Rainbows

The rainbow has long been a much loved phenomenon and symbol, a colourful expression of hope and peace.  They are created when light passes through water droplets as the light is actually made up of all the colours. I always find it fascinating that you mix all the colours of paint together and you get a dirgey dark colour, but you mix all the colours of light together...  and you get natural light.  Kind of.  Our natural light has its own spectrum of colours, every star has its own signature, as does our own sun.  We have evolved to see by the light our sun emits, all those colours contained in a sunbeam.

So when you have the sun behind you and some rain in from of you, you have a chance of seeing a rainbow.  It's one of my most favourite things.  Given the showery nature of Cornwall, it's not uncommon to have blazing sunlight behind and a black sky in front and I always think the very dark clouds give the best background for a rainbow.  There are so many inspiring images of rainbows, both in nature, the lab, art, crafts and more.  It's easy to be inspire looking at rainbows.  I have collected some of my favourite images together on pinterest.

My Mum loved rainbows and when she made a quilt for her and my Dad's bed, it was a large log cabin design that moved through all the colours of the rainbow.  I will take photos of it and post them, at some point, lockdown makes it impossible to travel to see my Dad.  The rainbow has become such an important symbol of hope and appreciation in these times.  Walk down any street and you will see them in the windows of people's homes.  I know in many people's minds they have become linked to appreciation of the NHS but they represent a huge appreciation for all keyworkers in these difficult times.

My own family is very much linked to the NHS.  My husband used to work for the South West Ambulance Service Trust, on the front line before he moved to a post at the Royal Cornwall Hospital.  My Mum was a Nurse all her working life, apart from a few years in the middle when she had us and ran the local playgroup.  Its important that after this is all done, that we continue to appreciate all the key workers and what they do for us, sometimes in very difficult circumstances.

I wanted to write a post showing how to do peyote stitch and it's the next project on my beading board.  I decided to do a rainbow because everybody loves rainbows and it was important to me that I show my appreciation to all those people who have worked, and continue to work, so very hard to look after us.  Once I have finished my rainbow, I will post the pattern and how to guide on here, so that we can all wear our rainbows with pride.

The photo above shows the beads I am going to use for this project.  I loved creating a bead rainbow, sat outside in my garden, but it did take a while to sort the beads again after!  My local bead shop is GJ Beads and the beads I am using are available online.  They are transparent matte delica size 11 beads and they have a lovely frosted appearance.  You could use any beads though, as long as they are the same size and a variety of finishes would add to the project.  You could even include more or less colours in your bracelet, which would alter the width.

The beads I am using are:

Light red DB745 

Orange DB744

Yellow DB743
Lime DB1266
Light blue DB747
Violet DB785
Purple DB783