The Lady of the House

Ask anyone who their favorite Egyptian goddess is, and most people would probably say Isis or Hathor. These dieties known for motherhood, healing, love, and protection long outlasted their original culture and continue to be an important part of spirituality and feminity to this day. This is an impressive achievement when you consider that they were competing with hundreds of other gods and goddesses. Throughout 4000 years of Ancient Egyptian culture, many religions, cults, and legends were incorporated into the pantheon and worshipped in the home, alongside the same dieties that we can still see depicted on the walls of ancient tombs. The names and identities of many Egyptian goddesses have been lost to time, but the daughters of Ra, and the children of Nut and Geb continue to thrive in their own way.


My favorite goddess is Nephthys - sister of Isis and wife of Set. Her name means "Lady of the Mansion" and she was the Ancient Egyptian goddess of death. Not to be confused with Anubis, the god of embalming, or other death gods with morbid and shadowy backstories, Nephthys was as much a goddess of healing and protection as her sister. In Ancient Egypt, life, death, and rebirth were all linked; Nephthys represented the realm were all things living and dead are one. This concept can be very comforting, especially when one feels disconnected from their peers or the world around them. We are all made from the same atoms, and Nephthys embodies that notion perfectly.

The Inspiration:

The realm of Nephthys was the place where the fertile waters and silt of the Nile met the harsh and inhospitable desert - a margin between abundant life and bleak death. She was the place were bodies become soil, and soil nourishes bodies in a neverending circle. When I picture Nephthys I always think of a goddess that is poised and regal, while also having a smoldering vitality. She is the combination of solemn death and the never ending resilience of life. She is birth, death, regeneration, and evolution all rolled into one.

In making a new tribute piece to Nephthys, I wanted to incorprate the earthy colors of biomass such as greens, browns, and black. This time I also wanted some rich blue to represent the water that connects all living things. For this project I started by combing through my stash to find pieces that had the right look to represent the lady of death, and tried to picture them together until a design took shape. I also wanted to be sure that the piece would turn out right on the first try, so I decided to go with my favorite fringe. This would allow me to pull lots of different accents together, and add some stripe patterns to keep things looking Egyptian.

The Beads:

For the base beadwork I chose transparent dark topaz and Montana blue sapphire seed beads in size 8/o. These were my earth and water elements, and they contrast each other with perfect sophistication. I also included some black and white seed beads for borders and stripes, though I hadn't yet decided what type of pattern I wanted to use.

For accents I had so many wonderful choices, but in the end I went with bone tubes, crackle finish wood, amber horn heishi beads, and sono wood tubes. These beads all had the color, texture, and light that I wanted in this piece. I was particlarly exited to use the green wood beads from Blueberry Cove, which so perfectly represented Nephthys' home on the Nile. I was in the mood for even more texture, so I later added batik bone beads in black, jet black druks, and some tiny natural coconut rounds to the mix.

The Beadwork:

Few things are easier than creating something from your favorite inspiration, and this project certainly fits that description. The pattern and the fringe just came together, and the work seemed to go by in a flash.

For the rope, I used black to border the brown sections, and white to border the slightly darker blue portions. To break up the rope a little, I added smaller blocks of brown between each of the striped sections. This is a little bit different from any of the patterns that I've used before, and not exactly traditional, but I love how it turned out. I repeated the pattern somewhat for the fringe, connecting it at the edge with brown, then finishing with a cascade of more Montanta blue sapphire. I really love working with this color in any type of bead, and it never disappoints.

Do you have a favorite figure from mythology? How do they inspire your work?

Mortira

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Bead Color Ideas: Sunscreen Hues

There are so many different ways to find color inspiration in the seasons, and many of the ones we turn to again and again are natural. For summer this might be the colors of the beach, summer fruit, or even a purple-and-gray thunderstorm palette. Then again, traditional and nostalgic color palettes are pretty inspiring as well – like the red, blue, and white of a rocket pop. This summer, I wanted to explore some colors that would bring to mind some of the best things about getting out in the sun, and perhaps the scent of coconuts.

