I'm stuck in a color rut. Again. I've got every color, size and shape of beads....and im stuck. Everything ive been making is blue......

What's your favorite combos?

I think that happens to all of us - I have an entire top shelf of one showcase FULL of just BLUE jewelry pieces. I evidently had a blue period, too.   (Not a hot seller at the moment, either, so what to do??...)
My favorite color combo right now seems to be oranges darkening to deep red, combined with peridot with some deep purple thrown in.  Fiery.  Somewhat fall-ish.  Peach is another color I find myself using alot - but oddly, not my favorite color to wear.  The most popular selling color - GREENS.  (Local university colors are GREEN and WHITE).  And of course, my favorite color in the whole world - PURPLE. 
The color I tend to use in design the LEAST - Black.  I wear a lot of black, so I need color to punch it up.
Thanks for the great question - I hope it gives us all a creative kick in the pants!

Looking at my bead stash, I have the most in blues, next is brown tones, followed by black.  I'm falling in love with the reds like Carnelian and Jaspers, but I do not have one piece of red clothing.  When I tried to go orange (which I heard last year it was the hot color) no one wanted it.  And eventhough my birthstone is an amethyst, I do not like purple, and I tend to stay away from pinks.

I don't really do color combos as I tend to stick with one color or one stone and add neutrals.

Alice

Selecting new color combos is part of the fun. For a long time I disliked the yellows and topaz stones. Then I found a great bead mix with topaz, cream colored pearls, carnelian and and olive green cats-eye. It really worked!  Throw in a little black and brown and you've got a nice combo.

Sometimes I just go with varying light and dark shades of the same color and mix it with some neutrals (crystal or black) and add some metal beads that will match the clasp.

Mixing or monochrome  - either way is fun. Here is another suggestion  - throw a bunch of different color beads into a white bowl and see which colors really pop out at you. Pull out the colors that clash and see what remains. Sometimes you will discover a combination just by using this visualization technique. Try it out!

Color, color everywhere! I love color. It is what inspires me to make anything. I take the most unlikely combos and put them together just to see if I like them. Sometimes I make a small section of a piece and ponder the colors for a few days to see if they go. When I'm in a color rut I look at interior design books to see what colors are used together. Also, nature books are great for inspiration or just go outside for a walk and really observe the colors in nature. Look closely at the flowers, trees, birds, etc. and pick out two of the bolder colors and throw in a third to tone things down. But the key is to look; look at fashion, the colors people paint their houses, paintings, anything and everything.

I, too, have been taking some cues from nature. The flowers and trees are bloom right now and just standing and looking at the combinations are great.  Most recently I have been looking at the sunset.  The colors are marvelous, and I don't have to do any thinking about whether it works or not.  It just does!  Also look at paintings in the same way we are told to create a room color scheme from a favorite peice of art, mixes can be created, and  the artist has already done the work.

I have a pendant that Ive tried to make into a necklace several times and nothing seems to work. It is a ceramic pendant with a bright yellow background, with hints of indigo blue and royal purple. Ive tried glass and stones, no combination of the above colors seems to work.

Any ideas?

I wonder if a combination of beads and chain - with only a few beads isolated by short to medium lengths of chain between. I imagine the focal bead set off with chain on either side, and complimentary beads spaced out around the diameter of the total chain. With those colors, I wonder if a warm chain color, either dark bronze, copper or gold would be better.  I can imagine this with the dark bronze chain and findings. With the chain spacing, beads could be near matches without being identical colors or could be complimentary colors - not matching at all.  Hope this gives you some ideas.

How about a neutral rubber, leather or other type cord?

BeadStyle and Bead&Button collaborated on a special issue called Beading Basics: Color. It's a pretty cool issue — it addresses how to find color inspiration from the color wheel, nature, and art. When I'm stumped for color ideas, I usually flip through that. Also, in the July issue of BeadStyle we included a beader's color wheel that turned out really nice. That issue hits newsstands June 3.

 I used to feel bewildered when people would say "I get my inspiration from nature." Well, ok, I find nature beautiful too, but HOW do you translate that into beads? Until a wise lady told me ... find which shades of brown nature puts with which shade of green leaf, what shade of pinks and creams are in a rose with which darker shades and what shade of green leaf etc. Oooh, now I get it! The toning and shading are now fascinating to try and translate into beading. I also find the interactive colour wheels on the web are a source of inspiration that will break my comfort colour combos. I am now into the pastels, and pink and greens. At the moment, that is ...

My favorite color combo is turquoise or teal and olive green. I definitely favor these colors (beads or clothes) and are drawn to them.

You can get some great color combos by looking at color charts, paint color samples at the paint store, or even eyeshadow combos.

I see the world in gemstones. Every color I see, I can match to a gemstone. I look at the blue sky and its either light blue and clear like blue topaz, or maybe a little cloudy like a blue chalcedony, or it could be a night sky like the color of sodalite or sapphires.

Don't even get me started on the Ocean

right now i'm loving black and red. i'm just gonna make a list-

black/red

pink/green

different finishes of white/clear

different shades/finishes of browns

pink/green/purple

there's more, but those are some of my faves :)

Turquoise / teal / aqua and .... coral, peach, ivory, black, brown, red, silver, white ... tropical or Southwest

Teal with purple & fuschia (think, peacock colors!)

Blues with greens

Purple spiked with green & yellow

Citrus shades ... yellow, orange, yellow-green, lime

Icy silver-white with cranberry red, think berries in the snow 

Margie Deeb's book on color for beaders is terrific... I  know Fire Mountain Gems would have it

Here is my latest inspiration.  How about red, brown, and purple?  I would never have thought so until I put a purple vase in my red and brown family room.  Talk about dramatic.  I can't wait to make a piece with these colors.

Laura Z.