A new week, a new project!

This week's project involves TWO books from my little library - "The Beader's Color Palette" by Margie Deeb (Watson-Guptill, 2008) and "Earth From Above" by Yann Arthus-Bertrand (Harry N. Abrams, Publisher).

"The Beader's Color Palette" presents fabulous beaded jewelry, alongside the photographs that inspired the color combinations used in the project. Most of us tend to fall into color "habits", frequently returning to similar color combinations or favorite colors. While it may be comfortable to work in our color "zone", it is more interesting and adventerous to break away and take a different path.

The projects in the book are inspired from a wide variety of things ranging from the intense blue and yellow of a Hyacinth Macaw bird to vacation photos and ancient artifacts. The contributing artists include the wonderful Robin Atkins, whom I had the honor of taking a bead embroidery class from several years ago. Her work is beautiful and she is a terrific teacher - she has written a couple books of her own, I'm sure one of them will be included in my 52 week journey.

The second book I'm using, "Earth From Above" is a photography book full of images taken over a ten year period and include some fantastic images of farms, nature, buildings and natural phenomenon. The colors and patterns are amazing! It will be a challenge to select just one photo out of the 366 in the book.

So, this week, it is a piece of jewelry. I have just a few (ahem...) beads in my stash, it will be fun to choose the colors inspired by my photograph. Here's a picture of the cart I store my beads in - each color drawer contains beads in the coordinating color range - I finally feel like my bead stash is organized - it is SO much easier to find what I need.

I'd be interested to hear what your favorite color combinations are - drop me a note if you want to share.