The first palette was so easy to create. Nothing says sunscreen like aquatic blues and yellows. For this Kids’ Sunblock trio I used canary yellow, transparent capri blue, and opaque turquoise blue. It’s fruity and vibrant, and definitely has a beach feel to it. I would love to see this palette in something with lots of exotic, playful fringe.

Next I went in the opposite direction and concocted a trio for lovely coconut scented Suntan Oil. I started with opaque terracotta, though I would have loved to use some transparent rootbeer as well. Next I added smooth orange luster and lustered pearl cream. This palette has so much warmth. I think it would look great in a spiral design, particularly a double spiral rope with lots of chunky accent beads.

Finally, I combined both of these palettes for a final trio inspired by everyday Sport Sunscreen. This time I went with the transparent rootbeer and opaque patriot blue, finishing with a dark Ceylon cream. This palette is more shea butter than coconut, and would be perfect for a geometric cuff or perhaps a colorblocked rope.

What colors and scents make up your favorite summer inspirations?

Mortira

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Mini Collar a Week: Blues and Greens

Last week’s mini collar was a complete success, and a very welcome one as well. A spot of illness totally ruined my timetable, so it was fortunate that this collar turned out just right, and I was already finished stitching it before things got derailed. With a new week beginning, I can use the start of a new collar to help me get back on track.

The design process for this collar was a lot more difficult than it would seem from the simplicity of the piece. I wanted to use an as-yet uncut strand of glass drops, but I also didn’t want to use all of them up in a single necklace. At the same time, I wanted to make sure that their presence in the piece would be worthwhile, so it was important to use them well. It was also important not to repeat the focal design that I’d used for the previous two collars, so it took some time to decide exactly how to balance out the drops. Although there isn’t a lot of complicated pattern work in this collar, it showcases the drops very well, and has just enough color to be interesting. I’m really pleased with how it turned out.

I haven’t begun to work on the new collar design just yet. I did want to work on something without drops for a change of pace, so I’ll have to spend some time with my beads and see what happens. Cleaning up my workspace, which has been accumulating bead packets for a while now should prove inspiring!

Mortira

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Mini Collar a Week: Black Lotus

This week’s mini collar was a bit of a whim. When I opened my tray of daggers and drop beads to plan the next design in the challenge, I was once again a bit overwhelmed by how many choices I have. Although I have months to work through and try them all, deciding each week where to go next isn’t always that easy. Eventually my gaze fell on the last 5 jet black daggers from a strand that I picked up ages ago, and I thought it would be nice to finally finish them off and remove one entire option from the list.

Choosing colors to go with the daggers wasn’t easy either. Whenever possible I want to stick to Egyptian palettes, while also trying out new patterns in the chevron chain. Although I wasn’t sure how well the finishes would mix at first, I finally settled on opaque slate blue and dark cream Ceylon to get a faience and alabaster look. For pattern I went with some simple blocks of color to get a horizontal stripe effect.

For next week’s collar I’m going to try out a recent bead color trio, and then perhaps it’s time to go for some smaller accents like my teal magatamas.

Mortira

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A Collar a Week: Berry Salad

For this week’s mini collar, I couldn’t resist using one of the palette ideas to go with a quartet of pretty glass petal drops in marbled blue that we explored last week. The combination of transparent ruby and gel sol pink just needed a little bit of Montana blue sapphire for backup, and I had everything I needed for a cute collar.

For this piece, I worked out a new palette with angled rows of pink set into the chevron chain. At the center of the piece, between pairs of the petal drops, I reversed the angle of the pink rows to get a symmetrical look. The results look pretty good, and I think that the pattern is worth trying again in a future project. I’d like to see how it would look with more than two colors, though I like the lattice effect that it has here.

