People ask me:
"How do I know what I'm going to bead?" So here are some musings of a bead addict...
Let's see...I have one of Kim Cavendar's (kimcavender.etsy.com) fun and funky faces (I'min love with these gems!). I see a smattering of Lisa Peter's (lisapetersart.etsy.com) rustic
raku, a beautifully matrixed turquoise I found in Quartzite, AZ.There are some of Heather Power's (humblebeads.etsy.com) Humblebeads - her colors are "so yum!" And an indian maiden I started on one of my trips that
I have yet to finish - I want it as a necklace; she is being worked on very soft, fluid goat leathers. I think she'll be fun...one of these days!
Starting a project, for me, always includes just about the same sequence of events. Rarely do I ever have a picture in my head of where I'm headed with my beads. Occasionally I will have a combo of colors I want to work with so that's a start. But more often I fill my board with a good handful of focal piece choices, let them kinda stare back at me from the board and in a short amount of time, one will jump out at me; that's the one! Then I go about choosing the colors to go with that center piece. I have no pattern in mind; I just wait for the beads to start "talking" ~ and they invariably do!
Occasioanlly I have a "start" that never seems to go anywhere. Ever been there yourself? Or, I have a "start" that seems to be a struggle no matter how I try to work with it. I don't struggle long - I have learned if it's that forced, my creation is doomed. I never, EVER take apart anything! It's against all I believe in. I have a basket sitting by the window and when I get one of these little orphans, I toss it in the basket. The basket never gets full because eventually, more often than not, I will find a use for each little wad of beads and generally when I do, it becomes a prominent addition to the new creation - "Here's to free-form beadweaving!"
There are no mistakes ~ only lessons.
...according to Margie Deeb, bead artist, and the Panatone fashion color report. Margie has a wonderful site/newsletter where she talks about all kinds of "art of color for bead artists" and you'll find issues of Margie's Muse at: http://www.MargieDeeb.com/muse. She has some wonderful, very useful information and ideas on the use of color - some wonderful, detailed examples of suggested palettes from different cultures. She examines color and dominance, living color, among a few. Margie has 2 downloadable PDF's choked full of wonderful and very useful color information. You'll find them listed and available on her website: http://www.margiedeeb.com. 
