A trip to the Emerald City (and some mention of Pantone)

 

I suppose you've noticed by now, (unless you haven't), that the Spring color for Pantone this year is Emerald. 

I like this color. It has a real richness and depth to it (plus, it reminds me of the Wizard of Oz!) and I think it really represents the Spring and Summer seasons really well. 

The Emerald that Pantone uses really carries this blue undertone which gives it better legs in my opinion, (meaning I think it can go farther in your jewelry and wardrobe than just a straight green). 

I wanted to do a little study with this color and see what kinds of combinations were possible when you started playing with emerald on the color wheel. What kinds of colors blend well with emerald and complement it without outshining the color altogether?
Also, I think as jewelry artists we often struggle to figure out how to work trends into our jewelry especially when the trends may not be something that appeals to us directly.

I turned to my handy dandy Color Scheme Designer. (This is where I go when I bring home a bead or string of beads or tube of beads and I'm kinda stuck as to where to go with them colorwise.)

I started with the monochromatic color scheme, which basically means you're taking the same color or hue and playing with other elements that are more or less saturated. 

The important part would be here that you're staying with the same basic color.

I found this awesome print by Etsy seller SandraOvono and I think it's an excellent example of a monochromatic color scheme. She's done a great job playing with the depth of the colors, adding a lot of shadow to the center stones while lightening up the edge stones and even including the twinge of blue that the color emerald really showcases.

 The next color palette is the complementary, which means you're going right across the color wheel to find the color which complements emerald. With just green, you always end up with red (hence, Christmas), but with emerald, the tone heads more toward the orange/terracotta family which is a reflection of the slight bits of blue in the color.

Here's what it looks like:

 I found two great examples of this. 

I loved this print by bomobob the color effect is gorgeous on the different ferris wheel carts, and I really like the depth he's captured with the brighter yellow tones juxtaposed against the deep oranges and emeralds.

I also liked this vintage scarf from vintageview1.

This is a deep, deep emerald, I would say almost a navy and it may or may not fit exactly into the 'emerald' category, but I liked the different earthy orange hues that were mixed with it, and I liked being able to see how the colors worked together in this graphic print. 

Finally, and this one is more challenging, I tried the triad. This is a color scheme pulling from three points on the color wheel. Your points will form a triangle, hence the triad. 

This one is definitely more challenging with emerald. 

The orange becomes this dusty pumpkin and mixes with this deep magenta or fuschia. This one would be difficult to recreate and I'm guessing would probably look best with really saturated colors. 

Here's the example: 

I found two sellers on Etsy who I thought had really captured (by accident or on purpose) this color scheme. 

The first is this lovely photo by AmyTylerPhotography.

The stalk is that lovely rich emerald color (do you catch the blue?) growing up into these rays of petals that start with just the subtle twinge of magenta and shoot out into that lovely deep pumpkin color.

The last piece I found was this very organic jeweled bracelet by bellajewelsII. 

I love the gathering of these beautiful faceted rubies, emeralds and sapphires to create the color scheme and the piece ends up being luxe without being over the top. The artist has really downplayed the pumpkin orange, but it's definitely there and really lends a depth to the color scheme that it wouldn't have otherwise.

 

I wanted to do a color challenge with these three palettes, maybe a blog hop or something similar, but I'm so hesitant to commit to anything right now with the baby on the way.

Instead I'm enjoying pursuing creativity without any deadlines and feeling like my hands are creating and working through the ideas in the back of my mind before I settle down and start nesting!

 

That said, I hope these palettes are a bit of a color kick-in-the-butt for you! I hope you enjoy playing around with the combinations that are possible with emerald. Oh, and if you do make something, monochromatic, complementary, or otherwise, send me a photo or post it to my Facebook page!

I'd love to see what you're up to!

 

Thanks for the wonderful responses on my last post by the way, and it was nice hearing from the beaders who said that the information really helped them sort out some details about beadweaving.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!