Time Capsule: Creative Challenges

Five years ago this month I was beading non-stop for my Necklace a Day challenge, attempting to create and post 30 necklaces in 30 days. Although it was exhausting, I loved doing that challenge. I learned a lot about the materials and techniques that I was using, and discovered a lot of new designs thanks to the pressure of coming up with quick projects.

Some of my favorite designs were created during a Necklace a Day, including the first herringbone fringe necklace and some very tasty lariats. It’s always interesting to look back on collective projects like these and see how much my style has changed, and wonder if these old techniques could ever be made new again.

I’ll probably never do a daily challenge again, but since then I’ve developed a lot of affection for creative challenges. It’s such a fantastic way to keep new ideas coming, not to mention creating opportunities to fail and learn from it. The successes can be pretty inspiring, too!

My most recent design challenge was a more casual approach. The Egyptian Gods series had no deadlines, just the hope of eventually making a design for each of the most well-known Ancient Egyptian deities. I ended up cutting it short with only two projects to go in order to get started on Ancient Worlds Modern Beads, and once that was complete the challenge had lost its inspirational appeal.

Really embracing the Egyptian themes that I love was incredibly inspiring and gave me the opportunity to create pieces that I really liked. It feels like a good time to start that kind of challenge again. This time, I want to explore my geek side – something that I haven’t shared here much before. The Geekspiration challenge isn’t one I can put a number on – there are just too many possibilities - so I’m going to put a one year deadline on it. We’ll check in and see how many designs I can come up with by November 2016.

Right now most of my ideas are revolving around geek heroines, and designs inspired by their style. There might also be some more obvious inspirations that come along, too. I'm not saying I will definitely do a Minecraft pattern tutorial, but I'm not saying I definitely won't, either. Can’t wait to see what the beads will do!

Mortira

Subscribe * Facebook * Google+

Support Inspirational Beading for bonus tutorials and more!
Send your beading questions to InspirationalBeading@gmail.com

Copyright 2015 Inspirational Beading