Creativity sparks - ideas to inspire : Go shopping

One of my favorite ways to find inspiration for my creations is to go shopping. Actually, just window shopping - but I find it really does help.

Depending on what sort of art/craft you do - you may have your own type of shop or store that will do it for you. For me, it's toy stores! Especially those that have old style toys.

My husband is not quite used to this new source of inspiration and often wonders what I'm doing heading into a toy store - then it clicks and he leaves me to it for a while, to check out the different toys, from the wooden toys to little cars to animals to just the packaging design. Toy stores just are happy places with lots of bright colors and playful things that often inspire my creations.

For example, I'm half way through making a type of jack in the box necklace. I'm still figuring out how to work the clasp right now - but when I do that, I think it'll be sweet.

My Bubo the flying owl necklace was inspired by a toy, anyone can fly a kite, also my fish mobile earrings,.....I also keep looking at old toy musical instruments......and spinning tops and ....

The other type of store that I enjoy browsing around for inspiration are hardware stores. Sounds a little odd, I know - and I have never really been a hardware store person......but since I now use "power tools" - I'm quite into them.....I wander around and see all these different textures and shapes and little screws and tiny components and it sparks off ideas such as hinges and kinetic movements in items and more mechanical aspects to my jewelry.

So next time you are out and about - try doing some window shopping for inspiration and see what comes to mind. What kind of store inspires you the most ? Antiques, garden store, sweets, kitchen gadgets?????? Give them all and try and I'm sure something will catch your eye - whatever our style!

Merry Go Round

Jump on our first merry go round and join a group of artists/crafts-women as they link hands around the world and tell you a little about their lives in art and craft.

Today is the first day of our merry go round. I have joined with 8 other women who are artists or craft-women and once a month - on the last Thursday/Friday, we will all discuss one question in each of our blogs.

Once you've read what I have written, I encourage you to read their blog entries too - it is an interesting group of women and I'm looking forward to learning more about them too. The links are at the end of this posting. Please note - there are significant time differences between us all (I think the most is 15 hours!), so if you don't find the "merry go round" posting on someone's blog, maybe you are just a bit early ....so do check back again later.


This month's question is "What was your journey to your art/craft?"

My journey started out with me working as a research scientist in England and now I'm an artist in California! Quite a convoluted path, I guess!

I think the main turning point came in California in 2003. We were moving from Florida to California - driving across country and I was trying to find something to while away all those hours in the car when I wouldn't be driving. I happened to find some interesting yarn and decided to take knitting up again. I had taught myself to knit when I was child and had enjoyed it then, but hadn't knitted since. Now I had these lovely balls of yarn - totally different to what I had seen or used before.

So for those long long days in the car with my husband and our pet parrot Harold, I knitted..and knitted..and listened to audio books..and tried to learn Spanish (I think Harold learned more than we did!!!) Anyhow, a couple of items I made were, of course, scarves. I then happened to be wearing one of these scarves when I went into a gallery in California and the owner commented on it and asked where I had got it from. I told her I made it and she said she would love to sell them for me. This was totally out of the blue. It had never occurred to me that I would sell anything...I had just been occupying my time. I went home and thought about it for a while.....and said yes and got out my needles!

The same thing happened in another gallery in Sonoma.....and while it seemed very much out of character for me - I was enjoying it. Somewhere in the middle of this excitement, I read an article about "metal clay" and it fascinated me. I decided to buy some and get a DVD on how to use it and give it a try. Off I went, started with a little pair of earrings with some stones set in them and I haven't looked back since. The galleries selling my scarves saw my jewelry and also wanted to sell that.....and I'd gone from scientist to artist!!

I no longer knit to sell - that had set me on my way in this new direction, but I now focus on my silver jewelry. I also no longer sell in galleries, just online and I enjoy that much more. And my jewelry has changed alot since those early days.....as I've taken classes, become certified, learnt traditional metalsmith techniques and fabrication skills....

The two key elements that I loved about my research job were that there was a lot of variety and plenty of challenge. I have found the same in using metal clay. It is a great medium and I like to try new things with it and create a style that is unique.

I particularly love doing three dimensional sculptural pieces and also pieces that move. Bubo the flying owl seen in the 2nd photo is one of my favourites, as he has movement and an element of surprise. When you pull on the chain, his wings go up and flap, like he is trying to fly. This "playfulness" and whimsy is apparent in alot of my work.....but yesterday I just finished a three day "action jewelry" class and now want to re-model Bubo to tweak the mechanism a little bit.....so I learn new things and keep progressing and so my jewelry develops and I don't get bored.

Another of my favourite pieces is my new series of "anyone can...." jewellery. I had been trying to come up with a "figure" to use for a few designs and then "anyone was born. I like this series because it seems to easily fulfill my goal that what I create " makes you smile". Again there is there sense of play and childhood memories......and they are all also very tactile pieces, you find yourself wanting to hold them.

But also, maybe "anyone can"....is fitting for me. Any-one/scientist can become an artist??????Maybe that sense of "give it a try" is what brought about this dramatic change from scientist to artist??? And where will it lead next?

Here are the links to read the other artists' blogs:

http://sarastexturecrafts.blogspot.com
http://fancypicnic.blogspot.com
http://lilypangart.blogspot.com
http://florcitasart.blogspot.com
http://easterya.blogspot.com
http://halfanacreblog.blogspot.com
http://lebarduvent.blogspot.com
http://blog.glamasaurus.com

And remember - it's always great to get comments!

Anyone can ........fly a kite

So here is my latest "Anyone can...." piece. A necklace entitled "Anyone can....fly a kite"

It shows my new friend, Anyone, holding on tight to his new kite and you can just picture him loving that feeling as it takes to the skies and pulls on his arm - and then just for that split second, it takes you off the ground.




This picture here looks like he is just willing the kite to fly......that feeling when you want to blow and encourage it....try as you will, the wind hasn't quite got below it...

But then, the wind gusts and up the kite goes, and you are excited and you let out more string and then it feels like you can fly too!

What a lovely thing kite flying is. Yet you see very little of it nowadays...or is that just here? Maybe there aren't any empty beaches or parks anymore .....?

Anyhow - I hope you like my new Anyone and he gives you the feeling of up, up and away......

If you haven't met Anyone before - be sure to check out "Anyone can fall in love" and "Anyone can whistle".