Those Little Beads Will Fool You

The hardest part, for me, of any project is picking the colors.  Even when I know which colors I want to use, like today, it can still be difficult.

I needed five colors for today's project, one of Julia Pretl's Little Bead Boxes.  I'm making the butterfly one, and I was trying to match the colors of a beaded butterfly that I bought at the bead show, so that I could sit the little butterfly on top.  (and there's another whole story there...the butterfly turned out to be not so "little" in comparison to the box)

So, I pulled about 25 tubes of beads from my stash, and started trying to match colors.  One bead would be just the right color, but the finish would be too matte, or the finish would be right but the color would be a little off.  Like the Flame Red that turned into orange when I started stitching with it.  I finally got settled with all my colors and started my box.  And then, right before my eyes, the beads changed color!

The pink and blue beads that looked this in their tubes....

looked like this in my project.  :(   I couldn't even tell the two colors apart.

So, back to the drawing board again, looking for colors with more contrast.  And of course that meant I had to pull apart my carefully stitched little box beginning and re-do it, but I'm much happier now with the two colors I settled on.

See the difference?  Much more contrast!  Now if only I could somehow shrink that huge butterfly, because the box is a lot tinier than I thought it would be and I don't think the butterfly will fit on top.  Keep watching my blog to see how, or if, I solve that puzzle.  I may just put a flower on top.  Or something else.

But then, that's part of the fun of beading.  Your ideas change as the project goes along, and sometimes what you end up with is very different from what you envisioned when you started.

Cat