November Pinspiration

I must admit that compared to some artists and bloggers, I seriously neglect Pinterest, even though I know what an amazing source of inspiration it can be. So many pictures - so little time. But when I do visit, I always find something worth collecting. Here are just a few of my favorites of late.

Do you have a favorite Pinterest board to keep you inspired?

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A Flicker of Inspiration: Spooky Birds

Once August has passed it’s difficult not to turn to thoughts of the exciting things to come during the remainder of the year. Halloween is still nearly two months away, but now is the best time to start planning costumes, festivities, and spooky jewelry. It’s still early, so I don’t want to go overboard with skulls and witches just yet. Instead, I thought we could take a look at some classic scary birds.

1. Magpie, 2. Vulture, 3. Owl,
4. Vulture, 5. Raven, 6. Owl,
7. Raven, 8. Owl bird, 9. crow

Owls and ravens have always been ideal symbols for jewelry and personal adornment. Many cultures have considered them to be powerful creatures, which is probably why - along with their associations with night and death - they have made their way into so many popular Halloween myths.

Do you have a favorite fall bird?

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A Flicker of Inspiration: Bead Embroidery

I have been craving bead embroidery quite a bit lately. Perhaps it was remembering my earlier Egyptian beadwork, or just longing for something a bit different. Either way, I am looking forward to getting back into it sometime in the near future, though I may have to make it a 2012 resolution. I’m working on finding just the right foundation material. Genuine leather and suede are expensive and difficult to work, ultra suede and acrylic felt are out, because of what they are made of. I’ll just have to keep looking.

In the meantime, I wanted to indulge just a little bit, and I found some gorgeous bead embroidery designs on Flickr. The variety of design styles showcases the versatility of this technique. It’s one of the only beading styles that has no rules, just guidelines. There’s the classic rosette style, freeform, cabochons, and one of my favorites, embellishing patterned fabric.

1. Hannah and the Sunflower,
2. Phoenix Reborn, 3. Closeup of shell, 4. fabric beads, 5. Bead Embroidered Collar,
6. Facing a Wall of Denial, 7. Beaded Cuff Moon Over Stormy Waters3,
8. Beaded Blue Doll, 9. beaded embroidery pendant - aqua & bronze,
10. bead embroidery pendant - girls just wanna have fun, 11. Bead Journal Project July07, 12. Polymer Clay and Seed Bead Embroidery, 13. bead embroidery

Which embroidery style do you like most?

Copyright 2011 Inspirational Beading
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Collage by BigHugeLabs.com
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A Flicker of Inspiration: Leaves

It’s not quite time for the leaves to change yet, though some trees are getting ready for it. Today I wanted to take a look at some of the wonderful qualities of leaves around the year. Not only do they come in an amazing variety of colors and shapes, but their patterns and textures are also something to behold. Whether in a cluster, or a single leaf up close, they are some of nature’s most beautiful creations.

1. Sunlight Ignites the Leaves,
2. 274/365: Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.,
3. Day 83 15.10.08 when autumn leaves start to fall..,

4. A very happy leaf in company, 5. Ginkgo Leafs, 6. Leaves,

7. Leaves, 8. Green leaf alien, 9. Leaves,

10. Leaves and Water, 11. Jatropha hybrid - Leaf detail (129 DAS), 12. Single-lobed sassafras leaf,

13. Leaf Macro Texture, 14. Leaf, 15. leaf 2

Do you have a favorite type of leaf? How to you like to incorporate leaves into your designs?

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Flicker of Inspiration: Vintage Feedsack

Vintage style and green living go together like grain and paisley. That is to say, there’s nothing greener than making a dress, tote bag, or notebook cover from fabric that your grandmother saved from a sack of flour in the 1940’s.

Patterned feedsack fabric was a genius marketing gimmick from a time when everything was reusable, and nothing came in plastic. All kinds of products from animal feed and seeds, to flour and sugar, was sold in plain muslin sacks, which homemakers saved, washed and reused around the house. Someone thought it would be a good idea to make the bags pretty, and suddenly fashionable feedsacks were in demand.

1. 'new' fabric finds, 2. Kate's feedsack quilt, 3. Sunny Days Feedsacks,
4. vintage feedsack, 5. Feedsack, 6. Feedsack darlings,
7. feedsack_No12.JPG, 8. Feedsack Stash, 9. feedsacks april 2009

Today feedsack fabrics are being revived for everything from quilts to dresses, and the cute vintage patterns are certainly charming. I’d love to get my hands on some and use the motifs as backdrops and stencils for bead embroidery.

Do you like vintage feedsack fabric? What’s your favorite pattern?

Copyright 2011 Inspirational Beading
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A Flicker of Inspiration: Fireworks

Math is a universal language, even in a metaphorical sense. It might not be true everywhere, but in many places there is an undeniable equation:

Warm Weather + Celebrating = Fireworks.

In honor of the 4th of July, I thought it would be fun to look at some of the amazing shapes and colors of fireworks displays. Though it might be tricky to literally recreate the look of fireworks with beads, they do provide some interesting combinations to ponder.

Fireworks

1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7, 8,
9, 10, 11, 12

My personal favorites are the big, yellowy-white dandelion shaped bursts, that slowly melt into a chrysanthemum shape. I love the champagne color of the sparks, and the graceful way they fall and dissipate. Even the most awkward shaped fireworks look stunning against the backdrop of a night sky, and when captured in photographs, the bursts are breathtaking in a whole new way.

Here’s to a fantastic summer!

