Beadlust

New Ideas For
Working With Color!!!

I'm so excited about this, I can hardly stand it! I've just gotten permission to share a secret with you... and it's HUGE!

In 2004, Watson-Guptil publised a fabulously original book about color theory for beaders by Margie Deeb. It has been so popular that they've asked her to write more on the subject. After writing a book rated one of the top 20 beading books on the market (by Beads 2006), and being a substantial book (144 pages), one might think this was a somewhat daunting request. But not for Margie, who has seemingly unlimited ideas about how to get us jump-started with our colors.

Important: Margie's books about color are as much for non-beaders as they are for beaders. Read on and you will see what I mean.

Although Margie's new book doesn't have a firm release date yet, she's given me permission to show you some pictures from the book. For the next several posts, I will be giving you an EXCLUSIVE preview!

For the past 4 months I've been challenged to make beaded objects based on various color schemes which will be included in the new book. So far, I've made 10 pieces for it. Fun! Exciting! New! And very difficult to keep under my hat. I'll get to my work in the next few posts, but today I'm featuring work by Thom Atkins, my brother. Because of an injury, Thom gave up creating bronze sculptures some years ago, and got serious about quilting and beading... What fun it is to share my beady passion with a bro!

Margie gave Thom and interesting challenge. "Create something, perhaps a small beaded quilt or tapestry, based on the color palette in Blue Fillies, a painting by Marc Franz," she requested. Here's the painting, and above you can see the color palette she extracted from the painting.

And here is what Thom made! Notice how he kept the proportions and hues of color approximately the same as in the painting, yet the subject is entirely different. Whereas the painting is an example of expressionism, Thom's landscape is more realistic.

Here are some details from Thom's work. He uses beads to quilt, to add texture, and to add dimension. Congratulations, Thom! Well done!

Don't miss it... There will be more palettes and more beadwork in the next few posts!