The Bold and the Beautiful: Tetrads

Lisa Kan’s Marrakech earrings have been flagged in my Sept. 2009 Bead & Button magazine ever since it hit my mailbox. I decided it was finally time to stitch them up in a tetrad color scheme, one based on a slim rectangle.

I selected two colors side-by-side on the color wheel, chartreuse and yellow-green, in muted tones, along with their complements, red-violet and purple. Lisa’s pattern was such fun to stitch, as the three-dimensional triangles magically formed and combined into the lower basket of the earring. Overall, a very soft and romantic, beautiful color palette.

In the second tetrad, I used the same chartreuse and red-violet. But this time, for Diane Fitzgerald’s triangles, I used these two colors in nearly pure hues, combined in a bolder square tetrad palette (all four colors spaced evenly around the color wheel) with blue and red-orange. Much more vibrant and playful.

Now that I’ve finished Margie Deeb’s Color Theory class on craftedu.com, it’s time to learn about seed bead colors and finishes. See how the blue delicas pop against the edges in the single-layer earring at the bottom of the photo? When the second layer is added and they’re zipped up with another row of red-violet in the finished earring, they recede significantly. Time to learn how to choose both color and finish to get the effect I want. Luckily, there’s a class for that!

Dreamy Orange

This wrap bracelet, in her favorite color, is going out to granddaughter Delaney, who celebrates her twelfth birthday this week. It reminds me of the orangeade, made fresh every day, that magically recirculated in the beverage machines at the Woolworth’s lunch counter when I was 12. My sister and cousins and I spent many a summer afternoon on those red leather stools gazing dreamily into the mirror behind the counter, planning our futures.


Psychologists tell us that orange is the favorite color of the lively, the curious and fearless, the planet’s big dreamers! Happy birthday, Delaney. Here’s hoping all those dreams come true!

Off to Idaho

Pink and gray. I rarely wear this color combination, but since I packed an open knit gray vest and pink tee for my upcoming trip west, a new accessory was needed. My outfit called for a cuff, and the current issue of Bead & Button featured a quick and easy solution - Donna Pagano Denny’s RAW Beauty bangle on page 30.

I chose a nickel seed bead base, with a soft and subtle crystal combination of black pearl, crystal, light peach, and light Colorado topaz. Pleased with the look of the first embellished strip, (Donna offers the option of ending the bracelet there), I’m glad I continued on with the pattern, because I love the structural look and feel that the addition of a second layer brings to this design. And the double-loop closure is a wonderfully clever finishing touch!

I will return to this pattern again. Although stunning with crystals running down its spine, I can see lots of design potential using gemstones, cubes, drops. But not right now. Last-minute accessory finished. Suitcase packed. Off to Idaho!