Thursday, April 28, 2011

Conjuring Inspiration

Sooz from “The Bead Shed” asked the forum members of “Bead Buddies” to show some of our beady-supplies from our stash that we have had for a while and not been inspired to do anything with as yet. There are many things that I have had for aaaages that fit into this category. From the reaction of the other forum members too, I am not the only one that hoards beads and supplies. Hehe!


A week or so later, once lots of people had shared 2 or 3 photos from their stash, a “Stash Challenge” was opened, and all people who showed pictures were automatically signed up to participate, and for a great generous prize!

The Rules:

• Take at least one of your pieces that you showed off in the "Show me your Stash" thread
• Make something extraordinary out of it, not just a design you have done many times before, but something completely different for you, something you will be ultra proud of.
• You can add anything you like to the piece and use whatever materials you need to, but it must include your stash.
• You have until the end of May to complete
• Winner will be judged by poll on the forum
• Prize £20 voucher for “The Bead Shed”

This is where I struggle now.

Not only do we have to use materials that we have never been able to use before, (the pieces I have shown have given me a creative mental block on how to use them since I bought them) But, we must also make something extraordinary and a completely new style if possible.

One thing for sure is that she does know how to challenge us. But I do see the logic in it. Afterall, if we haven’t been able to create something with the components in our typical style, then surely they belong in a creation that comes from a completely different angle.

Now, how do I conjure inspiration? [insert witches cackle here]

First, I chose one of my stash pictures. These are a set of 7, and are about 2 cms wide and they were a souvenir from Detroit. They have a lovely carving in them, and I was attracted to them because I thought that they were different and I knew when I bought them that they are not my typical style of bead.

Then, I had to brainstorm. I had to think of things that are not typically me/my style – keywords so I could start building up a picture.



Those in RED are the keywords that I believe goes against my style, or they are very hard for me to emulate.

Those in ORANGE are the keywords that I have a tendancy towards, but I do not use them a lot or I do not use them enough and would like to incorporate more of these features.

Those in GREEN are typically me, and were added at the end as a “filler/glue” to see if I could marry all the components together. Ideally anyway I don’t want to make a piece that completely loses my DNA ;)

My idea is, that using the beads that I have chosen, to make a piece that incorporates as many of these keywords as possible. I do think that making sure that I use all of them is going to be near impossible, but I will be trying!

Here is a mood board, that I created using an image search with the keywords.


The one thing I could not capture was Goth/Emo etc … so imagine the mood board with less pastels and pink and more black and bold – now, I think I am on the right track to get started on this!

Tune back soon to my blog to see what comes out of all of this!

6 comments:

  1. Wow, you are organised! I've been really struggling to think of stuff to do with mine too but I do have a few half ideas kicking round. Maybe I should try doing some sketches to remind me of my thoughts when I finally manage to create something.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, I can't wait to see what you come up with! You're so talented, my attempts at jewellery making look like a *very* young child made them in comparison! lol
    Lovely blog by the way!
    Ashley x

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm intrigued and will be staying tuned. I've entered the same challenge, but ... I'm stumped. I've seen something that I inspired me. So I'm hoping I can run with it xx

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a fab project and I LOVE how you are showing your thought process, it is so interesting, I can't wiat to see your experiments and what you eventually come up with!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh my goodness, so organised! I'm still fretting over what on earth I'm going to make!

    Laura
    x

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm still deciding whether the Spring necklace is a keeper - it's been so long in the making I'd be worried about the earlier part falling apart as I started it only a little bit after I started making jewellery! :P Better be a keeper then? :D

    Laura
    x

    ReplyDelete