NOLA police Flower

A month ago I received my first commission piece.  I was super excited to hear that she wanted a flower for her boyfriend for their 3 year anniversary.  Her boyfriend works for the New Orleans Police Department and she requested that the flower have matching colors as their patch. 

I was grateful that she gave me some direction with what she was looking for.  She suggested orange outer petals with a touch of blue.  And green inner petals.  My biggest concern was getting the colors close.  One because every one's monitors are slightly different and two because any color w/ a bit of red in it can be hard to replicate in glass.  There are a million and one different shades of blue and green seed beads, but orange, red, purples, and pinks are harder to do. 
Once I got the colors figured out I had fun designing the flower.  I added heavy metal brass seed beads to the tips of the outer petals to keep the theme masculine.  At one point I had some pearl star beads in the center but decided it was too literal, and made the flower too busy.  Simple is smart, and simple is what I found out that works with this flower. 

 

 

I used primarily matte seed beads.  The blue is a transparent blue with a pearly finish that makes it almost opaque.  The metal brass beads accent the outer petals.  I chose a simple orange bead for the center.  The more sparkly brown and yellow beads I had originally picked out just didn't work.  At this stage I sent the customer an email to see what her thoughts were.  She loved it.  So I put on the finishing touches and laced up the petals for stability.  And had it in the mail within a day or two.

Here's the picture I received to show how closely I'd gotten the colors.  I'm really happy with it.  And from what I hear the customer and the boyfriend (now fiancé) are happy too.   Congrats!!!