Creating with Color Palettes

 

Here's a fantastic new-to-me idea, thanks to brandi girl via Tesori Trovati: pulling color palettes from favorite images or objects and creating jewelry (or whatever!) based on them. I love this idea! For two reasons: first, I sometimes flounder in designing jewelry pieces because the idea I start with doesn't go anywhere, and this can help with inspiration; second, I love the idea of using my own photography to design my jewelry. So here's my first set of palettes, drawn from photos I've taken around my home, town, and state. The top palette is from a photo of a prickly pear blossom I took last spring; there are several varieties of prickly pears, with different colors of blossoms, and I love these soft peachy ones.

I took the second photo just last week, on my first hike of the season. I've become quite familiar with the Magdalena Mountains in the past year and hope to explore them extensively this year, from both the western side (where Magdalena is) and the eastern side. In fact, my great ambition of the year (aside from starting internship for my counseling degree) is to hike up one side, go along the crest for a bit, and hike back down the other side. Given how out of shape I let myself get this winter, I have some serious conditioning to do before I should attempt that. The third palette is from a photo I took last summer during Magdalena's Old Timers Parade. This is a sight to see and offers a real slice of small-town life out here in the southwest.

So here's some major inspiration! I hope to be able to get back to jewelry making soon (8 more days of school this quarter) and am looking forward to playing around to see what I come up from these palettes. If you'd like to give it a try, I'd love to see what you create, from these, your own palettes, or someone else's! Oh, and one more thing: my giveaway is still going on (my first! this is fun!) -- go here to read about it and throw your name in the hat!