Saturday, June 29, 2013

Saturday Share...It's Complementary!

As a jewelry designer, I am always looking for inspiration in different places...nature, textiles, fashion, literature, music and more.  Shapes and textures are important, especially in metal work, but I guess the biggest inspiration a designer can draw on is COLOR!

In the last couple of years, several websites have cropped up, providing color inspiration. Some share color palettes based on photographs like Design Seeds and Brandi Hussey's blog, while others like Colour Lovers let you choose your own colors and create patterns. As designers, all of us are on the lookout for the next trendy color of the season...cue Pantone and their top color lists! Oh, and let's not forget Pinterest...type a color in the search engine and be blown away at the color-drenched inspiration!  These are wonderful places to find your muse in designing new jewelry, but sometimes I like to just use the good, old-fashioned, color wheel. Google color wheel and you will find a boatload of images with all different styles of color wheels...some have every hue imaginable, but sometimes simple is best.


One of my favorite things to do when I am in a creative slump, is to look at the color chart and choose a set of complementary colors...these are the 2 colors in the wheel directly across from each other...they are usually combinations that you might not choose at first thought!  One of the most common and traditional complementary pairs are red and green - Christmas!

My favorite complementary pair would have to be yellow and purple.

My Dutch Iris, earlier this spring!

Petunias and Sweet Potato vine on my front porch

Here are some gorgeous purple and yellow art jewelry components and finished pieces you give you a dose of color inspiration!


'It's Complementary!' by melissamemandesigns

Complementary Colors - Purple and Yellow


Original Fairy Flowers hand...
$17

ON SALE Yellow Organic Frit...
$20

Ceramic charm pair star anis...
$10

Saffron WoolyWire (tm) - Han...
$15

Raspberry Lemonade - Torch-f...
$38

Lampwork Beads - SueBeads - ...
$12

ONLY ONES Rainbow Stained Gl...
$16

Eco friendly felt beads in p...
$8.4

Retro Tiles......set of Five...
$35

Labyrinth Necklace Purple Ce...
$60

Lampwork Beads - SueBeads - ...
$11

Focal Beads Swirl Beads Poly...
$20

Bronze heart pendant, slende...
$8

Torch Fired Enamel Beads - B...
$17

Lilac Flower Earrings Purple...
$36

Warm summer colors. Red, ye...
$24.99


What about you? Where do you go for color inspiration?  What is your favorite complementary pair?

Melissa Meman
Melismatic Art Jewelry
Art. Life. Love.

3 comments :

  1. I use all the places you mentioned plus Margie Deeb's and Beverly Ash Gilbert's blogs and every now and then I also simply google colour palettes to get something new for my pinboard (yes, I've dedicated a part of my Pinterest page to nothing but colour palettes and some colour theory).

    There are two fun places for colour play (apart from the fab Colourlovers) that I enjoy:

    http://labs.tineye.com/multicolour/ -- pick up to five colours (you can even choose the proportions of them) and be inspired by a gazillion pics. Great resource especially when you want to see what adding or subtracting colours will do to the palette. Highly recommended!

    http://www.colorsontheweb.com/colorwheel.asp -- spin the colour wheel for a random colour palette (three colours only). It even gives you examples of what the colours look like combined in different ways.

    And to toot my own horn a bit, here's my pinboard (which includes my own blog feature, monthly bead soup palettes): http://pinterest.com/manekibeader/inspirational-colour-palettes/

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  2. I love color too and lately I've been exploring purples and yellows as well, though more on the earthy side of creamy butter, honey / orchid, dusty lupine range. Color is probably my main go-to muse. Great post!

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  3. I love purple and yellow together so much that I often pick my flowers in hues of purple/blue and yellow with spots of pink. I don't think I've ever done beads with that color combo. Thanks for the inspiration!

    ReplyDelete

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