Brown - what a boring name for an interesting color

Last month I signed up for Sally Russick's One Crayon Color challenge and blog hop.  But instead of choosing a color myself, I asked Sally to assign me a color.  I'll admit to being a bit, uh, surprised when I was assigned 'Brown'.  Hmmm.... somehow I tend to forget that it is indeed a color, in and of itself.

Truth is, I like browns, they're just not what I think of using this time of year.  Unlike the fashion industry, I tend to work in the colors of the current season, and browns are definitely Fall/Winter colors in my palette.  For inspiration, I went to - you guessed it, my crayon box.  There I found browns with luscious names like chestnut, tumbleweed, mahogany and bittersweet, but oddly enough, no chocolate. 

Then I came across an old UFO, a companion piece for my Leopard Jasper bracelet, and I knew I'd found my piece. So here it is, so newly finished it doesn't even have a name of its own yet, right now its simply the Leopard Jasper Choker.  Descriptive, eh?

And the back shall be front

This is actually a picture of the back of the choker.  The shank on the original button I'd selected when I began (and abandoned) this project two years ago had broken, so I went shopping for new buttons to fit the project and found this beauty.  Now, my choker has two alternate fronts.  And seems to have a decidely western feel I hadn't anticipated when worn back to front.

Here's the jasper focal:

Leopard Jasper choker, freeform peyote

I like the almost snakeskin quality to the coloration and bead work.  I think that is also adding to my feeling that this comes from the dusty southwest of my childhood.  Not the land of red rock, but of golden, drifting sand.

Truth is, I'm not entirely certain the choker is quite complete.  I may decide to add more top work - layers of bridges atop what's already there.  The bracelet definitely has more top work.  I found that simply increasing the scale from bracelet to choker created enough complexity that I'm not sure it needs anything else.  I think I'll live with a bit and see before I go too far and made it too 'busy'.  What do you think?

And in the meantime, here are the other participants, nicely grouped by color families:

Button Purchases - which one?

Hosted by:

Sally Russick  http://thestudiosublime.com

Red

Therese Frank  http://theresestreasures59.blogspot.com

Rochelle Brisson  http://acreativechelle.blogspot.com

Lisa Lodge   http://pineridgetreasures.blogspot.com

Malin de Koning  http://beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com

Bobbie Rafferty   http://beadsong.blogspot.com

 

 

Orange

Narrowing the selection to two

Linda Landig  http://LindasBeadBlog.com

Cherrie Fick  http://designsinthelight.com

Beth McLarnan http://threetrees-art.blogspot.com

Cece Cormier  http://thebeadingyogini.com

Renetha Stanziano   http://lamplightcrafts.blogspot.com

Tanya Goodwin  http://pixiloo.blogspot.com

Jean Welles  http://jeanawells.blogspot.com

Amy Severino   http://amybeads.blogspot.com

Rebekah Payne   http://treewingsstudio.com

Lola Surwillo  http://.beadlolabead.blogspot.com

Judy Turner   http://silver-rains.blogspot.com

 Yellow

Jennifer Justman  http://soulsfiredesigns.blogspot.com

Rose Brisson    http://ahteesblog.blogspot.com

Kim Bender  http://www.kimmykats.com/

Heather Powers   http://humblebeads.blogspot.com

Shelly Joyce  http://www.aujourlejour-shelly.blogspot.com

Blue

And we have a winner - now for more stitching

Cherie Reed  http://creativedesignsbycheri.blogspot.com

Rebecca Anderson  http://songbeads.blogspot.com

Hope Smitherman  http://craftyhope.blogspot.com

Patti Vanderbloemen  http://myaddictionshandcrafted.blogspot.com

Michelle Buettner  http://MiShelDesigns.blogspot.com

Alicia Marinache  http://allprettythings.ca

Charissa Sloper   http://blog.obsidiansoda.com

Sonya Stille  http://dreaminofbeads.blogspot.com

Maria Grimes  http://mariagrimes.blogspot.com

Nancy Saccoccio  http://risingdesigns.blogspot.com

Sandi Volpe   http://sandivolpe.com

Joanne Tinley  http://daisychaindesignsjewellery.blogspot.com

Catherine Pruitt  http://boobeads.blogspot.com

 

 

knee brace as needle holder & workbench

 Green

Mary Harding  http://maryhardingjewelrybeadblog.blogspot.com

Karin Gilman http://www.qaygee.blogspot.com/

Jayne Capps   http://mamasgottodoodle.blogspot.com

Lorelei Eurto  http://lorelei1141.blogspot.com

Melissa Meman http://melissameman.blogspot.com

Alice Peterson  http://alice-dreaming.blogspot.com

Jenny Davies Reazor   http://www.jdaviesreazor.com

Cynthia Machata    http://antiquitytravelers.blogspot.com

Melissa Essenburg  http://chinookdesigns.blogspot.com

Regina Santerre  http://reginaswritings.blogspot.com

Lauren Streets  http://ornthoughts.wordpress.com

Elizabeth Auld  http://beadsforbusygals.com

 

 

Adding bridge work

Purple

Tracy Mok   http://bumblebeadsdesigns.blogspot.com

Jennifer Judd Velasquez http://jenjuddrocks.blogspot.com

Marti Conrad  http://marticsclay.blogspot.com

Lori Anderson  http://prettythingsblog.com

Donna Bradley  http://strandedbeads.blogspot.com

Courtney Breul  http://beadsbybreul.blogspot.com

Linda Younkman   http://lindysdesigns.blogspot.com

Susan Kennedy  http://www.suebeads.blogspot.com

Lisa Liddy   http://Lisaliddy.wordpress.com

Tracy Stillman  http://www.tracystillmandesigns.com

Dawn Doucette  http://designsbydawnmarie.blogspot.com

Brown

Diana Ptaszynski   http://suburbangirlstudio.com

Shannon Chomanczuk  http://formysweetdaughter.blogspot.com/

Janice Everett   http://JLynnJewels.blogspot.com

Karen Williams  http://Baublicious.blogspot.com

My original bracelet

Black

Kashmira Patel  http://sadafulee.blogspot.com

Heidi Post http://expostfactojewelry.blogspot.com/

Birgitta Lejonklou  http://lejonklou.blogspot.com/

Holly Westfall  http://silverrosedesigns.blogspot.com/

Karin Slaton  http://backstorybeads.blogspot.com