Challenge of Color 2012

I am participating in the Challenge of Color, hosted by Erin treasures-found.blogspot.com and Brandi brandigirlblog.com.

The challenge is to create an accessory following a palette of colors, chosen by Brandi, to match the beautiful pictures of Earth as Art, from the US Geological Survey site. Check the satellite photos all out starting here.

Erin sent me my two beautiful Landsat 7 photographs, with Brandi's color palettes chosen from each photo. You can see my 2 options below.

This is the first color palette.

According to Wikipedia,  Rio Demini (sometimes known in English as "the Demini River") is a river in the Amazon Rainforest of  Brazil. Rio Toototobi is a tributary of the upper part of the Demini, near the headwaters of the Orinoco near the border of Venezuela (I have swum in that river). Some strong colors in this palette; I had to try a lot of beads combinations to get some beads that had the right value and saturation to balance the piece. (Yes I am reading Brandi's blog to learn the color theory terms.)

I found a whole bunch of beads, so I started working on 3 different necklaces (crazy, I am). One does not have a determined exact length yet, so one clasp is not yet on that end (and the lovely silks are not yet cut). They are all a bit different from first idea and notes, but here they are.

1.  Wisteria Vine
     The colors are not totally true to the color palette, but the combinations were totally found only by pulling things to get those greens and purples together, so I included it. How else would I have found how perfectly that silk highlighted Sheila's focal and beads? That palette was the inspiration for sure.

Wisteria Vine  included the following:
etched focal, and etched round lampwork beads - Sheila of Stone Designs by Sheila here
shiny purple lampwork round at the bottom - Amy of AHouston here to see lots of happy shiny beads
lampwork leaf - Kim of Mandrel2 here   
hand-dyed silk ribbon - Jamnglass here
Also, Argentium Sterling silver (love working with this non-tarnish sterling), and a Swarovski crystal
Argentium jumprings - Ralph of UnkamenSupplies here

2. Dusk on the Demini River 
     Picture dark weeds in the water, likely tannin-darkened water with the tree roots (as in tea), and some sun filtering through at end of day in soft mauves, and purples, just before dark. Sorry, the pictures are not great, like dusk itself.

First time with waxed linen. Not quite like stringing with silk, but easier in some ways. I am not totally happy with this necklace, but it was fun to do. I would have done a double strand of seedbeads to balance weight of both sides, I think.

Dusk on the Demini included the following:
waxed linen in lilac - WhiteClover Kiln here
tie-dye focal, maroon leaf lampwork beads - Leah of  Beadsof Passion here
etched and shiny spacer lampwork beads - Daniel and Janelle of Radiant Mind/Beads and Botanicals here
Antiqued brass turtle, and extender chain and hook - Fallen Angel Brass here
Also included amethyst stones (Canada Bead), and seed beads

3. Autumn Garden  (before frost)
     This one reminds me of the fall garden with the grass, weeds, flower leaves enjoying the cooler weather in fresh greens, and my amethyst mums going strong. Notice the same kind of focal as #2?

Autumn Garden included the following:
3 silk cords (2mm) from Marsha Neal Studio here 
tie-dye focal and lampwork big hole bead for a bail - Leah of  Beadsof Passion here
green grass lampwork spacer - Amy of AHouston here
black spinel rondelle - StoneyMarie here
peridot rondelle - krs517gemjoy here
bottom copper ring (I antiqued it) was made by Mikel of Muphintops here
copper coil ends - made by Welcome to My Mind here
Also included copper chain and jumprings I antiqued, hook I made, and some seedbeads. What is a fall garden without some seeds.


Next, the second satellite photo of Earth as Art is here:

Lake Disappointment is an ephemeral salt lake in Western Australia, which typically is dry except during very wet periods such as the 1900 floods, and in many recent tropical wet seasons due to climate change since 1967. Lake Disappointment was named by the explorer Frank Hann in 1897.^[1] Hann was in the area exploring the east Pilbara, around Rudall River. He noticed creeks in the area flowed inland, and followed them expecting to find a large fresh water lake. To his disappointment the lake turned out to be salt, and subsequently it got its name of Lake Disappointment. (from Wikipedia)

4. Lake Disappointment
I found the exact right artbead for this color palette right away (from my friend Leah at BeadsofPassion of Etsy). That made it easy. The small blue beads are also hers, as are the two dark chocolate ribbed beads. Leah, these all went so well together. Love them so much. Plus all of the other wonderful, handmade parts too.

The challenge of color for me was including the browns and the ochre yellow. I had some beads that went so well with the blue, and brown but had too much of a warm yellow or orange to them. I wanted to include the palette colors if I could. I think I did it!

The design challenge was that the beads all had different sized holes - of course. Hence the time spent in sketching and laying out. I thought I had a great idea with small yellow jasper, which helped to seat the focal bead, but their yellow was too warm. Then I found the leather in my stash in that great blue that I needed.

I didn't have waxed linen in the color I wanted for linking the ring and disc beads (like an ecru), so I used many strings of sewing thread, as a temporary measure. I wanted it messy and dried grass looking. So that part will be replaced when the waxed linen in undyed natural arrives.

This necklace was a lot of fun. I appreciate the opportunity to mix colors that I haven't done before. I tried to make circles or cycles of the sand and the water.

Included are the following:
Leah of Beadsof Passion's  here etched tie-dye focal, blue spacers, ochre ring,
     and dark brown ribbed lampwork beads
Other lampwork bead - round creamy ribbed disc made by Classysassy here
Creamy ceramic gear ring - Karen Totten here
Porcelain bird in chestnut brown - SummersStudioEtc here
Silk ribbon - JamnGlass here
also, Greek leather; Vintaj findings, Fallen Angel Brass hook, artistic wire; Czech beads


Thank you for looking at my long blog post.
A big thank you to all of the artists for their beautiful pieces that I can play with to make jewellery.
A huge thank you to Erin and Brandi for the opportunity to learn and expand my love of designing with color.

Here is a link back to Erin's blog to check out the other participants,
here


Andrea Ross