Color of the Year: Honeysuckle

Pantone has picked Honeysuckle as the 2011 Color of the Year.  They state, "Honeysuckle emboldens us to face everyday troubles with verve and vigor. A dynamic reddish pink, Honeysuckle is encouraging and uplifting. It elevates our psyche beyond escape, instilling the confidence, courage and spirit to meet the exhaustive challenges that have become part of everyday life."

What can I say, who knew the power of color could be so, um powerful.  Need a shot of elevating, confidence-instilling pink in your creations but really not a 'pink' kind of gal?  Let me break it down into a few manageable color palettes and show you how I have added in some of this potent honeysuckle to my designs.

First up, a sugary sweet mix of honeysuckle and teal are tempered by neutrals with the brown lotus pod beads and matte silver components.  Even though pink is the dominant color, the intensity of the teal takes away some of it's thunder, offering more of a Spring color scheme rather than screaming "I'm wearing a pink heart!".

Diane Hawkey pendant, Humblebeads disk beads and egg.

This design uses the honeysuckle as an accent to the navy, melon and cream palette.  The pink rhodonite beads are combined with peach aventurine and gunmetal findings. 

The flower connectors are Arte Metal from Vintaj.  The pendant is from Gaea and the navy blue disk beads are Humblebeads.

The pink beads above, left to right: Jubilee, Spirited Earth, Humblebeads, Diane Hawkey and Lynn Davis.

Want more color inspiration? Check out Kuler where you can find color palettes based on honeysuckle and create your own.  Warning - don't click this link unless you have time to spare, it's too much fun!

Fall Color Inspiration

Oh, color - it is such an exciting part of our job and yet it can sometimes be completely overwhelming.  Some designers have a natural instinct for color.  Others struggle, some search out the experts for helpful advice, some pull out the color wheel and rely on the faithful results of color theory.

Wherever you fall on the spectrum, you can find endless opportunities for color inspiration using Pantone's Color Forecasts.  You can download the Fall 2010 Forecast here.  I wrote an article with tips for using the fall color palette, jewelry samples and a printable color worksheet.  You can view them on my website here.  

I think the hardest part of seeing a list of colors, like the palette above, is trying to figure out how they translate into beads and jewelry. 

I've gathered 4 examples from our ABS Contributors to help inspire your color adventures.   

Erin Prais-Hintz combined golden glow, endive, oyster gray and chocolate to create a monochromatic design that is anything but boring!  This necklace sings a fall color melody that hits all the right notes.  Art bead: Humblebeads.

Next Lori Anderson has paired a lovely collection of art beads offering just a hint of color in this light and airy collection.  The earthy palette mixed with creams whisper a softer expression of fall designs.  This would be a great transition piece as we move from summer to crisp fall days. I could see it paired with a gray cardigan and your favorite jeans. Here we see oyster gray, a darker shade of purple orchid, chocolate, lagoon and a hint of golden glow in the accent beads.  Art Beads: Floridity and lampwork by Lori Anderson.

Lorelei Eurto has gathered together a mouth-watering combination that is inspired by the fruits of the season and the trees associated with them. There is a delicious play of lipstick red and chocolate truffle that add zing to this design.  Touches of oyster gray, endive and lagoon add depth to this playful palette.  Art beads: Jade Scott and Earthenwood Studio.

Shannon Levart offers a reserved color palette that is anything but boring.  What creates such visual interest in this design?  Texture!  Shannon brings color into her findings with a dark chocolate truffle patina that echoes the details in the light golden glow of the wing pendant. The stone egg in shades of oyster gray provide another contrast of texture. She named this piece Transcend and the colors do offer a heavenly combination! Art bead: Earthenwood Studio.

(You may notice two additions to our sidebar and I'd like to officially welcome Lori Anderson and Erin Prais-Hintz as regular contributors. We loved them so much as guest writers, we just had to snatch them up to write for you on a regular basis!)