Design skills

Colour theory for beadwork — a practical maker's guide

Colour boards and strung necklaces — beadwork is colour theory you can wear.

Beads are colour theory with a hole through it. The rules are the painter's rules — applied one bead at a time.

The three dials

Hue — the colour family (red, teal, gold...).
Value — light vs dark. The dial beginners ignore; the one that breaks most designs.
Saturation — muted vs electric. Two shouting colours fight; a shout and a whisper converse.

60% dominant colour, 30% secondary, 10% accent. In beadwork the 10% is often metallic or crystal — the piece breathes because the accent is scarce.

Monochrome + texture — one hue, many finishes; beads carry texture where paint carries brushwork.
Complementary with a buffer — blue/orange with cream or gold between them; direct complements need a diplomat.
Analogous + metal — safe, rich, wearable.

Lay the strand out, step back three paces, squint: the VALUES should still read. If it goes muddy, raise value contrast.

Colour trains fastest with feedback — the essentials course does exactly that, and the trends course zooms out to seasons and palettes. Next step: designing a collection.

“I will use the skills learnt to draw more designs for my company as we are now dealing a lot in fancy cut diamonds.”

— Darvina P. (Singapore) · published student feedback

“I will use the skills learnt to make jewellery and other items, such as phone chains, christmas tree decorations & hopefully sell them.”

No sign-up, no payment — start with any of these.

JDMIS in Singapore runs hands-on fashion jewellery and beading courses, from one-day workshops to a full Fashion Jewellery Arts diploma.