I haven’t yet chosen my accents and colors, but I am hoping to get a little more daytime beading in next week so that I can have the next collar completed just as quickly.

Mortira

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Bead Color Ideas: Blue Marble

For this week’s bead color ideas, I wanted to explore some possibilities for a curious quartet of beads from my drops and daggers stash. Some time ago I picked up four blue marble petal drops because they were on sale, and I thought they might make for interesting accents. Inevitably, they’ve been sitting in my stash ever since. Four beads can sometimes be just the right amount for a project, but with drops more are usually required, so I haven’t had any inspirations for these particular beads. Now that I’m on a mission to make lots of mini collars with whatever drops I can get my hands on, I may have finally found a way to use them. I just need to discover the perfect palette.

A two-tone finish like the marbled glass of these petals can sometimes be hard to match. While one set of colors might work really well for half of the finish, the other half might clash. I tried out several different possibilities before finally settling on these three, and the first success was a little Delft blue inspiration with opaque bone white and opaque turquoise. I think the palette would look equally good with opaque white instead, or both the white and bone beads as well as the turquoise in the right proportions. I can see this palette in something spiraled, or perhaps in a patterned broad collar.

Next I tried going a little earthier and combined opaque olive green with transparent dark topaz. The somewhat mossy-looking, plant-inspired palette makes the blue petals look like Dew Drops in the shade. I particularly like how the transparent topaz adds just a little bit of light to the palette, while also looking very mysterious like something from the deep woods. This palette would be great in something with lots of fringe and embellishments, such as a statement cuff or a cascade necklace.

Finally, I really wanted to go with some strong contrasts. I picked up the transparent ruby seed beads right away, but took some time to find a third color for this trio. At last I went with gel sol pink for a Berry Salad palette that looks lively and delicious. This palette would be perfect for a mini collar, but I can also see it in a mulitstrand piece.

Do you like to use two-tone beads in your designs?

Mortira

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Work in Progress: So Tropical

This week I’ve got two necklace projects on the go, plus a necklace tutorial on the back burner that’s coming along slowly but surely. This week’s mini collar features long magatamas and large dagger beads. I’m trying out a new layout for drops, and if it works it might become a new favorite.

The fringe necklace with coconut daggers is still underway. It’s been awhile since I’ve done any scalloped St. Petersburg chain – if forgot how long it takes to add all those individual loops of fringe. I have a feeling that this necklace won’t be finished for quite some time, but it’s nice to have a back-up project to work on between other pieces. I did have the beginnings of a new ugly necklace for that, but it’s been all but forgotten thanks to all of the new inspirations I’ve found in the past few months.

I'm really enjoying the palette for this week's mini collar, although I did end up having to add in a second seed bead color to make the netting work. It's still very early in the challenge, but I'm already having trouble decided how to proceed. Should I comb through my drops stash and just start building palettes around the wants I want to use up, or pick accents and random and see what happens? There are just so many choices it's hard to know where to begin, which is really why I wanted to do this challenge in the first place!

What are you making right now?

Mortira

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Work in Progress: Tropical Coconut

This week I’m finally going to use some of my blue coconut daggers. Probably.

I had a great idea for incorporating them into a scalloped St. Petersburg chain necklace. I’m not entirely certain that the shape of the daggers will work with the stitch, but I won’t know until I’m more than halfway finished with the design. Fingers crossed! Even if it doesn’t work out, I needed to revisit the design again anyway because I’m hoping to create a PDF tutorial for it later this year.

I’m also working on this week’s mini collar. I’ll leave all of the details for Saturday, but it is going really well so far. Although I’m only two projects in, I’m still very happy with how well the challenge turning out. I’ve got so much inspiration for my tray of drops and daggers now that I’m on a mission to use them.

What are you making this week?

