Colors

What are your colors?
This Jewelry Artisans Community Blog Carnival's topic was inspired by two things.
One was the comment of one of our members on an Oldies but Goodies challenge "This challenge has pointed out to me how seldom I use bright colors. That needs to change!".
The other one was that we noticed I had used a lot of blue in 2020 without knowing why.

So this is the topic for today's post:
"How do you choose colors for your jewelry? Do you prefer certain colors, knowingly or unknowingly? Do you like bright or subdued colors?"
The best way to start this was to have a look at my different stashes and to think about in what way I use them - Delicas, seed beads, lampwork, cabochons, and more.

It was interesting. Obviously I am not a very colorful person. Looking down and seeing that I'm dressed in black and grey at the moment, I shouldn't be too surprised about that.
Of course these are only a few examples, but I came to the conclusion that I prefer animals in lampwork beads, subdued colors in cabochons, and only my Delicas and seed beads offer at least a bit of color although I also have a lot of different grey and other neutral tones.
I didn't take a picture, but my other beads - cubes, bugles, daggers, etc. - only confirmed that.
In the last few years I have also not been using my colored wires much except in the yarn baskets (these are just a few of them).

What does that mean? Am I a dull person? I went to my folders with pictures of all of my pieces and found some color after all, but not as much as I had expected to.
A lot of blue, purple, a bit of red here and there, very little yellow, some orange, but all in all my work isn't bursting with color.

So I thought about why that is.

I have a few colorful lampwork beads, but I'm not very good at using them. I have always been drawn to the blue ones which is one of my favorite combinations with silver. So I stopped adding to my lampwork stash except for one or the other animal that I couldn't resist.

I hardly use colored wires anymore after people made some very mean remarks - not to me, but other sellers - about their pieces looking cheap. While I didn't agree, it obviously influenced me more than I even noticed. I'll have to get on that.

My cabochons are usually favorite stones of mine, labradorite, moonstone, jasper ... right, they don't necessarily come in bright colors. Nothing will change here because I'm determined not to buy cabochons on a whim anymore to hide them away with the ones I already have.

Delicas and seed beads, I got colors there. I'm just thinking of my Bollywood bracelets, like this one for example. Oh wait, more blue and purple. What's my problem? ;-)

Ah, but there are others. Take this one, for example.

Seems it's easier for me to use colors with Delicas and seed beads. I think that's why I love Heather's work so much and like to transfer it into beads. Her colors make me happy.

So what's the conclusion?
I like to see colors, but I'm not using them often enough myself.
What do you think, should I change that? Or should I just accept that the colors will come to me if they want to?

If you want to know what the other participants are thinking about colors, check it out here.

My Bijou Life
Jewelry Art by Dawn