therefore, I decided to elevate it a bit with a tropical splash of Scuba Blue and sandy looking Custard – it was easy to picture Marsala as a boldly patterned swimsuit on a gorgeous beach. For the beads, I picked garnet Picasso 6/o’s, turquoise white-hearts, and buttercream ceylon. The buttercream doesn't quite have enough yellow to match Custard, and I think the palette suffers a bit for it. Still, I think this trio would look amazing as a rope or multistrand necklace.

Next up I chose Classic Blue, then added Aquamarine and Toasted Almond. The two shades of blue are so different that they almost contrast, so it seemed like a fun challenge to make them work together. The neutral was a bit hard to place, with its nylon stocking-like hue. In the end I went with transparent cobalt seed beads, voluta shell heishi, and perfectly matched aquamarine Swarovski bicones from my forgotten birthstone stash.

Finally, I combined Lucite Green with Strawberry Ice and Glacier Gray. I liked the ice-cream shop quality of the trio, which could be both youthful and classy. Then I realized that I have virtually no pink beads in my stash, and I had to go back to the drawing board. Tangerine was the only color left over, and orange isn’t exactly abundant in my bead choices, but it worked out really well. For this palette I used Swarovski gem pearls in turquoise, lustered orange seed beads, and white-lined black diamond. The colors are actually a little more intense than the originals and don't look anything like ice cream, but this palette is definitely my favorite of the bunch.

What do you think of this year’s spotlight colors?

Copyright 2015 Inspirational Beading and Pantone
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