Unexpected Inspiration

Goodness, I don't know where the month of July went!  I didn't realize it had been a month since I'd posted here.  But, I just had to share today.

Just about every Saturday morning from May until September, my SO and I have a routine.  Early risers during the week, weekends are usually not exceptions for us.  We get the Friday night paper which lists the area yard sales, check the on-line version of the paper and Craigslist and head out on Saturday mornings in search of treasure.  Quite frequently I find things I can reuse in my jewelry and floral designs so I can easily justify my penchant for collecting other people's castaways.  After checking out yard sales, we head to the local farmers' market before finishing the morning at the grocery store.

It was at the farmers' market this morning that I found my unexcepted inspiration.  We always stop to chat briefly with a friend who runs a stall and while there I glanced down and saw the most wonderful mix of colors.  It was a box with four peppers - one dark green, one yellow green, one orangey red and one purple.  It was a feast for the eyes!  And being a beadweaver, my first thought was, "Ooh, I should make up a necklace in these colors!".  My friend assured me that as well as being pretty, they also tasted good, because my second thought was that they would really be good in a stir fry.  So they came home with me and I decided to capture their beauty in a more fitting vessel than their cardboard produce box before we slice and dice them into the skillet.

Now I also have something to refer back to when I go through my bead stash.  And I think copper will be the right accent for this trio of secondary colors after seeing how lovely they look on my leaf tray (which, btw, was a yard sale find).

So I guess moral of the story is even when you're just doing your normal, routine activities, keep your eyes open.  You never know when you will see that spark of inspiration that will lead to your next creation.

Golden Moments

Seems as if it's been a long time since I've gotten a project finished and listed to my Etsy shop. I've been in kind of a beading slump after I finished my last EBW challenge piece. So for inspiration, I visited my beadroom stash and found just the thing to spark some creativity. I'd bought these green and gold glass beads at a cool little bead store my sister and I found when we went on a shopping trip together recently. It was such a fun day and although my sister doesn't bead (she's a quilter) I think she had as much fun helping me pick out beads as I did. At the same store, we found some gold seed beads with a smooth, burnished finish that went with the larger green and gold so well. I don't work with gold very often, being a diehard silver wearer, but these beads struck a chord.

Then it was on to my library of beading books for some design ideas because I wanted to do something different than my usual spiral or herringbone. I pulled out a book I've had for a while on beading with brick stitch and remembered I'd gotten some cool ideas from it in the past. Sure enough, as I leafed through it, I saw a piece with little diamond shaped links between beads. So how about for some interest, I graduate the size of the links. But as I put it together, it seemed too blah and I got the idea to open up the diamonds, making them the same green and gold as the glass beads. Things were shaping up nicely at that point. Then I found three pendants in a baggie at a yard sale. One was silver and pearl, one a black and white acrylic and one a gold spiral diamond. I actually bought the bag for the silver one but when I got them home I realized the gold one was a perfect match to my green and gold necklace. So through a series of rather serendipitous events, I arrived at that golden moment when everything came together and Voila!.......