Polymer Clay beads by Valerie Moore

A friend of mine makes the most incredible poly clay beads I’ve ever seen. The detail and colors are just amazing. Recently we did a swap and this is one of the sets of beads I chose. I’ve never worked with polymer clay myself but love Valerie’s beads. She is a true bead artist.

This is a close-up of the focal bead. It is done in shades of blue and aqua with flowers, leaves, and tiny yellow butterflies. There is just a touch of orange in the outline of the leaves.

 

This is the necklace I designed to compliment the spectacular beads. I call it Flutterby of course. 

If you would like to see more of Valerie’s stunning beads, visit her website: 

http://www.valeriebeads.com/

I’ll share more of Valerie’s beautiful beads in a future blog . . . I promise. 

Color Combinations

Choosing the right colors for your beaded jewelry can be tricky. How do you know which colors will look good with other colors? As every school child knows, there is something called a color wheel which shows the primary colors and the blends between colors. Here is an online color wheel you can use to experiment with color.

http://r0k.us/graphics/SIHwheel.html

Here is a color picker that uses the HTML color codes

http://www.allprofitallfree.com/color-wheel2.html

Now say you have a bright red bead you want to use as your focal piece. What colors will look nice with the bright red? There is a little free program called Color Schemer Galleria that I like to use. It shows me a variety of colors that go together. I browse through the program until I find the same red color as my bead in one of the schemes. Then I can see the suggested colors that will look nice with my red bead. The Spring Rose set has my lovely deep red with a hex (HTML) value of (660000) and the suggested colors that go with it are a spring green (669966), a soft gray (333333), a light terra cotta (CC6633), a deeper terra cotta (993300), and a peachy flesh tone (FFCC99). 

http://www.colorschemer.com/

So, for my necklace I will use the red bead, and add touches of peach, gray, spring green and a pop of terra cotta. 

Another good way to find interesting colors is to use fabrics you like. I have a skirt that uses purples, browns, golds, and teal. These colors work well in the skirt so why not in jewelry? Oriental carpets, upholstery fabric, art works, even the flowers in your garden are all good places to look for colors that work well together.

This spring try making something that is outside your usual color palette. Go bolder or softer and play with color combinations you don’t usually put together. You might come up with a masterpiece!

Here is a name badge holder I just finished that combines some unusual colors but it works. You can see more shots of it in my Etsy Shop: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11568809