Mortira

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Mini Collar a Week Challenge

For many months now I’ve been saying that I have to use up some of my accent beads. Over the last couple of years I have amassed a pretty great collection of beads that I love and love to use, but I recently reached a point where I just didn’t know where to begin. I’ve long since passed the hoarding stage and am ready to see what my beads can do. I just never have an idea that I think is good enough. I’ve been taking beads out, trying them on different palettes, imagining what they can do, but never really getting down to making something with them. I’ve also been busy with tutorial projects and other pursuits, so I haven’t been concentrating on just making jewelry for fun. I decided it was time to do something about it.

I was looking through old photos for something or other when I started reminiscing about some of my favorite creative challenges. Although the Egyptian Gods challenge was by far the most rewarding for me, the early marathons like A Ring a Day and A Bracelet a Week were the ones that taught me the most overall. Like the Destash Challenge, they also helped me to stretch out my limits and use up things in my bead stash. I did try out a new challenge at the start of this year, but it fizzled out. I thought that I would end up going without for the rest of 2016, but a marvelous idea finally emerged.

For the remainder of 2016, or until I’ve used all of my small accent beads at least once, I’m going to make a mini collar every week. I chose mini collars because they stitch up quickly, and I’d really love to have a few more of them for my shop, which I’ve been neglecting lately. Although the chevron chain design that I use for them is pretty simple, there are lots of different ways to add patterns and highlight exciting beads. I can’t wait to start experimenting!

To kick off the challenge I used a couple of old favorites – lime green and cobalt blue Indonesian glass spacers. In order to include these large-hole beads in the design, I ended up increasing the stitches quite a bit to make room for 8/o bumpers. The netting is roomier and the collar is much bigger overall than my usual designs. I’m really happy with results, because it means that I can take more chances with other accents as well. Plus I love the palette with rainbow patriot blue for the netting.

Next I’m going to try out some drops or magatamas, and perhaps a new pattern. Wish me luck!

Mortira

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Bead Color Ideas: Slate and Olive

Blue and green have really been taking over my creative space lately, so for this week’s bead color experiment, I thought it would be fun to make a great blue-green pairing and then test out some of my favorite accents with it. You can never really go wrong with a blue and green palette, though some combinations are more exciting than others. For this set of color trios, I went with opaque slate blue and opaque olive seed beads. They’re like an earthier version of lime and turquoise, and pair together really well.

Of course my first instinct was to go with more primary colors to finish the palettes, but they would have to be equally earthy or subdued. My first choice was chunky pale yellow mother of pearl chips, which I’m still trying to find a great project for. I really like these beads, so of course that means that I’m reluctant to use them for just anything. This Olive Crème palette is nice, but I think that the yellow does more for the blue and green than the seed beads do for the chips. The palette would work well in a fringed project, with the blue scaled way back and green/yellow taking center stage.

Red horn rounds were up next, and although I have used these beads a bit, I like them too much to see the last of them go until the perfect palette comes along. The slightly translucent finish and deep color are a perfect match for the seed beads, not to mention a lot more versatile than the chunky shell chips. I think Juniper Berry would be perfect for just about any project, but I’d love to use it in a collar or a patterned rope necklace.

Finally, I just had to see if my elusive strand of polka dot Java beads would work with slate blue and olive. I’ve been holding on to these beads for years now, and I’m way past the hoarding stage. I really, really want to use them but the right project just won’t make itself known. I do like this Summer Buds palette, but I’m still not seeing it in a stitch. The polka dot beads are going back into the stash. Again.

What’s your favorite way to pair blue and green?

Mortira

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Work in Progress: Blue Lime

I’m back down to just one bead tray this week, though I’m sure it’s only temporary. I’ve got a few more tutorials lined up that I want to get started on, but first I have to get caught up on some other design ideas. I had hoped that the new Christmas bead lariat would be finished long before now. It seemed like no matter how long I worked on it, the beadwork just never seemed to get any longer. I think this might be why I haven’t made one in so long. Fifty inches of chevron chain is a pretty big commitment.

