Hey, everyone! Long time, no post, huh? That’s my bad. I have been VERY busy doing some holiday beading. This year, I spent a lot of time really experimenting with the classic Christmas color combo.

The winter holiday I celebrate is Christmas, so there’s a lot of red and green going on. I did try to modulate my color choices a little bit, though. These poinsettia earrings (which are made from my Dragon Blossom design), for example, feature a few different Christmas combos. I took the basic red, green, gold, white and tweaked it a bit for each set.

The little ones were supposed to be a bit more casual with mottle light olive and matte green tones. These are still Christmas-y, but in a less formal aesthetic. I wanted to play with an almost yellow/green look and I actually really like how it turned out.

The long ones with dark green daggers were more “evergeen” inspired with Picasso Garnet seed beads and bright snowy white accents. Very dark reds in contrast with a cool-tone green and white. These are probably my favorite of the three.

The last pair were more “Courier & Ives” vintage Christmas, with a beige crystal, a brighter  olive green, and soft cream accents. Think soft vintage fabrics and candlelight and sleigh rides in long coat-dresses.

Once I exhausted that pattern, I decided some bracelets were in order. Last weekend, I taught a workshop on Russian Spiral stitching as a Christmas present to my local bead shop and worked up this little guy. I was still working on that Courier and Ives color palette.I love all that snowy white and warm beige together.

I also HAD to make one of my Tetrabella bracelets in some muted, olive-based holiday colors once I saw these gorgeous dark Candy beads. Here, I toned everything WAY down with lots of bronze and matte colors and Picasso Coral Red seed beads.

After that, I used the same color scheme to make this necklace, using Kassie Shaw’s Whirlagig pattern (from the Oct/Nov 2016 Beadwork magazine). I had to use Toho beads, which I usually don’t like to do, but I can see why they were necessary for this pattern. And I LOVE the way it worked up!

That Whirlagig necklace was also my very first attempt at CRAW (cubic right angle weave) and whew boy. That was a bit much to wrap my head around. But I think I’ve got it now and I am so pleased!

So, how about you guys? Doing any festive holiday beading? Got any favorite holiday color combos? :D