A chronicle of the meanderings, false starts (which in retrospect, while sort of embarrassing turned out to be highly instructive), epiphanies, selective apathy (still evolving), wild mood swings, opinions (subject to frequent change), and life lessons of an inveterate dabbler (and her latest dabblings).

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

It's Not Nice to Plagiarize Mother Nature


Tom and I were sitting by Flathead Lake this weekend and I was seized with a fit of creativity and had a relapse of my childhood rock fetish. Most of the mountain lakes, and the rivers around here lie over and are surrounded by the most astounding assortments of tumbled river rock, in wonderful, smooth shapes and vivid colors. Up til recently, most of my jewelry designs have been largely monochromatic and tone-on-tone, or at least in the same color family. I LOVE that look. I haven't really been enticed into making multicolor pieces. But, once again, Lorelei Eurto (this is getting broken record-y, got to find a new minor deity artistic inspiration) has broadened my horizons. She had this nifty little bracelet on Facebook in pinks and oranges (I'd put a picture here but I think she sold it), and I thought, Eureka, it CAN be done. Of course a lot of her stuff is multicolor, I just wasn't willing to see it yet.

So as I looked at these rocks, I saw color combinations that I wouldn't have considered before. And I thought, this could be a really fun way to explore new palettes for jewelry pieces. I started collecting the best specimens and brought them home and photographed them in different combinations. Granted there's some colors missing (fuschia, lime, any shade of blue, etc.), but there was an amazing assortment of muted tones (a dearth of cool colors, alas). These are some of my favorite combinations:











And lastly my compulsive ode to tone-on-tone.


I feel inspired, although I still have a mental block about cool colors. And pink and purple. I hate pink and purple. I used those pink and purple rocks out of sheer iron will and discipline. Keep loving those fall colors...I should get a house on Mars.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Keirsten
    What beautiful stones...I'm like you 1. I love to collect rocks (and so do my kids now), and 2. I am a "tone on tone" kind of person. I have to practically force myself to be seriously colorful. I sent props your way on my blog...because I sure love what you do! :-)

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  2. Hello
    I love the groupings of colors you made!
    I too need to expand on my color palette; I just love blues and silver. But I'll have to get out of my comfort zone soon.

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  3. Keirsten! lol thanks for mentioning me in your post about colorful jewelry. I think you put together AMAZING color combinations and just seeing different sets of rocks has inspired me. Damn, why can't I stay home from work today and BEAD!! Thanks for posting this, I'm bookmarking this for future references.

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  4. I just read your post on my blog. No problem, that's how we all discover new people. There are certainly many talented artisans out there, it's amazing!

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