I’ve just finished up the fringe on the lariat, and I’ve got my beads out for an exciting surprise project. I’ve built a palette around the cobalt and lime Indonesian glass that I paired up for last week’s bead faves, and I’m really eager to get started. I’m not entirely sure that I’ll be able to make the striped cobalt beads work for this project, but I’m definitely going to try. If all else fails, I can save them for another time.

What are you making this week?

Mortira

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Bead Color Ideas: Blue Mother of Pearl

With summer just around the corner I’m looking forward to light and airy designs, aquatic themes, and lots of gorgeous color. For this week’s bead colors I started with a strand of aqua blue mother of pearl coins that I’ve just barely tapped into. They’re always sitting in my stash, calling out to be used, but I rarely have any ideas for their shape. The best solution, of course, is to find the perfect color palette and wait for inspiration to strike.

I didn’t have any particular colors or themes in mind when I started looking for seed beads to back up these coins. I just pulled out colors that I thought would look good and then matched them up. My first trio features the always ready-to-work transparent medium topaz for a lovely beachy look. I added a dash of flotsam in the form of metallic olivine. I love the moody earthiness of this particular color, which works really well with the nacre patina on many of the coins. The Baked Boardwalk trio would be great in a design with lots of geometric elements - perhaps a cuff bracelet or some brick-stitched fringe earrings.

I’ve really been in the mood for my precious white-heart seed beads lately, so I was quick to grab what’s left of my cobalt stash. The glow of white hearts plays really nicely with the shimmery shells. To complete this palette I ended up with some buttercream Ceylon with its barely perceptible hints of pale yellow and an equally pretty shimmer. Though Vanilla Milkshake doesn’t pop quite as much as the first palette, it still has plenty of potential. I’d love to use in in an ombré-style design with the shells spanning between the seed bead colors. An asymmetrical mulistrand necklace would be perfect.

Finally, I couldn’t resist some transparent cherry red to get a coral and turquoise effect. This color combination always makes me happy and eager to get creating. It’s equally great for aquatic, Western, and ancient Egyptian themes. I added a backdrop of jet black 8/o's to really make both colors shine. The Fire Urchin palette would be lovely in something fringed, as well as netting. It would be so much fun to make a scarf lariat in this palette.

What colors do you like to use in summer designs?

Mortira

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Wardrobe Inspiration: Seaside Picnic

Our last Pantone-inspired color trio of the season includes a classic combination of turquoise and coral, plus a little of the blue half of this year’s signature colors. As with the Pantone bead picks, I didn’t find any trios that I liked for Rose Quartz, so the final palette includes Serenity, plus Limpet Shell and Fiesta. Pale blue and intense red are always a great combination for summer, so I was really looking forward to exploring jewelry and garments in these colors.

Seaside Picnic by mortira featuring silver earrings

I started with a very beady cluster necklace in pale, smoky blues that are a pretty close match for Serenity. I wanted to maintain a theme with the other jewelry pieces, with round shapes and lots of chunky elements. I was able to find lovely round earrings in both Fiesta and Limpet Shell, plus a great geometric bangle.

Although I really like this palette, I think I would have preferred it with amber and other warm neutrals in place of either shade of blue. The designs themselves definitely work though, and I was able to find a few tutorials to match. These are my favorites:

My Girlish Whims has a great tutorial for a cluster necklace that would work with almost any of your favorite accent beads. The design has lots of potential for layering and patterns, if you want to go with an ombré look as well.

For a slightly less bead-heavy variation, Panda Hall has a great dangle necklace project using a handful of chunkier accent beads. This would make a great stash buster project.

There are a million and one ways to make medallion earrings. This medallion earring project from Jane Chew and Handmade Jewelry Club uses circular brick stitch to create many lovely layers of color.

