Playing With Colors

This week I'm focusing on the assortment of beads that I will be bringing to the Bead & Button Show.  Yes, I'm making more leaves as well as some other types of beads.  I have a floral focal bead in the kiln that I'm just dying to see when it's back to room temperature.  And I'm going back to the glass lab in a few minutes to make a couple of small beads for a bracelet that's in progress.

Yesterday and today, I've been messing around with colors that will match up with my wool roving.  I just love combining glass and fiber, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.  So this time I'm letting the fiber lead my color choices in the glass lab.  Here are some samplings of where I'm going with this project.

This leaf is a bit on the small side - today I made a few more of these, one of which has raindrops on it.  The yellow on the leaf is very creamy, and I have the perfect accent fiber to go with this combination.

Creating a leaf to go with my red roving was a bit of a challenge.  This one has a very holiday feel to it, but I have at least 3 more in mind that I'll create over the next few days.  Perhaps they'll all feel like a holiday - red tends to do that.

I'll be creating one in very pale neutrals, one in aqua, and one in a pale purple.  Any other suggestions?

Toning things down a bit, here's a combination that I really love.  This wool looks like cinnamon - I can practically smell it!  And this leaf is one of my favorites.  I tend to gravitate toward greens and earth tones, though I don't think I've ever met a color that I didn't like.  This leaf has just a hint of sparkle in it - a faint touch of dichroic glass that only shows up when you view it from a certain direction.

Staying with the earth tones, this brown is heading toward a purple color, and it's really luscious.  Last year I was layering some very unlikely glass colors, and I fell in love with one of the combinations.  Here's that combination with this dark rosy brown wool.  I'll be doing more of these, some of which will have a touch of dichroic glass in them.

And here's my last pair - a pale icy blue wool with a greenish bluish purplish leaf - another one of my glass layering experiments.  I've had several of my experiments go awry, but this is one of the successful ones.  And yes, more of these leaves are on the way.  Actually, I have a set of 5 of these that I've been thinking about turning into a necklace.  If I don't sell them in Milwaukee, they'll be jewelry-bound for sure!

Now I'm off to the glass lab to make those few beads, shut it all down, and get ready to teach my bead making class tonight.  Have yourselves a happy and creative day!