The Bead Stylist: Elle Magazine Fashion Trend Highlights ….

I just received my July 2010 issue of Elle magazine and Rihanna is on the cover modeling a Lanvin animal print trench coat (only $3990) – loving the trench even though it’s a tad out of my price range; but this is just one of the several animal print fashions she’s modeling in this issue.

So that’s one trend that’s still dominant probably for a few more seasons to come; here’s a link Accessory Trends: Leopard.

Of course beads are ALWAYS in fashion and bead embellishing is still in focus for the season - in all their variations.

A pair of black suede bell-bottom pants by fashion designer Emilio Pucci are embellished with beads, crystal rhinestones and feathers that are simply stunning – wish I had a picture to share (on page 43 in the July issue of Elle).

The additional photo’s above are a fringe beaded belt $1,410 and Swarovski Crystal embellished suede boot $1,295.

And the macrame dress, well this isn’t the ‘70 macrame people typically think of when the word is mentioned. Designers seem to be using macrame more and more in creating their designs; it’s only a matter of time before beads are added!

So why even bother highlighting such out-of-reach-priced fashions and accessories?

It’s always interesting to see how creative people gain inspiration from current fashion trends creating their own fashions and accessories while staying true to their artistic values – I’m envisioning a pair of hand-embellished suede boots that are ‘crazy’ and one-of-a-kind (OOAK) – can’t wait!

The Bead Stylist: Summer Time Beading Classes Starting Soon

Although I’m very excited and nervous about teaching these classes especially since I have absolutely no experience, so I put the word out to the experts bead artists that I follow on Facebook hoping for some direction on offering bead weaving classes to teenagers and was a bit surprised not to get any feedback or comments at all.

This made me really wonder what in the world am I getting myself into!

I did explain to the girls that teaching about beads and bead weaving is all new to me and that we’d be learning from each other and they seem ok with that.

Thank goodness they are a talented and exceptionally smart teenagers!

True to my nature in that I try not to let obstacles totally defeat me I decided that it would be a good idea to blog about the experience – who knows someone else may ask a question similar to mine and hopefully this will give them some frame of reference.

I may not be very experienced at teaching this stuff but my research skills and avid desire to learn as much about the beading world as possible I feel gives me a certain edge; for instance, one of the websites I will be using as a primer was one I happened on several years ago when I was looking around for an online tutorial to learn basic stitches.  Beads East was the only one that I could find out of all the tons of beading information on the internet that offered free animated lessons.

So I will stick with what worked then and is even better now because their website has improved and the tutorials are still free!

And too, recalling what my main challenges were starting out I figure that the first class or two will focus on how the variation in beads and bead types and bead color basics.

Understanding how to read patterns, especially if we are going to focus on bead weaving, is an extremely important skill to learn right from the start.

So I’m hoping to accomplish the following in the first two classes but in a very hands on way:

Introduce:

• bead size, type, color
• bead differences by making simple beaded projects like a peyote stitch ruler (I still have the one I made)
• reading a basic bead pattern

My main online source of reference for learning the bead weaving stitches will be Beads East.

I’m still open for suggestions and comments, but at least I feel like I’m off to a good start! Here’s a picture of two of the girls that will be attending

The Bead Stylist: ColorSuckr Online Color Wheel

I discovered this tool which works like a color wheel, but for me it’s much easier, yet for others it may well be a nice compliment to the color wheel.

One of the most time consuming creative aspects of any bead art jewelry designing  is selecting complimentary colors.

And admittedly knowing the ‘technical’ bead colors can also be a challenge when first starting out.

I laugh now, but looking back when I first started out with beads and knowing absolutely nothin’ at the time and before my wonderful customers started educating me, I purchased the largest box of crayons available and if a bead color was close to the crayon color, well I would name the bead had a new name.

From a1 Bead Art Jewelry Supplies Bead Mix Collections I selected a Delica Bead Mix in Caribbean Blue which is a pretty basic extraction, but it will extract the most complex color combinations too.

 

 

It’s really quite simple you just need the url of the photo you would like to extract colors from.

Bead mixes are terrific to work with and one great thing I realized is that when you click on the link to show the color schemes (shown in above picture) you can actually use the schemes to create your own bead mixes.

The ColorSuckr tool will direct you to various websites that will let you use urls of their photo’s but remember you can use any photo url. You can easily create a url of an item by scanning or taking a photo and uploading it to Flickr or Picasa.

If you know of any other tool like this that you would like to share please leave a comment.

2010 Spring Summer Colors from Pantone

I’ve been ignoring my blog posts for way to long and realized that the 2010 Fall / Winter colors are already out and I haven’t even posted Spring / Summer 2010. 

Trending fashion colors are so important in designing your bead art jewelry designs; especially if you want to go a bit more commercial.  Typically, the colors forecast by Pantone are the most prominent for the fashion Season – like where haven’t we seen Turquoise?

But it’s a really good idea to check the Pantone website often as they often have a color of the day or color of the month or some other color pallets which I’m sure will inspire you creatively!

 

Turquoise 15-5519
Fusion Coral 15-1543
Eucalyptus 15-0513	Dried Herb 17-0627
Violet 16-3320
Pink Champagne 12-1107
Tuscany 16-1219
Aurora 12-0652
Tomato Puree 18-1661