A Little Easter Tour

When I think of Easter, I think of warm Spring weather, new growth, fresh pastel colors, and signs of Earth's re-birth. I thought I'd do a little visual tour of artisan jewelry and bead goodness that remind me of today's Easter.


These lovelies are by Leslie Watt of Thea Elements. I just want to dive in! And hey... do you notice something interesting about one of these photos? If you do, post the answer in a comment below!

Nellie Thomas has several yummy spring colors in her shop WoolyWire Etc., and is currently running a Spring sale for 25% off. 

Here are some lovely beads by Genea Crivello-Knable of Genea Beads. By the way, she is having an Easter / Spring sale starting on Monday.

Next is lovely Spring jewelry by Linda Landig of Linda Landig Jewelry. I especially love the bunny bracelet. She looks very content in her little garden of beads. :)

Rebekah Payne of Tree Wing Studio is having a Spring Clearance sale several of her beautiful polymer beads.

She has also introduced this new color, which I love! Really puts one in the mood for Spring.

Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl Beads has these sweet pastel colored ceramic beads in her shop.

Jenny Davies-Reazor has some cute spring critter beads, like these two examples ...

I hope you enjoyed this brief tour. Have a lovely week. :) 

Springtime Finds

It's been such a long drear winter here in Virginia and even though we've already passed the first day of Spring, the color and new growth aren't coming fast enough for me! I love watching the seasons change and even in all its greyness Winter is so beautiful, but I do have to admit that after a while it really does get drab. I'm so ready for the new green and the bright blooms of Spring!

So in my longing (and impatience!) I plopped myself down in front of my computer with a cup of lemon tea and my favorite solo piano music and wandered through the unfading Spring beads blooming on Etsy. Ahh! Bliss! Now I just need the bundles of money to buy them all!

Here are some of my favorites from my searching:

1. Humblebeads 2.SlateStudiosSupply  3.daisychainextra  4.suburbangirlbeads   5.2CoolBeads   6.suebeads

1.TesoriTrovati 2.HoneyBearBeads 3.daisychainextra 4.MenagerieStudio 5.THEAtoo 6.tooaquarius 7. TheGlassBunny



And when Virginia's Spring does finally make its appearance, it will be well worth the wait.

And of course no Spring would be complete without little bunnies hopping around munching clover!


Happy Easter everyone! I hope Spring has brought bright new colors to wherever you are… and lots of good time with family!

Pantone Spring Colors Part 2

Wow, it's been a whole month since I last wrote a post here.  At the time, readers expressed interest in having me write another piece on the Spring 2013 Pantone colors.

As a reminder, these are the colors that Pantone determined will be big this Spring.

Source: shopbestbibandtucker.com via Linda on Pinteres

In monochrome, it might look like this, but that's pretty boring.

Source: storysmoking.polyvore.com via Linda on Pinterest

So today let's look at combining some of these colors with one another and other accent colors.
The Pantone color palette leans heavily toward greens this spring. Pantone chose Emerald as their color of the year.  The other two greens are Tender Shoots  and Grayed Jade.

I scoured Pinterest for inspiring color combinations that included these greens.  You can find color inspirations anywhere, from shower curtains to print ads to interior design.  Once you open your eyes to it, you will find the Pantone colors everywhere.  Any of these sources can make you want to run straight to your studio and start designing. 

Here are some inspiring color combos that include emerald green.  Think of malachite when you want an affordable emerald colored stone bead.

Source: insidestitch.com via Linda on Pinterest

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Serpentine is the perfect stone to use for the Tender Shoots color.  Here are some Tender Shoots color combinations to whet your appetite.

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Source: jckonline.com via Linda on Pinterest

(Love this one!)

Source: Uploaded by user via Linda on Pinterest

And finally, here are some combinations with Grayed Jade.  I think of this as being the color of amazonite.

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Source: posyrosy.com via Linda on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Linda on Pinterest

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For even more color inspiration, visit my color board on Pinterest.

So now lets think of designing jewelry in all these luscious colors.  Here's a color chart with some matching stones.  This should help you get started, along with the stones I mentioned above.

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Now its time to kick it up a notch by adding artisan beads and components!

This focal bead from Glass Addictions would make a striking centerpiece in an emerald green, white and yellow necklace!

I love the combination of green and copper.  It is a combination you might want to consider in your designs too.  These gorgeous earrings come from Kristi Bowman Designs.  She has loads of wonderful copper components too, to make your designs really unique. Picture wearing these earrings with a beige dress accented by a pretty green, peach and white silky scarf.  Yum!

I love this bronze pendant from THEAtoo.  I'm thinking that it would look awesome paired with the star components and the smaller flower links from Starry Road Studio, (pictured below).

This pretty trio from Mellismatic Art Jewelry is just crying out to be paired with serpentine and turquoise beads, with a touch of purple and dark green, too.

Here's a pair of earrings from Linda Landig Jewelry that is perfect for spring and summer wear.

For those of you on the east coast of the US, I assure you that even though you got a foot or two of snow last week spring will be coming.  So don't despair.  Just start designing your spring jewelry now.  There's lots of inspiration here to kick start your imagination.  Have fun!

P.S. Don't forget that the AJE Earring Challenge Reveal is this Sunday, Feb. 17th.  The Linky Tool will be posted on our blog Saturday evening.

Linda Landig
Linda Landig Jewelry

Pantone Spring 2013 Color Forecast

The Pantone Color Institute produces authoritative quarterly color forecasts. Their forecasts predict which colors will be on trend in fashion, graphics and industry for the upcoming season.

The ten colors you see below will be the hot women's fashion colors for spring 2013. There are 3 shades of green, 2 shades of blue and then 5 other colors.  It's fun to think about mixing and matching these colors with what is already in your closet.  Most of us can't run out and get a new wardrobe to match whatever is "in" at the moment, but it's easy to update an older outfit just by adding jewelry or other accessories in the spring 2013 colors.

                                                          Source: enchantingevents.wordpress.com via Ritu on Pinterest

I thought it would be fun to highlight some finished jewelry as well as some art beads and components that match these trending colors.

This lovely Dusk Blue bracelet bar by Karen Totten of Starry Road Studio would look great with jeans. When designing the bracelet, you could accent the focal with Monaco Blue and maybe a little pop of Emerald or even Nectarine!

If you know me, then you know that I love the color orange in all its variations, which is why I love the Nectarine color in this spring's palette.  Here's a bracelet by Melissa Merman of Melismatic Art Jewelry that I would be wearing all the time!

From Jenny Davies-Reazor comes this Woodland Fairy Forest Sprite focal.  This delightful pendant picks up on the deep Monaco Blue and accents it with the fairy wings in Tender Shoots.  I can see this being strung with some serpentine or aventurine and sodalite, can't you?

These tiny winged heart charms from Tree Wings Studio combine Pantone's Nectarine (or a shade close to it) and Poppy Red colors.  They would make perfect Valentine's Day earrings.

Lastly, I'll share a pair of my earrings, that I made with ceramic components from Marti's Buttons and Beads.  These African Violet colored earrings are accented with Lemon Zest highlights.  This color combination always makes me think of the purple irises I raised as a child and that, in turn, always makes me smile.

There are colors I haven't touched on yet.  If you'd like to see more art jewelry and art jewelry elements in the Pantone colors for spring, let me know in the comments.  If there is an interest, I'll do a follow up post next time.

Just a reminder, the first AJE Earring Challenge reveal will by this Sunday, Jan. 20th!

Linda

Linda Landig Jewelry