colors - moods - symbolism

I had an idea just before I fell asleep last night, and wrote myself a note so that I wouldn't wake up this morning, and ask myself...'what was that idea you had last night?' I was thinking about design, which led to thinking about color (which also lead to thinking about shopping for beads - smile.)

I love color and the sometimes subtle and other times vibrant play between colors; I seldom think about the meaning of colors in various arenas, and decided that I would do a little snooping around for information on that. I don't necessarily want to think that I'm a guru, and attach meaning to my earring creations based on color choices, it's more of a curiousity. I'll also mention that sometimes I pause when thinking about a name for a particular pair of earrings before I list them on my etsy site, and I thought that might open up a larger range of possibilites and creativity in 'naming' my earrings. I don't know about you, but that made me chuckle - I'll just be more specific and say it's more about my advertising and less about any personal attachment I may feel for a particular creation.

I found a variety of websites that had information about color, and this is very loose research here... I didn't check anyone's credentials... I will mention the sites at the end of this post for a minimum of research and contributory correctness.

Having said that, one of my favorite colors is purple. I asked my mom to make me purple overalls when I was in elementary school - and she did by the way, bell bottoms and all. Now that I've done some research, I'm smiling because according to one of my sources, purple is a symbol of power, majesty, spiritual goals, passionate belief, visionary leadership, respect and wealth. I was in second grade y'all, and the overalls had white elephants on them, too. What did I know about purple? In Christianity, purple symbolizes penitence, which would have been a more apt bridge to the purple overalls at that time in my life. According to globalphysics.com, the soul task level meaning for purple means a deeper connection to spirit. When do you wear purple? I'm trying to think of the last time I did... I probably need to meditate a bit more... wear some more purple.

I can see that if I'm able to get through the spectrum of colors in blog, perhaps I need to forget about significant color choices I have made in my life. I did choose ivory for my wedding dress way back when because i liked the dress and couldn't get it in white not what you're thinking - however white does mean purity and innocence in general, but did you know that in Japan, white carnations signify death?

I use a lot of green beads, and wear a fair amount green shirts. The soul task level meaning for green is healing, healer, nurturer and in Christianity, green - once banned by the church - now means hope, peace, healing and growth. However, in China, if you see green hats, it means that a man's wife is cheating on him! There is a caution there for me in the naming of my creations, no matter how closely my earrings may resemble hats - it could be offensive to some to call them that.

It is said that if you would like people to feel comfortable around you, then you should wear earth tones - browns, greens and oranges. The color of the earth symbolizes home and friendship. Amber represents courage and energy. Interesting to note, that if you would like to be in sales in Columbia (the country) however, you should never wear brown as it is thought to discourage sales.

I think I'll going to save some colors for another post, this is getting kinda long! Perhaps it's time for a purple shirt, and a zen-like state of mind for a couple of minutes.

My sources include: http://www.associatedcontent.com/,
http://www.buzzle.com/, and globalphysics.com. Please comment if you have a random, yet interesting fact about color - I'd like to read about it.