Marsala Necklace with Pantone's 2015 Color of the Year with Aquamarine and Titanium Gray

I think I'm actually starting to fall warm up to Marsala, now that I finished a beaded bead necklace made with Pantone's suggested pallet for marsala, including titanium gray and aquamarine.

I made this necklace match the Ginkgo Earrings I beaded last week by using a lot of the same seed beads.

I really like marsala with gray and pale blue, but it doesn't seem to generally play well with lots of colors, in my opinion.  Since it has a lot of brown in it, if you add too many other dull colors, the whole thing can get murky.

In making this necklace, I was very careful to stick to Pantone's suggested pallet. Every time I deviated, I liked the combo a lot less. In the evolution of this necklace, I had some mossy green in there, like a dull lime. It made the whole thing look really muddy and dated. So, I remade a mossy green beaded bead in blues and traded out some of the greenish lampwork for blues and cool grays, and the whole thing looked really different, more vibrant and classy.  You can see that there is still a bit of green in there, but a lot less than there had been at one point.  This showed me how it's not just the colors you use that create a pallet, but in what proportions you use them.  A little dull green is okay.  Too much, and it looks muddy.

It's amazing to me how subtle changes in colors in a color combo can make a big difference in the overall impact.  In the end, I'm very pleased with how the colors work together here.  The warm marsala plays well with the cool blues and grays.  The necklace and matching earrings are for sale in my Etsy shop.  Thanks for looking.