Ornate Lampwork Beads in a cascade of Neutrals

I had a custom request for a series of ornate shaped beads in various neutrals and I really need to keep track of the various glasses I used so I decided to put it in a post (starting from the left): Effetre Oliva Nera encased in clear, Effetre Straw Yellow encased in Double Helix Aurae, CIM Seashell with white dots, Effetre Mocha, Effetre Sage Green (etched), Lauscha Caramello (etched)

Starting from the 2nd bead from the left:  CIM Khaki, CIM Cottontail encased in CIM Chateau, Effetre Fossil, Effetre Straw Yellow, CIM Cookie Dough (etched), CIM Antique Lace.

And finally starting from the 5th bead from the left:  Effetre light Ivory (etched), and CIM Cottontail over clear.

Feeling very Pastel-y

I have a real thing for pastels and neutrals.  As much as I love colour, there is just something about a pale, smokey colour that I find incredibly appealing.  Not so much what I would call "baby" pastels which are colours with tons of white mixed in but take the same colour and throw in a drop of black for that misty effect and I'm there.  Now many people looking at the above set would wonder why I'm calling bright yellow a pastel.  Well, it's not really but I have a tendency to read yellow as a neutral and when paired with these other creamy neutral beiges the overall effect seems very clean and neutral (to me anyway).  The pictures are a little darker than real life (I'm still playing around with Adobe Light Room and haven't quite achieved the effects I'm looking for but am still much happier with the pictures than I was before - thanks, Holly) but they still give a good idea of how these colours blend together.

Once I started I couldn't stop and ended up with even more shady pastels in this set.

Soft pastels in blue and green mixed with warm vanilla latte beige and a chalky beige brightened with a blast of yellow.  I could not like this colour combination anymore if I tried.  And I think the beads look amazing all strung together.

They have a really simple but summery look to me; a leather cord and a simple spacer and a clasp and away you go.  For the record, these sets are made with CIM Vanilla Latte, CIM Antique Lace, CIM Dirty Martini, CIM Sepia Unique, Effetre Misty Blue, and Effetre Medium Lemon Yellow.

Hey, quick new note here.  I noticed when loading my pictures onto Blogger that they seemed much darker than the original.  A quick internet search found the reason, Google is auto-enhancing my pictures which to them seems to mean making them darker.  I went to setting and turned this off and low and behold my pictures are back to normal (still not quite right but much better).  Here's a link for anyone with the same problem:

Remodelando la Casa: Dark pictures in Blogger

CIM Antique Lace, CIM Muskmelon, CIM Cake Batter, CIM Green Tea, CIM Alley Cat, CIM Weimaraner, CIM Raindrop

I just got a whole new batch of glass with some relatively new colours from Creation is Messy.  So pretty.  This set contains CIM Antique Lace, Muskmelon, Cake Batter, Green Tea, Alley Cat, Weimaraner, and Raindrop and a little bit of Effetre Pale Aqua.  I really like these colours and even more, I love how they work together.  Nice clean lines, little to no reaction or fuzzing.  And a soft spring-like palette.

These are the disc beads that belong to this set; starting from the left is Muskmelon, Antique Lace, and Cake Batter repeating in that order to the end.  Soft, whispy pastels with hints of green and pink.  I had a little bit of shocking with the Muskmelon but it seemed localized to one rod so it might have just been an odd air pocket or something.  Alley Cat is a wonderful, intense orange that was a joy to work with and Weimaraner is a dark, slate grey with hints of blue.  Green Tea is a lovely, lovely green.  I usually tend towards the olive or sage greens and am not always a fan of the brighter, true greens but this one is so pretty that I couldn't even etch it.  Raindrop is a medium transparent grey.  It looks a little purple to me in rod form but after melting seemed to lose that and become a fairly neutral grey.  It seemed to me to be a good match to the Weimaraner.

Oops, I almost forgot Cake Batter.  This colour reminds me of Butter Pecan Unique #4 in that it is a very pale, off-white with hints of greenish yellow.  It is a wonderful base colour and works so well when you want something a little more mellow than white.