Patterns for beadwork n stuff

[eagleclan22]

I dont think I have much of a perk for desiging the actual designs on my beadwork and dresses and stuff and matching colors as much as Id like to,...... anyone wanna give me some advice as how to get myself going right?

Thanks

[Suzizila]

Do you have any favorite colors? I tend to stick with my favorite colors.....turquoise, royal blue, red, orange, lt. orange, yellow, white, purple, and the eagle colors......dk. brown, lt. brown, gray.....and so on. There are other colors I have used, but I mainly stick with the ones I have listed. You could also come up with your design and colors first & then pick your colors for your dress. A lot of people choose to create applique designs based on their bead designs and include them in designing their dress.

As for designs, keep a file of any designs that might inspire you in the future. (I've been known to sketch designs I see in rugs, baskets, plates, and other things at friends' houses.....they claim that is the only reason I come to visit them. lol )I have a collection of craft books, quilting books, and iron-on transfer books to get inspiration from. There are a lot of good designs in clip art books too. Just today, I went into a bookstore intending to only buy a book I had ordered and walked out with a book with butterflies and roses & and an applique magazine with many possible designs and tips for doing applique.

Just keep your eyes open and you may find something you can use. Good luck!

[eagleclan22]

Thanks for the info, the colors sound like they would look good together, thats my problem is making my colors work together real nice. Usually I take it the same way too and make my dresses match my beadwork and I put my applique on my dress to match my beadwork, I was using older leggings and mocc's for that dress and Im starting to do my new ones and Im just trying to figure out how Im gonna do it cause I keep starting then Im not satisfied,.... and Im keeping it to flower designs cause Im Ojibway and thats the traditional designs so I guess Ill check out some books and maybe the museum, and get some inspiration. Thanks alot for your comments :D

[bearcub]

Sounds like you are on the right track. Here's a little more advice. Professionals do the graphics in magazines and arrange their designs in eye-pleasing patterns. Sometimes I trace flowers from magazines because I am not that good at drawing them. In tracing and re-drawing them into a simpler pattern that I can bead or applique they become unique and my own style. Sometimes I even get an idea about new colors to use together from billboards. The one thing that has helped me the most is making more things. I make or design things for other people and the more experience I get, the more ideas start flowing. Good Luck.

[nopakuwese]

First I started with the colors that held meaning to me, which also included the colors of the thing i wanted to honor, so i have green, yellow, red, black and white. Now that I'm designing the applique for my shawl and skirt I plan to use the same colors 9maybe add another brighter one to highlight?) .

I try to stick with designs that are traditional to my people, and not copy patterns and designs that originate elsewhere. But I'm always trippin b/c there is a lot of cross-tribal borrowing and the spread of practices, etc. between tribes-

Like the anishinabe woman in another thread who's mad at women from other tribes dancing shawl steps in a jingle dress and not going through the steps to become a dancer.

What are your feelings about sticking with traditional patterns and designs or using contemporary ones, ones you drew just based on aethetics, or ones inspired by another tribe?

[between2worlds]

Choosing colors

Some people have an "eye" for color and uhm.... some people don't it seems.

There are millions of shades of purple, green, blue, etc... how to decide? And which might go with which?

Something designers (be they web graphic, interior or clothing) use is called a color wheel.

You can find an interactive one here: http://visibone.com/colorlab/

It only contains the 216 "websafe" colors but because it is interactive you can play with various combinations of colors and see how they look next to each other.

Click on the wheel and your chosen color will appear on the right. Click another choice and you will see them next to each other. Each chosen color "sample" has a little X in the lower left corner, click the X to get rid of that color if you don't like it.

Combinations of colors - if you go just to the right and left of a chosen color on the wheel your color scheme will blend. Choose a "triangle" of color by going from your color to two others across the wheel in a way that forms a triangle with sides that are the same length (equilateral). Choose complimentary colors by picking colors exactly opposite. Get a neat effect by choosing just a column of colors of the same type (like all the blues in one of the sides of a wedge or all the colors from one of the multi-colored petals of the "flowers" around the edge - the single color petals make great accent colors for the others in the same "flower").

