It occurs to me that my biggest block as an artist is color.
I love color more than anything else. I have stones in every color, and a craft room full of markers, pencils, pastels, stickers, paper, yarn, ribbon,......
But in my jewelry, I tend toward monochromatic or color choices dictated by inclusions in the stones. These make pleasing pieces, but I feel like there's so much more out there!
Someone asked me recently why I prefer natural stones, as opposed to dyed or man made ones. We were talking about pearls in particular, at that moment. Something Mina uses far more than I do.
My response was not as well thought out as I'd have liked. So I'm thinking about it here.
I actually prefer the undyed stones in particular for several reasons. I use gemstones in the first place because of my continual amazement at the colors that occur in nature. In rocks. Not ephemeral little things that need to attract attention. Just minerals that don't care about the passage of time, survival or procreation. And nature provides. Sure, not as directly as a swarovski crystal (sometimes), but with a complexity and depth no manmade substance can truly capture.
Don't get me wrong, I'm fascinated with the flowers and bugs and birds and animals as well. But they're likely to be the subjects of my art, not the medium. Creating the ephemeral in the permanant is probably the strongest draw to me as an idea. And doing it with the palate provided by the earth? Perfect!
So, it's time for me to start working on color. Marriage of metals, set stones, beaded componants...
Mina's been playing a lot more, especially with what she calls her "kitchen sink" pieces, with subtle color and patterning. So I'll have to bug her, too.
I'll be back on this topic a lot, I think.
-Simbelmynë
Here's a collection of things I found on Artfire while I was daydreaming about color:
