My rut was more like a canyon

After I got my bead box (mostly) organized and tidy, I realized how narrow my colour choices were. Sure, I had a few brighter beads in there, but most were more aptly described as “neutral”.

It wasn’t always that way though.

For a while I was drawn to yellow beads. But, each time I bought one, it wouldn’t match the others in my collection. I wouldn’t have thought that there would be so many shades of yellow! After the fifth or sixth unmatched bead, I finally gave up and rehomed all but two. I still didn’t learn my lesson though. I waited months to see a yellow/green striped unique in person so that I could gauge the true colours. Unable to find one, I finally broke down and bought one online, but once again the colours were off. It didn’t match the two yellows I kept. It didn’t match any of my greens. So off it went to a new home too.

My best success in colours has been reds and greens, both a relatively new addition to my palette. Although my reds don’t all match when you look at them closely, the tones blend well. Olive greens were among my first glass beads, but I’ve started adding lighter and brighter greens in the last year. The first was my event bead, followed by the Green Shade, Green Armadillo, and green spiro unique. Again, they don’t all match, but I always like the end result. I’ve seen a few other bright greens that I think would fit into my collection, but they’ve never come up at the right time. And there are still many shades of green that I see, but don’t buy, because I’m unsure if I would have a hard time matching them.

Then there’s the almost complete lack of certain colours in my bead box. Oranges. Pinks. Purples. Any shade of blue other than the pale blues in my winter bracelet and my navy beads. And they are so far apart on the blue scale that it’s hard to think of them as the same colour.

Sometimes I wish I found it easier to buy brighter colours. But, I buy most of my beads online and it’s hard to colour-match beads as closely as I want when buying based on a picture. So, over time I learned that I’d have fewer “oops” moments sticking to the more limited palette that neutrals offer.

And it was making my bead box a little dull.

So, lately I’ve been trying to add a few more colourful beads. More reds. The Coral Bubbles. I’m still treading lightly though. When a more colourful bead catches my eye, I usually hold back until I can see pictures of it with other beads. For production beads, if I can’t find one at my local dealer, I wait until one comes up preloved so that I can see the exact bead that I’m getting. For uniques, I often miss out entirely. I’ve learned to accept the loss of some beads that I want, knowing that there’s always others that will come along that I will want too.

Is your bead collection a rainbow of colours? Or do you mostly stick with the basics? 

2 Comments

  1. I know what you mean about yellow beads, I went nuts on yellow critters in a “I don’t have any yellow beads” fit… it made sense for all of about 10 mins!

    I have lots of blues, greens and purples naturally – it’s only has I stocked up on those colours that I actually made a concerted effort to branch out to other colours. Now I’m much more multi-coloured in my box – I was organising them all yesterday as I’d let everything get a little messy! Only now I’m spread out over 2 storage options so it’s harder to keep track #1stworldproblems

    Mars xx

    p.s. I have loads of mismatched colours, I probably need to take a leaf out of your book on this one!

    1. Yellow is such a gorgeous colour, I really wish I could have gotten them to work! I still find myself wanting to pick up yellow beads when I see them, but I usually manage to slap my hand down again. :D

      I’m a bit surprised that I don’t have more blue tones, to be honest. I have quite a few paler blues, but only one bead in the mid-range. And Trollbeads certainly makes them. I guess I just don’t find as much of a need for them in the themes I’ve done so far. I do have issues whenever I want to put together a Fourth of July bracelet though. Maybe that should be one of my next acquisitions.

      My box really needs another reorganize. When I have combinations made up I have just enough room to move beads around, but it’s a bit tight when I take a combination apart. And I’ve lost the one row I had for partially made combinations. I’d like to still keep it within one box, so I need to figure out how to do that! I think I could do something to regain some of the space around my bracelets, I just need to find the configuration. And maybe finally get the shorter rods I meant to get originally.

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