Tuesday, October 01, 2013

Fusion Beads 30 Day Bead Challenge: Day 1...

The first prompt in the Fusion Beads 30 Day Bead Challenge was to "make a perfect pair of earrings inspired by a color idea"!  Fusion Beads has a gallery of different color ideas that you can see by CLICKING HERE.  I love the Summer Sun palette.  It's so vibrant and warm!  It's bursting with oranges, yellows, and reds.  To me, those colors mean fall.  I went out for a walk the other day and came across a cinnamon fern that fit this color palette to a "T".  Below is a close-up of one of the fiery fronds:

Whenever I begin a new body of work, I build a new color wheel.  Our color sensibilities change and grow.  Color is a living thing.  Making a new color wheel allows me to understand myself a little more and makes the colors mean something to me.  The colors I use become personalized and "anchored".

So, for this challenge, I did it in reverse.  I took an existing color palette (Summer Sun) and I matched it something I have recently seen (the cinnamon ferns in the bog).  I used this image to inspire the earrings and hopefully give them something a little extra.

Here are the earrings that I made.  I used Swarovski crystals and balled copper headpins.  I embellished small lengths of chain with the wire-wrapped dangles and hung those from circular earwires.  They're bright, sparkly and lots of fun!  When they're laid out on the table, the way the dangles fan out reminds me a lot of the ferns.

Today is the first day of the challenge!  I encourage all of you to play along!  You can do the entire month or pick and choose the challenges that strike your fancy.  For the full calendar, CLICK HERE.

4 comments:

Linda said...

I love both the earrings and the color palette. Those flaming fall colors are my favorites.

TesoriTrovati said...

Great fall palette. And the shape of those dangles mimics the leaves so well! I wish that I had the time to do this, but I will watch what unfolds and if I have a free day I will jump in! Enjoy the day, Andrew! Erin

Hazel50 said...

Beautiful!

Anne said...

Gorgeous!

While I love summer, fall here in Colorado is perfection! I'm definitely going to try to make something that will remind me of our beautiful days.