Color Challenge...(trying new ideas!)

Red Rock Canyon, outside Las Vegas NV

 Incorporating some new ideas from an online marketing "class" I've been taking, this post is veering off in a new direction. I'll talk more about the class in upcoming posts, but first I'd love some help. Take a good look at the photo (above) here, and then compare it to the colors to this next photo. These are rods of glass I chose to create a series of beads/earrings(?) based on the desert-ish colors in the photo, as challenged by a friend.

Something seemed a bit off, so I thought I'd try to find a "palette generator" online, to see what changes a computer would make, based on pixels and whatever else they use. (What a great exercise it turned out to be, it made me think I'm going to try this with other photos for some new inspiration when I get stuck....)  I tried a few different ones, and interestingly none of the first three brought any green into the palette! Surprised, I kept going and found "CSS Drive" which gave me several options: Light, Medium, Dark and Complete. As you can see in the next photo, the only one with any green was the Complete... 

...and even it knocks out the deepest shade of blue and one of the greens I had pulled. I'm going to make some samples and will show them in the next couple of days....if you have a particular combo of these shades you'd like to see, please post in the comments and I'll try them out. I looked to see if I had anything already made with these shades but nothing....spring in the desert isn't my usual mindset apparently...so, a true challenge!

So many other ideas come to mind...playing with the Pantone 2017 Colors (US or London, below) could also be fun!

What three colors from each palette would be your choice? Maybe I'll try them....stay tuned!

Catching Up!

Red Rock Canyon, 30 minutes outside Las Vegas

Where to start? With apologies for my long absence; I find I tend to shut down a little in the wintertime, I pull into myself and use the time to think about new ideas, new designs while also hibernating a bit. This past winter was the first time in a few years where I didn't get away for a few days to someplace warm during the height of winter, so hibernation at home went on a little longer than usual... but with a week-long trip in late March to our annual ISGB Gathering in Las Vegas and another few days in North Carolina right after, I can now see winter disappearing in the rear-view mirror and Spring is bursting out all around. (Spring pics in another post....)

View from our hotel room at South Point Resort

We were able to spend a couple of extra days sightseeing in the Las Vegas area before getting down to business at the conference; a trip out to Red Rock Canyon provided so many photo ops and color inspirations! 

A huge dust storm cancelled our trip to the Neon Boneyard Museum, but I'll get another chance next year as the conference will be held at the same place, same time....

Wonderful angles and colors, from the tram on the Strip

Spending time walking on the famous Las Vegas Strip and through huge hotels yielded more inspiration for colors and shapes....

South Point Resort (photo by Viyada Cheng)

Almost "other-worldly"....nothing is quite what it seems....

The Venetian Hotel, complete with canals and singing Gondoliers (this is inside the hotel! The "sky" is the painted ceiling....)

Domed ceiling in the Venetian (I think?)

In the Gardens....flowers everywhere!

The "Girls" in the Gardens.....

More flowers, in wild and beautiful combinations: 

And of course....

The famous Chihuly Ceiling in the Bellagio

We ended the day with dinner and a show: "O", by Cirque de Soleil.....most incredible! Sorry no pictures of that, but here is one from the cab ride home....

The Eiffel Tower and Ceasar's Palace....

Here are a couple of last images, maybe a bit more restful to the eyes....I'm thinking about using these colors in a new project, so stay tuned....

Barrel cactus (?) out at Red Rocks (photo by Viyada Cheng)

Lucky Bamboo

Hope you enjoyed this quick trip through Vegas.....thanks for following!