My wife's favorite colors are purple and green which are opposites on the color wheel. Our live-in assistant favors reds, oranges and purples (adjacent colors on the wheel). Myself I tend to stay with burgundy, navy, dark green and dark purple (vaguely triangular since the red I like is more to the purple side of the spectrum). Starting from everyone's favorite colors I can use the color wheel to pick appropriate contrasting colors to add accents/interest.

Mostly I just go "by eye" but the color wheel is another systematic way to look at how to decide on color.

~b2w

[musicedu77]

the color wheel is a good idea to give you reference...heres my advice go with anything that matches your dress but stick to colors and designs that your tribe uses and any designs that have been given to you by family...in designs i always use both and sometimes i just use them seperate...its always good to plan out when you are first starting...like if im doing a piece that requires lazy stitch like leggings i would first draw out the pattern and then label on the baby padding on each particular design what color i would use and then in the back ground part what color i would use according to tribes background colors... dont draw it too big just enough for you to recognize. the beads are going to cover whatever you write down on there so it wont be noticeable..

[musicedu77]

well its perfrectly normal to feel unsatisfied the thing is what you need to do is try out each possible color and mix and match them to see what goes with that piece...its all about experimenting...dont be too down about it..my sister anna had this thing for a while where in the outter design she would use one solid color and the in the inner design another solid color until i told her to experiment with mixing bead sizes and cut beads verses non cut.. and instead of useing 1 solid color see if mixing colors will help like creating smaller inner design with in a larger one and use different colors that would match with the larger design..this sounded alot understandble when i explained it to her cuz i showed her *lol* sometimes its always good to map it out on graph paper...normally i dont use graph paper but if its something that im having problems visualizing then ill use it..

[Joe's Dad]

well its perfrectly normal to feel unsatisfied the thing is what you need to do is try out each possible color and mix and match them to see what goes with that piece...its all about experimenting...dont be too down about it..my sister anna had this thing for a while where in the outter design she would use one solid color and the in the inner design another solid color until i told her to experiment with mixing bead sizes and cut beads verses non cut.. and instead of useing 1 solid color see if mixing colors will help like creating smaller inner design with in a larger one and use different colors that would match with the larger design..this sounded alot understandble when i explained it to her cuz i showed her *lol* sometimes its always good to map it out on graph paper...normally i dont use graph paper but if its something that im having problems visualizing then ill use it..

You'd prolly have to show it to me too. I got lost reading this!!!

[musicedu77]

yay i know*lol* its so hard to explain it cuz even i got lost along the way*lmao&&
its like this if i show someone and im like you do this and this and this and when i try to explian it it writing it out im like uhh oh yay and where was i ...maybe its old age im creeping up to the 30's next year*lmao* well gotta cut this short my neice and nephew are saying aunte becky im awake*lol* yup and there he is calling me*lmao* lataz yall.. p.s. i went onto a board to try to draw a diagram on how to do quillwork and needlesstosay it wasn ta pretty sight*lol*

[Mato Winyan]

You'd prolly have to show it to me too. I got lost reading this!!!

Ahem..... well........ a...... Dang...... wonder what that says about me....... I completely understood it I think!!

She was saying that her sister had these certain colors she uses for backgrounds and another one for inside design. She told her to why not try using some different type of beads to give it more texture and shine.

And then instead of using just one color on some parts......why not mix it up..... like I've seen where say the inside of a applique flower would have the rows that circle inside the flower would be different colors say for like shading...... like in a rose. Not all flat red.

I've also seen where people would put several shades of a color in a dish and use those. Say one type would be transparent.... one opaque...... one luster...... one pearl coated....one a shade up.....another a shade down..... they they would bead the flower with those .

Least ways this is my interpretation.

[Joe's Dad]

Oh. That's what she was saying!