Fashion Forward: Summer Begs for Coral

Whew, spring is finished and we move on to warm, relaxing Summer!  As always, Honeysuckle lurks in the background waving her "Color of the Year" medal about, but there's plenty more to look forward to in Summer 2011. 

The keyword, according to every resource I've found but especially Trendsetter, believes Coral will be the go-to color for the season.  I feel like this happens every year; what color conveys a sense of abandonment and freedom than that which references the beach?  The second you hear the name "Coral", you instantly think of sun, sand, and bright turquoise water.  (All images copyrighted to their respective artists and websites)

Here's Pantone's list of all the different colors of coral...there's plenty from which to choose.  I personally like 1788 because it's not quite red and not quite orange, but is still bright and playful.  Coral lends itself well to most shapes, but I would try and reflect the actual rugged, jagged shape and texture of coral when creating a piece with this color.  Mix up the sizes of beads, add a pocked surface if you're making your own beads. 

If you're using glass, here are a few colors that you could use:

"Coral La Mesa", and it already has the varied color worked right in there for you!  You wouldn't need to worry about adding anything - keep it simple, and make beads solely out of this.  Then jazz it up with your findings and spacers. 

"Coral Sunburst" - an apt name. A beautiful, pre-made mix of coral and yellows.  Add a lighter component, like white or ivory, to the piece, and it's complete.

Or, if you want to go with the basic solid color, here's "Coral Special".  It's currently out of stock over at Mountain Glass and not even listed at Frantz, but if you order now it should come in time for you to use by the summer. 

If you're looking for coral beads, look no further than FiremountainGems.  They have every kind you could possibly want, from the very expensive real-deal to permanently dyed "fakes" that do the job just as well.  They have one that is made from bamboo coral, and has the pocked surface - they would be perfect. 

If you want some inspiration, check out the actual shape of some kinds of coral:

It can be translated into a necklace like this:

If that's a little too "bold", then you could always go with a softer, mellow version of the color:

There are plenty of shades of Coral to create a multi-dimensional jewelry piece.  You could string a whole bunch of little beads in all the different shades together, either wrap them around themselves or as a charm bracelet.  If doing the charm bracelet, add different amounts of beads on to the headpins to create the long, organic look that reflects the actual shape of coral. 

And remember: the complementary color of Coral is Teal, so use it sparingly to spruce up the Coral necklace and really make it pop.  If using glass, throw in a bit of this:

Teal Transparent light.  They have dark as well, so it depends on the shade of coral that you're using.  In either case it works well - the Teal reflects the color of the ocean, and the coral lives there...it all goes together :)

**Tune in next Monday for more tidbits on the upcoming Summer season, plus a new web resource!**