There are so many great findings for creating your own cabochon settings. This easy photo bracelet project from by Anna H. on Cut Out and Keep can be adapted with any bezel shape and fillings of your choice.

Happy spring, beaders!

Mortira

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Bead Color Ideas: Blue Coconut Redux

For this week’s bead palette ideas, I wanted to try out some seed bead colors to go with accents that have been languishing in my stash. The first thing that came to mind before I even had a good look through my bead trays was about half a strand of blue coconut daggers. I haven’t used these beads since the start of the Egyptian Gods challenge, and I think it’s time to find a new inspiration for them. As I was snapping photographs of the colors that I chose, I started to get the sense of déjà vu. Sure enough, when I looked back at old color ideas, I discovered that I had already tried out some palettes for blue coconut way back in 2012. I think 3 ½ years is plenty of time on the sidelines. I’m determined to use more of these daggers this year.

The first two palettes that I picked out actually got swapped around when I sat down in my photo spot. I had pulled out yellow and green at first, but ended up replacing the green with black to make Banana Boat. The contrast of blue and yellow is always great for a tropical theme, and these dagger beads really want to be tropical. The addition of jet black makes the combo even more dramatic. I could see this trio in a statement necklace, perhaps with Dutch spiral or some really big beaded beads.

I took the rejected lime green and added bone white for the next palette. The pale neutral is a nice counter to the bright blue and green, giving the entire palette a cool feeling. Once again the shape of the coconut gives the trio a tropical vibe that works really well with a fresh green and sandy white. Shade Palm would make a great palette for something netted – perhaps a freeform bracelet or an elaborate lariat.

For the final palette I wanted to try something really new, and looked for a blue that was a close match for the daggers. Aqua white-hearts were the best for the job, and have the added bonus of looking right at home with the organic coconut shapes. The final color I chose is matte mustard. It’s part neutral and part contrast for the blues, which take on a bit of an underwater look together. Golden Urchin definitely wants to be fringed. I can see this palette as a great pair of earrings or a cascade necklace.

What’s the most hoard-worthy item in your bead stash right now?

Mortira

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Wardrobe Inspiration: Strawberry Soda

Mixing up the Pantone Spring 2016 picks again, I came across another gorgeous trio using Snorkel Blue, Peach Echo, and Iced Coffee. I love the contrast of the blue and pink, and either color would pair off so well with the earthy neutral. Once I had decided on this trio, I couldn’t wait to start looking for jewelry and garments to work with. The colors are fresh and exciting without looking too organic or floral. This is the kind of combination that would be right at home in an ice cream parlor – the perfect place to hang out when spring arrives.

Strawberry Soda by mortira featuring beaded jewelry

I couldn’t resist going with another multistrand necklace for this collage. The cascade of intense blue beads is totally captivating. Rather than contrast it with chunky accessories like in Spring Crunch, I went with very beady earrings and a wrap bracelet. The cut-out sandals and fringed bag join in with the tiny-scale theme as well.

I love how grown-up and vivacious the pink looks in this trio, while the dark blue just sings. So far this is definitely my favorite color combination of the season. The jewelry designs are also very do-able, and I was able to find lots of great projects to recreate this look.

Two multistrand bracelet projects from Beadaholique could easily be adapted to make a gorgeous cascade necklace. The Ahava Bracelet tutorial includes a lovely palette in Snorkel Blue, while the Square Root Bracelet has the cascade look that works so well in our inspiration necklace.

Mini scale maille earrings are the perfect way to recreate our Iced Coffee dangles, and this tutorial by Karen Karon on Jewelry Making Daily is great for beginners. These would look gorgeous in just about any color.

The Peach Echo teardrop and bugle earrings would be super easy to recreate. For variation, I found a gorgeous tutorial for extra large teardrop earrings with a wirework frame by Rena Klingenberg at Jewelry Making Journal.

