It's time to pull out gorgeous autumn colored gemstones and glass beads. Beads in rich shades of honey and amber, russet and pumpkin, wine and maroon, hunter and forest green and every shade of brown imaginable, from chocolate to black coffee. In gemstones, make sure you include jaspers and agates, citrine, carnelian, African brown rhyolite, hematite, obsidian, aventurine, malachite, olivine, tourmaline, serpentine, jasper, and unakite.

Be sure to include the must-have metals of the season: copper, bronze, silver, and gold. Metals are essential to this earth-based season. Autumn inspired beadwork should give off a burnished glow, so weave radiant gold and/or warm bronze into every palette. The sheen of copper beautifully augments autumnal greens and blues.

Still missing is an important color that everyone overlooks in this season – a color that can make any autumn palette absolutely divine. Yes, turquoise, that tone somewhere between blue and green, slightly darkened with its charcoal grey matrix.That sublime hue that looks good on every skin tone.

Turquoise finds its way into every seasonal palette with only slight shifts. In seasonal color analysis one's subjective colors correspond to the colors of nature’s seasons (I explain this in detail in The Beader's Guide to Color). Those with winter leanings (lovers of high contrast and saturation such as myself) love a pure turquoise. Those of the spring season love it pure and bright. Those of summer like turquoise gently tinted. And those of the autumn season love it in any variation.

So, don't forget the turquoise in your autumn creations. It will heighten the drama, the contrast, and the beauty of your beadwork.

Autumns palettes are gorgeous...

... the addition of turquoise makes them divine!

Three Trio sets perfect for autumn: Elegant, Extreme, and Vitality.