Color Trends - Venetian Bead Shop Blog

Ultimate Fall 2026 Color Inspiration: Murano Glass Beads

Fall/Winter 2026 Jewelry Colors: A Murano Glass Bead Guide

Each season brings new color inspiration, and Fall/Winter 2026–2027 offers a beautiful combination of expressive brights, rich earth tones, and calming shades inspired by nature. This year, we are particularly excited about the striking contrast between vibrant hues and the grounding tones that reflect the changing landscape during these months. In this blog, we explore ten leading colors from the season’s fashion forecast and interpret them through authentic Venetian and Murano glass beads, emphasizing the unique craftsmanship that goes into each piece. For each color, we have selected handmade beads that capture its character—not as exact standardized color matches, but as artistic interpretations brought to life through transparent and opaque Murano glass, 24-karat gold foil, sterling silver foil, and traditional Venetian glassmaking techniques. The interplay of these materials not only enhances the colors but also adds depth and texture, making them truly stand out. Click any featured bead photograph to visit its product page, learn more about the inspiration behind each selection, and shop the color for your next jewelry design, ensuring that your creations are as vibrant and dynamic as the season itself.

Taupe and topaz create a warm, versatile color story inspired by natural stone, amber light and the softly weathered architecture of Venice. Taupe provides a calm, earthy neutral, while transparent topaz adds golden-brown depth and warmth. In Murano glass, these colors pair beautifully with 24kt gold foil, avventurina, ivory, chocolate brown and rich autumn reds.

Burnt Olive, Green Envy & Acacia

Rooted in nature yet distinctly modern, Burnt Olive, Green Envy, and Acacia create a sophisticated progression of greens for Fall 2026. Burnt Olive brings an earthy, grounded depth with its muted olive undertones, while Green Envy introduces a fresher, more energetic yellow-green. Acacia completes the palette with a bright, luminous chartreuse that adds an unexpected spark. Together, these shades move beautifully from subdued and organic to vivid and contemporary, making them especially striking when translated into Murano Glass, where transparent color, gold foil, and avventurina can add even greater depth and brilliance.

Vibrant yet beautifully feminine, Festival Fuchsia and Foxglove bring warmth and energy to the Fall 2026 palette. Festival Fuchsia is bold, saturated, and exuberant—a rich jewel-like pink that immediately commands attention. Foxglove softens the story with a dusty, romantic rose pink that feels elegant and refined. Together, they create a wonderful balance of dramatic color and gentle sophistication, especially beautiful in Murano Glass where transparent pinks, gold foil, silver foil, and delicate Fiorato details can bring these shades to life.

Make the Fall 2026 Colors Your Own

These Murano Glass beads are just a few examples of how you can bring the colors of Fall 2026 into your jewelry designs. Use them as inspiration rather than rules—mix the season’s rich earth tones, sophisticated greens, vibrant pinks, ocean-inspired blues and warm neutrals with beads you already love. Add the shimmer of 24kt gold foil, sterling silver foil or avventurina, introduce the delicate flowers of Fiorato and Millefiori, or combine transparent and opaque glass for greater depth and contrast. With thousands of colors, shapes and styles of authentic Murano Glass to choose from, the possibilities extend far beyond the examples shown here. Choose the colors that speak to you, experiment with unexpected combinations, and make the Fall 2026 palette entirely your own.

Venetian Beads and Pantone Winter Colors

Top10 colors Pantone Winter 2018/2019

I can skip the yellows….my least favorite and it is a hard color for us to make in Venetian Beads. The “Quetzal Green” had me a bit perplexed, but I looked it up and it could either mean

a bird of the trogon family, with iridescent green plumage and typically red underparts, found in the forests of tropical America.
the basic monetary unit of Guatemala, equal to 100 centavos.

So I am going with the bird, for me it is a “teal” and our G6 or G26 will give you a similar color.

And below is a chart that shows you how we use metals to give us the colors. Gold Foil always makes the color richer, Silver Foil makes the color brighter and White Gold Foil gives us a soft/satin look. The numbers you see below the color names are the numbers for the canes of glass we buy to make the beads.

We have our own series of numbers which we use. Had I been clever enough when we started, I would have used the Moretti numbers as it would make working with our bead makers easier. Our color codes table you can find online at Color Chart (Click Here) So for each color of Moretti Glass, we use the prefix “G” “S” or “WG” to achieve the results. Our Spring and Summer Line drops the Prefix for gold, silver or white gold because we only mix Moretti Colors for these.