There are oodles of tutorials out there for making leather wrap bracelets with crystal cup chain instead of individual beads. I like the Leather Wrapped Cup Chain video by The Potomac Bead Company. To get the same look with another take on the traditional method, try the Sonoran Sunset Bracelet project from Artbeads.com.

What’s your favorite combination for salmon pink?

Mortira

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Bead Color Ideas: Pantone Spring 2016

In previous years I’ve always been quick to snatch up new color inspirations via the Pantone Color Institute’s spring and fall picks. This year I’ve sort of dragged my feet, mostly because I find the Colors of the Year totally uninspiring. For the first time ever, there are not one but two annual highlight colors. This should have been pretty exiting except that the colors Pantone chose are Rose Quartz and Serenity – basically baby pink and baby blue.

I know that I was quick to reject Rose Quartz and Serenity partly because I’m so very opposed to gendering colors and toys, and these two colors are a pretty strong reminder of a tired custom. But it wasn’t just the baby-ness of the colors that makes them fall flat for me. Although either shade would look fine in an adult garment or piece of jewelry, they’re not exactly exciting. The pink hue in particular, Rose Quartz, looks sun bleached, especially when held up against most of the other colors in this year’s fashion palette. Serenity has a hint of steely gray with lots of potential, but next to an equally soft pink it’s hard not to see outdated onesies. With these two colors leading the pack, I just wasn't eager to explore the new picks.

When I finally got a chance to really browse through the eight other colors in the Spring 2016 color line-up, of course I found plenty of inspirations. Nothing gets ideas flowing like playing with color. Once I tossed out Rose Quartz there were lots of possibilities for trio palettes to experiment with. I wanted to avoid making obvious choices like combining the very crayon-like Fiesta, Buttercup, Green Flash, and Snorkel Blue, as well as find a way to use Serenity that would bring out its moodier, less baby-blue undertones.

I started with my favorite color in the mix, Snorkel Blue. I’m always keen on shades similar to cobalt, so I wanted to begin where I saw the most potential for inspiration. It took some time to finally decide on a palette for this color. I felt that Fiesta red would be too obvious and Buttercup yellow too easy. I finally matched my blue up with Green Flash, then tried on a few different colors until settling on Limpet Shell, which completes the trio perfectly. For beads I chose transparent cobalt and transparent lime, with some aqua blue Czech teardrops. I love the light in this palette, which would be so great in a lightweight collar or some super long duster earrings.

Spring Lagoon

For the next trio I started with Buttercup. I knew that Fiesta would have to go with it, as it’s much too orange and would look garish next to most of the remaining colors. The final addition was Serenity, which looks much more blue next to these bright hues. Likewise, the softness of the blue seems to have a cooling effect on the red and yellow as well. For the beads, I picked some lustered lemon seed beads and lovely translucent red Java glass rondelles. The closest thing in my stash to Serenity blue was a pair of Picasso coins in a pastel aqua. I’d definitely want to use this trio with bead embroidery with lots of overlapping circles and whorls.

You Can't Take the Sky From Me

The three remaining colors make up a lovely pastel palette with Peach Echo, Lilac Gray, and this year’s neutral, Iced Coffee. I love this trio for spring, especially with the watermelon-esque Peach Echo. This is a hardworking pink that look's like it would be at home just about anywhere. For beads I started with my closest pink match – gel sol rainbow rose seed beads. Lavender-lined 6/o seed beads stand in pretty well for Lilac Gray and are a good match in finish. I finished this trio with some voluta shell heishi which look gorgeous next to these two candy hues. Although I’d love to use this palette in a multistrand piece, I think the voluta spacers would look much better as accents for a cuff or a fringed lariat.

Iced Peaches

Now that I've given the Spring 2016 colors a chance, they're providing all kinds of inspirations. The round up is much better off without Rose Quartz, although I wouldn't mind seeing that one with some chocolate and mint, or perhaps midnight black.

Which Spring 2016 color is your favorite?

Mortira

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