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!