Having given you this detail guide, it is not quite so easy. Just so you know, each batch of glass as it arrives to our bead makers from Effetere (aka Moretti Glass) is slightly different. Reds are the most difficult of all. The amount of moisture in the air, the salt content of the air in the lagoon, the purity of the minerals used, and the heat at which they melt the minerals all contribute for a slight difference. And then there is the bead maker whose eye watches the bright red color, because that is the color of molten glass and knows just when it is ready. Again the temperature, how long they re-fire it and a myriad of other things affect the final bead. It is what makes these Murano Glass Beads!

Colors of Murano Glass Beads – It Starts with the Canes

Effetre aka Moretti is the Beginning

Our beads all (except for the few borosilicate) start with the canes that Effetre produces in much the same fashion they have been doing since the late 1800s. That is not to say that Venetians and Muranese did not make beads before Vincenzo Moretti began his production of Murrine and subsequently branched into all colors of glass canes. The furnaces of Murano could all make glass canes. It starts with the batches they create each night. But the Moretti family concentrated the production, and made it easy for bead makers to buy in small batches.

Even today our bead makers go to the Effetre warehouse to buy canes by the kilo. It is a secretive place and definitely not open to tourist. Even the largest importer of Moretti canes in the US, Mike Frantz, tells me he has not seen the entire production areas. I sometimes get go with a bead maker, but definitely no cameras. I count on the office manager to take care of delivery to the bead makers where we supply the materials.

Catalog of Colors

Well the catalog is actually small pieces of canes in a binder. And if you are looking at newer colors, hand prepared, then they just cut off a piece of cane and put a sticker on it for you, like one of my favorites, Blue Inchiostro. It has yet to make it into the books! My office always is full of pieces of canes, millefiori and samples we have tried. Fortunately Moretti had the forethought to give the canes a 6 digit number, though most of us just use the last 3 digits.

It takes a good bit of imagination to work on beads. Like the artist pallet, there are always things that influence the outcome, the color. You can see in the chart below how the color changes just be adding Gold, Silver or White Gold.

Colors and Numbers

And you can see we have our own color codes which are almost uniformly. That’s because late at night I might give something a different number – but never intentional.

WG1 is Cristallo/White Gold
G1 is Cristallo/Gold
S1 is Cristallo/Silver
For more on our color codes, visit our VenetianBeadShop Color Chart

White gold foil beads are produced White gold which is an alloy of gold and at least one white metal, such as silver or palladium.

Yellow gold is measured in Karats. With Yellow Gold, there are two applications, interior and exterior and exhibit the same behaviors.

White gold tends to tone down the color, giving the colors a softer look. Think about the difference between Sterling Silver Jewelry and White Gold Jewelry, where the White Gold it has a much softer glow.

The little pads of the precious metals are sold by the weight to the bead makers. It is expensive but fortunately it takes only small amounts for each bead.

Gold, Silver and White Gold Foil in Sheets

Every bead maker has a stash of canes.

Our bead makers have serious supplies of glass. There are a couple reasons. 1) We need lots of beads and 2) Effetre has a schedule for making the glass, and they NEVER deviate from this schedule. If we need Green and they are sold out, then we just have to wait. The batches are in about 250-300 Kilo and if we do not like the Red, then we still have to wait. Not only do we have to wait for the schedule, we also have to wait until they have sold all of the Red we do NOT like.

Now that we have the colors, then you must decide shape, size and decoration.

More about that later.

Pantone® Colors of the Year Rose Quartz and Serenity – Yes they Exist!

Since the Colors of the Year were announced by Pantone, we’ve been trying to create some designs which feature our authentic Murano Glass Beads. And I was having a bit of difficulty with the colors. Then at a girl’s softball practice, there they were – and created by nature for all of us to see.

A beautiful setting sun which was shining through our normal San Francisco Bay fog produced exactly the colors. I apologize if my photography doesn’t get it just right. But sitting in the bleachers watching practice, the colors in the sky, simply stunning and even Serene!

Rose Quartz and Serenity on the SoftBall Field!

Without that sunset, I would still be struggling to see how these colors go together. I was thinking “baby shower” pink and blue. So back to the design desk – with new inspiration and appreciation for the knowledge of those talented people at Pantone!

