Mixing Color with Metal

Blue beads can look beautiful with silver, gold or gunmetal. But when cool blue is paired with silver or gunmetal the effect will be harmonious.

Pair that blue bead with gold or bronze and the contrasting visual temperatures will make each element pop. The same metals with a red or yellow bead, and the result will be more harmonious.

Silver and gunmetal are cool metals. Gold copper, brass, bronze and rose gold are warm metals. Because of their darker, more intense tones, gunmetal, copper, brass, and bronze come with their own color mixing issues.

A light colored bead may be overwhelmed by a darker metal, but if you're looking for only a hint of color, that might be fine. But if you want the bead color in your piece to be more dominant, make sure the beads you use are deeply colored (or at least large enough) to hold their own against the intense color of the metal.

Of course, there's no rule that says you have to stick with one metal or even one temperature of metal within a design.

There are definitely some best practices, though. As you would with mixing colors, it's a good idea to have a dominant metal. For instance, having gold as the dominant metal will give your design a sense of unity. Tossing in accents in one (or more) other metals will move the eye around the design. If the other metals are also warm (bronze, brass copper or rose gold), the eye will have a leisurely stroll.

If you add accents in silver and gun metal, the eye will be doing more of a dance.

Adding colors on top of that will take some thought - and perhaps some restraint. It's probably a good idea to stick with one color (or a small, harmonious group of colors) if you're doing the visual dance route with your metals.

But if you're sticking with one temperature of metal - say gold, copper and rose gold - you can get more jazzy with your colors. Choose a collection of colors - with maybe one warm contrast.

Again, it's all about what effect you want to create. Gold, copper and rose gold with topaz crystals will create an elegant glow.

On the other hand, dip into your bead stash and spice things up with each and every finding option you have and you have a little bit of Mardi Gras.

In the end, the experimenting is usually at least half of the fun.


Mixes to try for a little pop:

With cool metals: Try Indian red, lime, light topaz or hyacinth crystals or ruby, carnelian, amber, citrine or fire opal gemstones. You'll notice the Indian red will have an even greater pop than the lime. That's because the lime (even though it's a warm green) has a hint of coolness from the blue in it.

With warm metals: Try indicolite, Capri blue, violet or pacific opal crystals or turquoise, lapis, sapphire or tanzanite gemstones. Her you'll see that the lapis creates a greater contrast than the turquoise because turquoise is a warmer blue.