2016 Spring/Summer Jewelry Trends

So the sun is shining, that means I'm ready for summer! Spring and summer are slow arriving here in Michigan but my heart is already there. I've been scouring through trends for colors and jewelry ideas, always trying to find ways to share some inspiration with my Humblebeads friends! 

I created a Summer Color Trends board on Pinterest, take a look here. 

So let's talk color, texture, and layering. 

Color:

Colors that I'm digging are muted shades influenced by desert succulents like sage and juniper, tropical colors like papaya and pineapple, lots of blue in navy and indigo, and of course dusty pink shades of rose quartz. Mixing in brights with earthy neutrals is once again on trend for the upcoming seasons. Metallic finishes in copper, bronze and rose gold are sprinkled throughout.

Texture: 

Beaded textures with seed beads, whether strung, sewn together or wrapped with wire add these little beauties for the perfect touch of texture. Softer textures like leather, silk tassels and details like embroidery have all caught my attention. Shaped chain is another way to add instant appeal to a jewelry design. 

Layering:

I love the look of layering strands of beads with charms on chain. Multi-strand designs are also calling my name. 

Other things that I'm loving for summer designs: ceramic beads, bronze coins, heishe beads in metal, stone or glass. 

Don't forget to visit my Pinterest board for more inspiration! 

Beads featured in the first photo can be found in my Etsy shop: Humblebeads. 

Beautiful Elements Book-Along Winners

Thank you to everyone who played along for the Beautiful Elements Book-Along! I loved seeing your creations. 

Remember, their is no deadline on creativity so if you create something inspired by the book please share it us in my Humblebeads VIP Party Facebook group! 

Book-Along Winners!

A big congratulations to the grand prize winner Barbara Bellatti! Barbara was randomly choose from all the entries and has won a $100 gift certificate to Humblebeads.com. Barbara was inspired by the steel wire metal sketch technique and created an abstract design for her copper earrings. Reminds me of twigs on a forest floor. 

The second place winner is Melanie Swope. Congrats to Melanie who has won a $50 gift certificate to Humblebeads.com. She was inspired by the wire wreaths in the book and used them as connectors on her necklace, which happens to feature a Humblebeads Sparrow Pendant! 

Next up are a few who played along and I wanted to share their work. 

I featured Kathy Lindemer  on an early post but here we see her completed necklace featuring her acorn headpins, oak leaf pendant and wire wreaths.

My friend Mary Harding had fun creating wire wreaths as part of her chain for this necklace that features a copper leaf from the book and one her amazing copper toggle and one of her ceramic beads.

Mary also had fun putting her spin on the oak leaf connector in the book with a metal texture. OH, Mary, this is speaking my language.

Mary also used one her wire wreaths in this gorgeous wrapped bracelet that was featured on the Art Bead Scene this week. Love it!

Sarajo Wentling, who excels at earring production - whipped up these cuties for another challenge but happened to use a technique in the book to create the dotted texture. 

Have you ordered your copy of Beautiful Elements yet? 

Beautiful Elements Resource List

This week I wanted to share my resources list with the supplies that I used in the book. They were not included in the book out of solidarity for local bead shops, which I totally support and understand. Local bead shops are far and few between so I do encourage you to check out your local store, request specialty items and share your thoughts on what you'd like to see in their shop. 

In fact a bead shop a few hours away had a customer tell her about my beads. The owner reached out to me and tomorrow we are having a big shindig with a trunk show, book signing and classes.

So first and foremost, talk to your local bead shop owner if you have one in the area for items you'd like to see them carry.

So with that said, shop local first and then if that isn't an option this is my resource list that I created for the book. 

Beautiful Elements Resourses:

Ace Hardware: acehardware.com - copper and steel wire

Design Talented One: etsy.com/shop/designtaletedone - hand-dyed silk ribbon

Fusion Beads: fusionbeads.com - Czech glass, Vintaj patina, alcohol inks, findings, general beading supplies

Green Girl Studios: greengirlstudios.com - pewter art beads

Hobby Lobby: hobbylobby.com - Vintaj suplies, findings, copper sheet

Klynn Jewelry Designs: etsy.com/shop/KlynnJewelryDesigns - copper blanks

Lima Beads - limabeads.com - Czech glass, Vintaj patina, alcohol inks, findings, general beading supplies

Metalliferous: metalliferous.com - copper textued sheets

Michaels Craft Stores: michaels.com - polymer clay, general craft supplies, findings and beads

Monster Slayer: monsterslayer.com - silver wire, beads, metal tools

Munro Crafts: munrocrafts.com - chain and findings, polymer clay

Natural Touch Beads: naturaltouchbeads.com - resin beads

Nunn Design: nunndesign.com - branch toggles 

Out on a Whim Beads: whimbeads.com - peanut seed beads, seed beads           

                   

Rings & Things: rings-things.com - metal, tools, beads, findings

The Bead Obsession: stores.ebay.com/thebeadobsession - Czech glass beads

Vintaj: vintaj.com - Patina, inks, findings, metal blanks 

Wanan Beads: etsy.com/shop/WananBeads - nut and wood beads

White Clover Kiln: whitecloverkiln.com - ceramic beads, waxed linen

Yadana Beads: etsy.com/shop/yadanabeads - chain, findings

We are half way through my book-along - have you created a project from the book? Be sure to share with us in my Facebook group! 

Here are the Beautiful Elements Book-Along details. 

Beautiful Elements Reader Showcase

Hello! I wanted to feature a few designers who have jumped in and created projects inspired by techniques in Beautiful Elements. If you haven't heard, I am having a fun Book-Along to celebrate my new book. You can read all about it here. So let's see what folks have whipped up!

First up is Sarah Raines, Sarah created these pieces for the Art Bead Scene challenge last month. She created the wire wreath, copper leaf and berry headpins from the book and she did a fab job!

And she created earrings to match. Sarah blogged about her creations here.

Next up is are two projects from Kathy Lindemer, her blog is Bay Moon Design and she even blogged about her experience. Check it out here. Kathy jumped into the chapter that features acorn headpins and oak leaf copper components. 

Each chapter in the book starts out with basic techniques, this chapter I first cover how to make the acorn headpins and the basic oak leaf. I then take you through several projects featuring those elements. The leaf is used a pendant, bracelet cuff and toggle clasps.

Lorelei Eurto did a nice book review and created this bracelet inspired by the silk wrapped beads in the book. She did her beads with batik fabric - looks awesome and put them together in a bracelet of her own design. Read Lorelei's book review here.

The introduction in the book starts:

"This book represents the unlimited potential of raw materials. The most important raw material you possess is creativity. Limited only by what you can dream up with metal, wire, and clay, there are a million directions to travel in jewelry making. When exploring these basic materials, you'll never get bored or run out of ideas. One project gives birth to a new variation, one idea sparks another, and on it goes."

That was the essence of the projects I created for the book. I wanted to show how to create two or three elements and repeat them in various ways to create a collection of jewelry. I hoped to show you how to take a motif and translate it over and over in new ways and that the projects in the book are just a starting point. I know once you learn the basics and feel confident in the technique you'll add these elemements to your box of tricks and pull them out to create designs that are new and unique to you!

I'm looking forward to seeing what you create!