Inspiration of Colour

Where does your beading inspiration come from?
Whenever I read any artist's profile many of them site nature as where they get a lot of their inspiration.

For me a lot of my colour ideas come from what I feel is pleasing the eye, looking through all the beading mags, and websites of gorgeous designs. It amazes me how different designs make colour combinations look either great or not so great.  I also love watching what colour choices my customers tend towards when learning to stitch a project. I definitely learn from them as they all choose things I would never have dreamed of using together.

Interestingly someone who blows me away with how she chooses colour is my 8yr old daughter Peita. She is quite a big fan of most things arty and has always sorted and stacked felt pens, blocks, erasers, you name it - and of course my beads. When I first decided to teach her bead stringing a few years ago she actually spent nearly an hour sorting piles of beads into colours, shapes and sizes. I'm not sure how much beading she actually did.

The above is the first time I took a photo of Peita's colour combinations. This was done with Beado's (you know create design and spray with water so they stick together). She created a whole pattern on the template with all of these colours and it looked awesome. This was when she was 6 or 7.

Sorry about photo quality as taken on phone due to broken camera. Here is my beautiful Peita. After making her own necklace with pony beads she decided to sort them all into colour combos.

Some great colour combinations here. Might have to zoom in on this for some inspiration.

And of course Alana (6.5yrs) is a big fan of pink and yellow a the moment but decided to add a bit of purple in that day.

Happy Beading in your world. Would love to hear about what inspires you with colour.

Diana x

Time away from Reality

It is not often that we, as a family get to go away on holiday. Being self employed in the way that we are, has it's drawbacks.(As well as some good stuff too) If we don't work, we don't get paid - end of story. We usually take our week away camping up to Martins Bay about 1hr north of Auckland. Great family beach and campground and we really love our time there in January of each year.

However in my husband's business (The House Mechanix) where he does home maintenance (everything from changing light bulbs to refitting your bathroom/kitchen) we have a customer who has a beach place (called a "Bach" (prounced Batch) in NZ) at Opito Bay in the Coromandel on the East Coast of NZ approx 3.5hrs drive from Auckland. On occasion they need some work done at the place, like painting etc. We have once before been lucky enough to stay there for 4 days while Craig did some jobs that took a day and a half. We were offered the place again during the second week of school holidays in April and this time we just said "bugger it - we're going" Craig had a bout a half days painting to do and we got to spend 5 nights there at no charge. Yay!

Packed up the girls for a few days of beautiful weather, kayaking, walks along the beach, sandcastles, body surfing, boogie boarding or just doing nothing. The beach house is directly across the road from the beach and the kitchen and dining table look straight out over the water. Heaven.



The Glorious Beach

  Did I mention that these photos are taken half way through Autumn in New Zealand. How is this for weather. Around 21 degrees C every day. We are so blessed in this country with many outstanding beaches.



Kayaking



My Beautiful Girls



Me & My Girls



Daddy & Sandcastle Competition

Its tradition to build 2 sandcastles close to where the tide is coming in and then sit up the beach and watch the tide take away the castle. Then to see which one lasts the longest. Unfortunately Alana's and mine in the forground was the first to go :)



Boogie Boarding

Our little 8yr old water baby. The waves were only little (that is the sand you can see under the water that is brown) but enough to get some good boarding in.

  

My Girls Again



Everyone Has a Tractor for The Boat!

Was hard case watching all of the tractors lined up on the beach with everyone out fishing.

And just in case you were wondering where the beading is - yes I finally decided to make something using Celini Spiral while we were away. I am making a necklace which isn't quite finished yet. Had been putting off giving it a go as everyone said it was hard. I loved it and it was so easy since I have done so much other Peyote stitch - granted I have done it in all green tones which is easier. Perfect way to relax in the evenings.
Look forward to going again one day :)



And its Green