Tell me if this sounds familiar: The other day, I was browsing for beads when I was struck by these big, aqua-colored shell disks. I have a soft spot for all things that come from the sea, and the vibrant color of these disks sealed the deal. At home, I laid the strand across my beading table, turned on all the lights, and thought...and thought…and thought. I had no idea what to do with the disks, so I started snooping for inspiration.

While glancing through some previous BeadStyle blogs, I found a post about a very helpful (and free!) color brochure available at hobbylobby.com (click on Projects and scroll down to the PDF at the bottom). The brochure shows a color wheel and explains how to combine colors for achromatic, complementary, triadic, monochromatic, and analogous jewelry. Each of these color combinations is pleasing to the eye in its own way, as demonstrated by the corresponding pieces of jewelry pictured around the color wheel.

I also stumbled across Margie Deeb’s online color column, Margie’s Muse, featured in the October 2007 issue of Bead&Button. Every month, Margie posts about a particular color, color combination, or color-related issue (this month’s post is about the use of color in ancient Egyptian art).

Since the color of my shell disks is so striking, thinking about pleasing color combinations has already given me some ideas about what to do with those beads.