This month's question: What inspires us? A peak into our pinboards, folders, journals (or wherever we hold little bits of inspiring stuff)
What inspires me? One word: everything! The world around me, the news, a sentence in a book I’m currently reading, the colour of a wild flower, a black and white photo, anything and everything… I used to cut and paste magazine articles and photos into journals, keeping only what had an impact on me, not just jewellery…
I am drawn to bright colours, busy backgrounds, the intricate and the ornate in everything. I need to shock, to make you stare, and I always want to go further. I tried and tried to make lovely classic timeless jewels and failed miserably. I just can’t do it. The busier the pattern the better I feel…
I also find inspiration through interviews of well-known designers; it is a real treat to look through a little window into their own minds, Jean-Paul Gaultier for example, not for his work, but for the way he works and thinks, he is cheeky and interesting and he likes to mix genres. His work is always a surprise, and even if I don’t actually like a lot of it, I like to look at it!!!
Furnishings like these are also mind blowing, made of burnt wood… this may not turn into anything but it makes me think in a different way and it makes me look at things in a different way…
I also have examples of just INCREDIBLE handmade jewels like this fabulous necklace by Magdalena Borejko, wire-wrapper extraordinaire who works with the most scrumptious of precious gems…
I also have rough sketches (and I mean rough…), and obviously, my stones…
But the shortage of ready available mags in English or French over here in Turkey has prompted me to use the internet instead, where I have dozens of folders full of pictures and websites jewellery and non-jewellery related… And the funny thing is I hardly ever re-visit them… I am much happier looking through my journals!! I think I am now reaping the benefits of keeping journals, my brain is a melting-pot of thousands of pictures and ideas, and inspiration comes out of the blue, on a good day almost immediately. I trust my brain to show me the way... =)
Thanks for reading!!
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