Here’s a couple of designs we came up. They are free and each one has instructions as well as the list of components required.

We’d love to see your designs with these colors. You can send to info@venetianbeadshop.com

Pantone Colors Fall Winter 2015-16 with Venetian Glass Beads

Here are some ideas of our authentic Murano Glass Beads and Swarovski Crystals which go with the colors for Fall and Winter.

In the words of Pantone: “Fall/Winter 2015: An Evolving Color Landscape The season displays an umbrella of accord that weaves earthy neutrals with a range of bold color statements and patterns to reflect a landscape of hope, fun, fantasy and all things natural.”

For links to each of the beads on our website, visit

Lee Eiseman talks Fall 2015 Juxtaposition of color from opposite sides of the spectrum emphasizes poise and confidence on the runway. The Fall 2015 palette is rooted in multi-faceted, androgynous colors that can be worn to portray effortless sophistication across men’s and women’s fashion; it is the first time we are seeing a truly unisex color palette. Leatrice Eiseman Executive Director, Pantone Color Institute®

Black is Back! Great Fashion News for Most of Us

How many black jackets do you have? Shoes? Pants? Sweaters? If you are like me, your closet has too many of these to count and when you go to the store, you keep looking at more black backets, shoes, purses…..

Well there’s good news. The runways of Milan and Paris were filled with new black high fashion! Seems the fashion houses looked at their best sellers and for once went with logic ignoring the color predictions that have dominated the fashion industry. Designer Alexander Wang’s showing in New York was “defiantly black”. Wang says the retailers were all requesting a black version of his designs. Fashion editors concluded the collection will be a hit….duh they needed to only ask me.

Gracefully even Pantone has endorsed the renegade saying “A perennial favorite, black and white are a classic partnership that continues from strength to strength. (I’m not exactly sure what this sentence means.)

The S/S 15 fashion runways were dominated by pure white, pitch black, and bold combinations of the two. No surprise perhaps – this mono option is usually present in some form or another for Spring. But we were struck by how this color option dominated both Paris and Milan.

We see both black and white working as solids, but even stronger as equal partners in graphic combinations and micro-patterns, and made young and fresh with a small splash of primary color.”

That’s great news as well, that means we can wear our Reds, Blues and Greens along with our all time favorite: Black.

It doesn’t mean we are in mourning, going Gothic, or that we are simply too lazy to color coordinate….

We’re in STYLE! (now I am waiting for Leopard Prints to make a comeback!)

You can find our black authentic #Murano Glass Beads on our website at http://www.venetianbeadshop.com

Pantone® Fashion Color Report Spring 2015

Great Colors for Spring/Summer 2015 from Pantone®

Time to get started on your projects for spring. Here’s Pantone’s choices. You’ll find these colors featured in clothing, accessories like handbags and shoes in all the department stores. You can make your own jewelry to match, just follow these color trends.

You can download and print a PDF of this to have handy by the computer as you shop, or put in your purse to take with you to the store. Click Here for printable: PANTONE_Spring_2015_VenetianBeadShop

We have taken these colors and matched both Swarovski Crystals as well as our own authentic Murano Glass Beads to make it easy for you to shop complimentary colors. Just click on any color to shop. VenetianBeadShop

The Psychology of Color

Whether you are designing jewelry to sell or making jewelry for yourself and friends, the numbers in this chart are fascinating. And you might even learn something about yourself.

This infographic was compiled from several online sources (the credits are at the bottom of the infographic). Psychology of Color Infographic. “A lot more is going on behind the scenes than just aesthetic. Powerful psychological cues are triggered when we view different colors.” from Webpagefx.com.

Take a look at the logos that we all know from major brands and learn why they chose these colors. Is it any surprise that Blue is a favorite of men? Or that Green is the color associated with environmental friendly companies (or those wanting to appear as environmentally friendly) or that Red is the choice for so many international brands?

With 93% purchases based on color, there’s no wonder everyone from furniture makers, carpet manufacturers and of course jewelry and fashion designers live by the Pantone® Forecast and Trends. (You can find the Spring 2015 Color Trends on our website.

Swarovski Color Wheel

Whether you are a seasoned jewelry designer or new to the art, the Swarovski Color Carousel is a great tool.

Want to know which colors are Main, Harmonious or Contrasting, Just move the bar along the bottom line and you’ll get your color combinations.

Swarovski Color Carousel

Make the Fall 2026 Colors Your Own

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