The creative process

So how does the creative process work?  Where does inspiration come from?  It's obviously different from person to person, and even project to project, but for me a lot of ideas have been stumbled upon.

Take these two bracelets that I just finished, for example..  The story starts below this picture.

While I was working on my July challenge piece (pictured below), I went to a friend's wedding.  Her new sister-in-law beaded her necklace.  The stitch she used was similar to techniques I had seen in other necklaces and bracelets while poking around the internet.  I should probably figure out what the technique is called... 

That particular necklace inspired me to add the white 'moonbeams' to the necklace, using this stitch I had seen around.

When I finished the necklace, I had a jumble of blue, green, and some red beads which I really didn't want to sort out, as well as a jumble of white beads.  Obviously, the logical choice was to make a matching bracelet.  Well, I ran out of the blue, green, and red before the bracelet was long enough, so I finished it off with the white in that same stitch, and then embellished one end of the blue with a 'moonbeam'.  

I really liked the look of the white circle type thingys on the blue bracelet - not just the color contrast, but the dimensionality of it.  And that evolved into my two newest bracelets.  The turquoise and red ceramic beads inspired the color choices, as well as the creation of two of these bracelets.

Sometimes, I'll come across an idea while I'm making another piece.  I made the earrings below based on a portion of a pattern on a dress of mine.  While they were coming together, I reached a point where it looked like a daisy-type flower.  That wasn't the goal for this pair of earrings, but I stored it away for later.

And I used that 'stumbled upon' technique in these earrings (and a matching necklace).

Then I used it again in this necklace (my June challenge piece)

Anyhow, that's how many of my ideas come about.  One piece inspires another inspires another, I accidentally do something that inspires another piece, and so forth.  It's fun.

Vote!

Voting for the Etsy Beadweaver's July Challenge is in full swing now!

Go to http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com to vote for your favorite entry.  

On pendants and lack of sales

While I thoroughly enjoyed being in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of Northern New Mexico, and I gave out business cards to everyone who came to my table, the sales part of this trip was not so great.  I sold a grand total of one small pair of earrings and one small candle holder. There just weren't that many people who came!  Although, the people selling paper products next to me had sale after sale.  (Granted, they did very nice work!  I suppose a fair like this one was the right niche for their products, I just need to find the right niche for mine.)

So, here I am in the darkest corner in a dark room, despite being next to a window.

and my pottery.

But there was a dude there who did wire wrapping with sterling silver.  I couldn't help but pick up a couple of pendants.  I'm excited to use these..  Unfortunately, he doesn't yet have a website that I can direct you all too.  There were some beautiful pieces a bit out of my price range - some fabulous ammonites, and a great chunk of labradorite.  

This one is labeled amazonite, and I traded for a piece of pottery.

This one is a mixture of hematite and tigers eye, and I straight up bought this one. :)

While on the national parks trip, I bought a couple of other stones for use in jewelry.

I need to learn how to do a beaded bezel and use this slice of agate!

I also bought 3 pieces of petrified wood (collected on private land, NOT the national park.) :)

I'm not sure if I want to figure out how to bead around these, or if I want to get them wire wrapped - the guy who sold me the pendants above said he can wrap stones like this.  

Off to sell again..

I've just returned from a whirlwind trip of 7 national parks in as many days - Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Grand Canyon, and Petrified Forest, for those who are interested.  

Since I am finding it impossible to sit still this summer, the next two days will be spent as a vendor at the Arts & Crafts who at the Sipapu Ski Resort.  (No, there's no snow this time of year!)  

When I get back, it will be almost time to start voting for your favorite entry in the EBW Challenge.  This month's theme was 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and all of the entries I've seen so far have been breathtaking.  Visit the link on the right hand side of my page to go to the EBW blog and vote starting July 9th!

Of course, I would be delighted if you voted for my entry, but please only do so if you like it the best. ;)

Award!

Thank you to Smadar's Treasure for giving me the Arte Y Pico Award!

The rules of this award are as follows:

1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award based on creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, regardless of language

2) Each award has to have the name of the author with a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given him/her the award.

4) Award-winner and giver must show the link to the Arte y pico blog, so others can see the origin of this award

5) These rules must be shown

I will shortly start looking through creative blogs to pass on this award to others.  At that point, I will update this post!  Thanks again to Smadar's Treasure.  Go check out her blog - she does fantastic work!

New Bracelets

I've been super impressed with all the lovely bracelets I've seen made by EBW members lately.  Also, the concept of making your own closure has seemed particularly interesting, as I've been getting fed up with the quality of the clasps I bought.  So this week, I've been working on a few bracelets (and closures!) of my own.  

Saturday and Sunday:  I realized how few brown/earthy pieces I've made.  Which is odd, considering how much I like this family of colors.  So, I made a netted bracelet.

Sunday and Monday: I've been hearing 'peyote, peyote, peyote' ever since I joined EBW, so I thought I'd look into that stitch, and how it was made.  Well, I opened up some instructions, and realized it was a stitch I'd figured out for myself a few months back, but just hadn't done much with.  So I decided to use it for this bracelet, inspired by stained glass.

Tuesday and Wednesday:  Then I was on a roll, so I tried two-drop (?) peyote.  I really like how this bracelet turned out - the pattern is based on detailing I've been using in some drawing and just basically sketches in the margins of notebooks.  The bracelet drapes delightfully!

Thursday:  This idea just came into my head, and at the last minute, I decided to add the orange beads for a little extra flair.  Somehow, I keep coming back to floral themes...  They're just so fun to make!
Any of these that don't sell will go up on Etsy after I get back from the Ft. Sumner rodeo next week!  Maybe I'll have to check out the Billy the Kid Tombstone race while I'm there...

Jewelry Displays

In a little over a week, I'll be selling for the first time in person.  The last few days, I've been busy preparing my jewelry stands.  Here's a look at the process:

Plain boards and dowel rods... interesting starting place. :)  Step 1 was to get them all cut to acceptable sizes, and step 2 was to drill lots of holes for where they'd be attached.

Next, cover the boards in fabric.  I attached the fabric to the boards using electrical tape.  It seems to work so far, but if it starts coming off, I'll go back to good ol' duct tape.  I suppose wood staples, tacks, or nails would also suffice.  Also probably glue.  But that could get messy..

The tops of the boards look great, though!

The dowel rods got spray painted black.

And stuck full of nails.

Screw the dowel rods to the boards, and voila!  Some of the rods and nails are a bit catty-wompus, but it adds to the uniqueness....  right?

And finally, a preview with earrings.  I need to hem up the cloth they're resting on to use as my table cloth.