As we come into February and Valentine's Day, we will see a lot of monochromatic color schemes built around the color red.

Monochromatic color schemes can be very effective at creating a mood or season for a piece of beadwork. Red shades that vary by tone level from a pale pink to a deep burgundy make one think of Valentine's Day. Blues ranging from deep to a light ice blue are very wintery.

Because they all work within one hue, they are pretty easy to create and they can be very soothing. The problem with working monochromatic color schemes in beads is that once you have two beads of a similar color together, if they are too close in tone, the differences between the two different colors of beads can be hard to see. This is even true for 2 beads that are of similar hue and tone but different finishes. So what works best is to work with stronger contrasts. Again, a light, medium, and dark tone. Adding different finishes into the strong tone contrasts creates more difference as well.

For example, for the above pattern, DB-603 which is a silver lined true red for the red, DB-654- opaque brick red, and DB-1533-opaque luster salmon. The silver lined transparent beads would provide a lot of sparkle which would be set off nicely with the other two finishes and colors.

I find that for monochromatic color schemes, going to a bead store and comparing the beads works best. My local bead stores both have their beads arranged by colors so it's easy to find shades all within a color family, and compare them for best contrast and finish. It's hard to go wrong in a single color family.

The patterns below are each 2 patterns on each image. Right click to save the patterns or graphs. They are both brick stitched patterns with the orientation rotated for the second one. So for the pattern that looks like you'd expect peyote to look, you turn it 90 degrees to work in brick stitch.






The below pattern is based off the classic quilting pattern, Tumbling Blocks, which uses tone to create an optical effect of depth. You can use the pattern as the front and back of an amulet bag.


Just for fun, this one too, can be used as the front and back of an amulet bag, and finding the right bead colors and finishes is a fun challenge.