Creativity sparks - ideas to inspire : A series

For today's 'ideas to inspire' I'd like to consider creating a series of items. Maybe you can look at one item/design you have created and then think about expanding on that either in terms of the object or the idea or as part of a story...... and thus create a series.

For example, quite a few years ago I created my first "anyone can" necklace which was "anyone can fly" with a bird hanging upside down. For a long while I liked the idea of an "action" series using the 'anyone can' idea - but I wanted it to be a person and not a bird and couldn't decide on how to design a figure that could be male or female and pose-able. Move forward two years and I came up with a person - "anyone" and then created my "anyone can" series with people "accomplishing" different things like whistling, or training a dog, or falling in love, or flying a kite. And the series has proved popular and will continue with some new ideas soon...

So if you've created one piece that you like, look at it in different ways and explore how a series could be developed from it. It could be the color that you select (eg the blue series)...it could be the subject (eg all my shoes!) ...it could be a design feature (eg all lariat necklaces)...it could be part of a story (eg characters in Old MacDonald had a farm)...it could be using one motif somewhere (eg every piece has a pentagon shape in it)..

As you can see, there are lots of ways to explore this. My latest series that is just beginning is my bracelets where I now have an animal tracks bracelet and a bird tracks bracelet. I want to do a safari animal one with elephant, giraffe, lion etc tracks.....but then also a story one where each square tells the next part of a story, like a cartoon strip...then I've thought of doing grape leaf shape variations, as I live in wine country...then....and so the list develops. It started as animal tracks...followed that subject to bird tracks, then will go off in a slight sideways tangent away from animals but using the same design.

And the benefit of a series of items? I think the main benefit is that it creates a type of "collectible" and something that people may want to get more than one of. It also helps to create your artistic identity and something that you can then be known for. Additionally, when it comes to displaying your items at a show or exhibition, having a series if often more eye catching.

As an artist, it also encourages you to explore something in more depth - whether that is a color combination or a technique. As you do more and more with one thing, you will look at it in a different way and learn more about it. I think this may be one of the reasons why many people view artists with a "series" as being more credible? What do you think?

One thing I would recommend however is don't start a series on something you don't love! Otherwise you may end up making lots of something that you don't enjoy doing, because they become really popular!!!

So chose one of your items you love and think around it in terms of a series and see what comes up. If you have a series of items already, give us the link in the comments so we can see how it developed and progressed.