Beading is a great way to make a special gift or a unique piece of jewelry for yourself. Even more, it’s a fun and rewarding craft that you’ll really enjoy once you get started.

Here are some tips from the professionals—designers Katie Hacker, Teresa Welch and LeNae Gerig—on how to mix colors for your beading projects. It’s just a

sampling of what you’ll find in their new book called Beading 101, that’s chock full of secrets and tips that will take the mystery out this amazing craft.

Monochromatic Colors
Colors create the style or feeling of your jewelry piece—funky, formal, sophisticated, sweet, natural or chic. Using beads in several different shades of the same basic color (monochromatic color scheme) is a great way to choose your beads. However, if the shades are too close in color, the effect can be a little boring.

Color Combinations
Combining two or more colors when beading can produce some exciting results. However, standing in a store, confronted by a wall of beads of all colors, sizes and shapes can be confusing. Take a deep breath, find the color selections you want and choose some packages of beads you like. Check the guidelines below to see if they work with what you have in your hands.

Guidelines for Combining

Two Colors

1. Choose beads of two different colors.
2. Determine one color to be the dominant color within the necklace; all the prettiest or fanciest beads will be of this color.
3. If the beads you’ve chosen are similar in shape and size, then just add more beads of the dominant color.

Three Colors

1. Determine a dominant color. Choose the prettiest, largest, fanciest beads in the dominant color—or maybe there will be more of them in the necklace.
2. Choose a secondary color. It will be a strong color, but won’t dominate the necklace; either there will be fewer of these or they will be plainer beads.
3. Now choose beads in an accent color. They will separate or help bridge the other two colors. Often metal or clear beads work the best as the third color.