Pantone Color of the Year...

Doesn't it figure?! Pantone has chosen Mimosa as the color of the year for 2009. Here's a swatch from them - and you can read the associated article HERE.


Why do I say, "doesn't it figure?!"? Well... I love yellow. It makes me feel good. It warms me up when I have the chills. It was my late dad's favorite color and the color of my very first car (yeah, he helped me pick out the car...). Pantone says, "Mimosa also speaks to enlightenment, as it is a hue that sparks imagination and innovation." And face it, I can use all the sparks of imagination I can get. But... I cannot wear yellow! I look absolutely horrible in yellow. With my skin tones, yellow makes me look very sickly. Now THIS makes me very sad, since I love this color. So I have to find other ways to get my "yellow fix".





The other day I created a Treasury in Etsy based on Mimosa, the upcoming color of the year. In fact, I called it "Pantone COLOR OF THE YEAR". Of course, I had to put some punch into it so I jazzed it up with yellow's complement and a bit of green. My inspiration for this treasury came from that gorgeous crocheted necklace made by "aysetugrul". Check out all of her wonderful creations!





Once in awhile I make beads with yellow glass. A few years ago I made some leaves in a combination of sage green, purple, and yellow - the colors of Mardi Gras. It was an accident - I thought I was using a rod of amber glass and boy, was I surprised when the leaves came out of the kiln the next morning - not amber, but yellow! They turned out to be some of my most popular leaves, too - who knew?! I think I tend to stay away from this glass because of the fact that I can't wear yellow - and because the various opaque yellow glass colors tend to boil easily. But from time to time I "break out of my 9 dots" and make something yellow. Here are a few beads I've done recently on a base of yellow, or actually yellows (no, I can't make a base bead in a single color) - before I knew that yellow was going to be big in 2009. Both of these beads are on sale in my Etsy shop - Jumping Jack Glass. I'm starting to get myself into a mood to make more yellow beads, which is very unusual for me. Perhaps tomorrow...



Quite some time ago, I hauled out my size 5 triangles and made a peyote stitch bracelet in shades of yellow and amber. This one, I embellished with one of my lampwork leaf beads, my lampwork branch bead, and other assorted goodies. It's rather weighty, but I really like the feel of something substantial on my wrist.

Here's the bracelet - I think there will be more of these in my future!


Speaking of yellow, I'm teaching session 3 of my "Beadmaking 2" class tonight, and it seems that my students really like the "yellow apricot" glass. I like it a lot as well - it's my favorite new demo color. For the longest time, I made all my demo beads with "periwinkle". I donate all my demo beads to Beads of Courage, and I decided that the kids needed something other than periwinkle beads so now they get sunny happy yellow beads. So it looks like I'll be making more "color of the year" beads this evening. Perhaps tomorrow when I work in my own studio, I'll pull out all my yellows and see what I can mix up.

Now everyone's probably yellowed out for today. And it's time for me to get ready to go to class, so I'll leave you on a sunny note. Have a wonderful evening!