Friday, January 16, 2015

We're All Ears: January 2015

The inspiration for the first We're All Ears Challenge of the new year is Pantone's Spring Color Report.  I've got to be honest that I'm seriously underwhelmed by the color palette they've put forward.  The muted shades speak more to the bleakness of winter than the glories of spring and new growth to this Minnesota-dwelling designer!  


I'm not really one to design to trends or color reports anyway, so it doesn't really matter to me in the grand scheme of things.  I'm always interested to see what Pantone will choose, but I'm certainly not a slave to their color reports or their Color of the Year.  While these colors aren't super exciting to me, and not my first choice to design with, they aren't all terrible.  I'm always open to a good challenge... so here's what I came up with this month!

When I saw this inspiration the first thing I thought of was a pair of earrings I had just made with a pair of lampwork glass earrings from Mermaid Glass.  Unfortunately, I can't share them with you yet because they are under review for a magazine.  So, I decided the next best thing would be to make another, different pair of earrings using some of the other beads from that set.  I cheated a tiny bit by pulling in some of the "lavender herb" that's in the men's palette but not the women's.


In honor of Marsala as Color of the Year, I decided to make a second pair that focused on that color.  Sort of cheating since I've done this design before, but what the heck.  It means another pair of earrings ready to go to the Unearthed Arts gallery.


Check out what everyone else was inspired to make over on the Earrings Everyday blog HERE.

11 comments:

  1. Love what you came up with!!! I especially like the first pair. The more I poked around in Pinterest and checked out the full color forecast and different charts...the better it got for me. Much like you I do what I like and if it happens to fall in a current color palette well... then.....good.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lovely earrings. Both have the gravitas to be worn to work, but enough movement and playfulness to be worn with blue jeans. Good job.

    I stand with you and the previous commenter, Terri: I make what I love and thankfully it often falls within the current palette.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beautiful earrings! I don't really follow the trends but I go with my gut for choosing colors.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lovely designs. And I don't think it's cheating to use a color from the men's palette at all. It's common knowledge anything in the men's department is fair game for women's fashion. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think it's great that you went for it. Why should the men have all the fun with a great colour like lavender herb. These are both great and would fit both a casual and business occasion.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am kind of 'meh' with this year's color palette, but I do love your deeper toned masala earrings. Great with the copper!

    ReplyDelete
  7. 2 pairs of gorgeous earrings, those lampwork beads are stunning and I love the hoops that they hang from. The colour of the beads on the second pair go really well with the copper and the bead caps are really cute! xx

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lovely earrings, lampwork my fav, with all that swirly movement. You didnt cheat you created lovely pieces.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love Mermaid Glass! What wonderful beads to be inspired by! Fab!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Love both pairs of earrings! Such beautiful beads! their colors are perfect for the challenge!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I hope you hear soon about your magazine submissions. Very cool! I like the lavender in the men's palette as well, and I was actually surprised that there was no purply color in the women's palette! Thanks for joining in the We're All Ears challenge for January. Check back on February 6th for the next inspiration! Enjoy the day. Erin

    ReplyDelete