There are always people who ask me where do I get my ideas and what inspires me to do what I do?
While I am tempted to paraphrase Agatha Christie and tell people I find ideas on the shelf at the local
department store, I just smile and say, “from life”.
It is true, life inspires me, words inspire me, dreams inspire me and what I call happy accidents inspire me.
I can watch an amazing summer sunset and see amethyst, rose quartz and turquoise in the
colours that spread across the darkening sky.
In reading Joanne Harris’ novel Chocolat , there is a wonderful phrase “carnival wind” and
immediately I see the colours and hear the echos of music and know exactly how the design will look.
I found the same to be true with T.S. Eliot’s name for twilight The Violet Hour. I see a weaving of amethyst and lepidolite and purple goldstone mingled together with the magic that is indeed twilight.
I have dreamed of pieces involving ladybirds (ladybugs), pieces of driftwood, rose petal beads, and dryad figures. The next day I am able to create a piece that actually resembles the image I have in my mind and sometimes they sell almost as soon as I am finished.
There are days when by chance two different coloured stones end up side-by-side on my
workspace table. Although I would never think of putting them together they look amazing and my
mind creates a design called "Bohemian Heart".
Words themselves have always fascinated me as well. There are times when I find myself
putting words together that wouldn’t always be side by side but again it seems to work and that
creates the stories that go along with each piece. Inspired partly by mythology, partly by all types of
spirituality and partly by nature my mind creates a story that allows the energy of the stones to shine.
I have the firm belief that we all have the ability to be artists, we just have to find the
medium that suits us best. That might be painting or jewellry design or baking or working with
people of all ages.
I also encourage people to just see the world for the beautiful place it can be. Feel the wind in their faces and the sun on their bodies, notice the forty shades of green in a spring forest. These things provide inspiration not just to create something but to feel a little calmer, a little happier and to think a little more positively and surely that’s what we all need right now. Watching birds find food in our back yard, seeing squirrels use the crosswalk to cross the street, watching dogs roll around in fresh snow allows us to see things just a little differently. If it inspires us to write a poem or create a piece of adornment, fantastic!!
Sometimes it just allows us to smile, to laugh and to realize that life is okay after all.
Leave a comment on where you draw your inspiration from.
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