Putting colours together

From years  of designing bead jewellery commercially we have found that certain colour combinations always work,despite changing fashions. We suggest a few classic combinations below.

But before looking at this, it's good to establish a few principles.

Palettes

: start by putting together a group of beads of related colours. This could be a siimple combination of two contrasting hues, such as pink and green. But it helps to mix up textures and finishes, such as using bright clear crystal facetted beads with frosted hand-shaped sytyles.

Metals have colour too

Include in your palette some metal or metallic finish spacer beads. For example, in the pink and green combination , shiny or matt silver  beads go very well. Amber and dark brown beads go well with gold or antqued bronze coloured beads, while black white and grey beads match well with gun metal or hematite beads. You should therefore also think about the colour of the findings used too.

Related tones

where colours are near each on the colour wheel, such as pink and lilac, or red and purple

contrast

also important is ensuring the beads throw each otther into relief, rather than blending together So itt's good to alternate colours. But even more strikingly, choose colours which are "opposites" such as turquoise and orange, or purple and yellow.

Classic Combos

So here are some examples of colour groupings we think work especially well:

purple/red/navy - including deep purples like amethyst, and paler tones like lilac and violet, teamed with rich reds such as ruby or garnet. Navy also blends well, though the most popular mix is red/purple.

pastels- lemon, peach, lilac, rose, grass green(peridot), aquamarine -these colours look great in a group, or individual pairs, such as lilac and lemon, or rose and green -see main picture

hot -fuchsia/orange/purple/red - reminiscent of indian spice markets, this look also works well with contrasting tones such as turquoise and grass green see top left

tribal - using some of the elements from above, orange, red, turquose, but toning it down by using amber and ivory and burnished metal tones see left

naturals - charcoal, chocolate, amber and ivory all work well together, in pairs or all together -see bottom left

Of course, rules are made to be broken, and I am constantly surprised when some of my students in jewellery making lessons come up with combos I never would have thought of. Even so, it is useful to work towards some tried and tested colour groupings, especially if you are thinking of selling any of the jewellery you make.

With this in mind, we have created some useful palettes, pre-picked from our extensive range of beads, see the related article, Creative Assortments, or click on the menu left to go straight to the product range.

link to creative assortments

www.rockingrabbit.co.uk/node/4767