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A Flicker of Inspiration: Nudibranchs

Is there any source of inspiration more abundant than the ocean? The colors, shapes, and even moods of the sea translate so well into all kinds of art forms, including beadwork. No matter what time of year it is, or where you happen to be, if you’re feeling in a beachy mood, beads can take you there.

1. Clown nudibranch (Ceratosoma amoenum), 2. Nudibranch, 3. Nudibranch - Phyllidiopsis shirinae - P1131079, 4. Nudibranch - Nembrotha kubaryana,
5. Flabellina iodinea nudibranch, 6. Nudibranch by Neil Cable, 7. Nudibranch gills lit by snoot, 8. Nudibranch,
9. Janolus Nudibranch, 10. Nudibranch 2 by Guillaume Deudon shot using Tovatec Supernova, 11. Nudibranch, 12. Nudibranch,
13. Nudibranch, Phyllidia coelestis, 14. nudibranch, 15. Opalescent nudibranch (Hermissenda crassicornis), 16. Nudibranch

One of my favorite sea creatures is the nudibranch. These beautiful reef dwellers come in an amazing variety of colors and shapes, and are often confused with sea slugs and other tropical mollusks. Pronounced new-dee-brank, their name means “naked gills”.

What’s your favorite sea creature?

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The Colors of Cinco de Mayo

Tomorrow is the celebration of Cinco de Mayo, one of the most vibrant and colorful festivals. Though this Mexican holiday is practiced mainly in the state of Puebla, it is recognized and celebrated all over the US and in other parts of the world.

1. Cinco de Mayo ornaments, 2. cinco de mayo, 3. Cinco de Mayo Fire Show,
4. Happy Cinco de Mayo Everyone, 5. Cinco de Mayo, 6. Colors of Cinco de Mayo,
7. Cinco de Mayo Dancer, 8. cinco de mayo, 9. San Francisco Cinco De Mayo Festival 2008

Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican victory over French invaders on the fifth of May, 1862, and has become a holiday to celebrate Mexican pride, heritage and culture. The amazing costumes and traditional dress are just part of the fun, but are certainly eye-catching. Perhaps they can help to inspire your next color adventure?

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A Flicker of Inspiration: Easter Eggs

Most holidays and festivals are filled with traditional color, but none of them is quite as exciting as the Easter season. After a long winter, it’s wonderful to see so many bright, cheerful colors everywhere. And then there are the eggs.

Easter eggs have a unique appeal to beaders and crafters. Their naturally smooth shape is not only pretty to the eyes, but it is also one of the strongest shapes in nature. Add a bit of onion skin or beet juice, and they are also very decorative.

Here is a selection of fantastic and beautiful Easter egg designs, plus some fun spring inspirations. What’s your favorite Easter color scheme?

1. Romanian traditional Easter eggs,
2. Easter Cupcake, 3. Easter eggs, 4. A rocky nest of beaded eggs..., 5. Easter egg,
6. Chick ( Explore ), 7. Latvian Easter Eggs, 8. More Easter eggs, 9. Easter Bunny,
10. Easter Eggs, 11. DAFFODIL-yellow, 12. Happy Easter, 13. Easter eggs

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A Flicker of Inspiration: Mardi Gras Beads

The Mardi Gras festival that most of us are familiar with started as celebration of the settlement of the French territory Louisiane, mingled with religious traditions leading up to Easter. On the final day before the Christian season of Lent, it is tradition to consume great quantities of things that must be given up during the time of fasting.

Over the years, this feast before the fast tradition has come to include pretty much anything that people wouldn’t do on any other day of the year. It can be quite the wild party, with revelers doing whatever they can to collect strands of Mardi Gras beads or throws.

If the idea of a holiday that centers around beads seems too good to be true, it probably is. Mardi Gras throws have seen some controversy in recent years, due in part to the documentary Mardi Gras: Made in China. Inspired by questions about globalization, David Redmon's film follows the path of plastic beads from a factory in China, to the streets of New Orleans. The LA Times said it "cleverly juxtaposes the apex of American bacchanalian excess with the sweatshop-like conditions that facilitate the fun."

1. Mardi Gras Beads, 2. Mardi Gras Mask, 3. More Mardi Gras Beads,
4. Mardi Gras Beads, 5. Mardi Gras | Carnival Masks, 6. rainbow mardi gras beads,
7. Mardi Gras Beads, 8. 55/365 Mardi Gras beads, 9. Mardi Gras Beads

Whatever you think of imported party favors, be sure to celebrate safely!

Copyright 2011 Inspirational Beading and BigHugeLabs
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A Flicker of Inspiration: Crystals

If you put ten random people into a room, and asked them to define the word crystal, chances are you’d get ten different answers. If one of those people happens to be a beader, they would probably be thinking of crystal beads - maybe even the classic and versatile Swarovski bicone.

Today I thought it would be fun to look at the unique shapes and colors of natural crystal formations. These amazing structures are formed by natural elements under just the right conditions, and have long captured human imagination.

1. Cristalli di Ametista 1, 2. Pyromorphite cavern, 3. Caverns of Sonora,
4. Crystal King, Ohio Caverns, West Liberty, Ohio, 5. Blue Crystals,
6. Ice Crystals #3, 7. Crystal World 2, 8. Amerthyst geode, 9. formation...,
10. Crystal Formation - Smithsonian, 11. formations of organic materials,
12. Quartz Crystal Focus Stack 2, 13. Blue Crystal Formation

Copyright 2011 Inspirational Beading and Big Huge Labs
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A Flicker of Inspiration: Ancient Egypt

I recently retook photographs of my Princess Nefertiti collar, and it reminded me just how much I love the Ancient Egyptian aesthetic. The Pharaohs - and their royal artisans - had an amazing gift for combining gold with colored gemstones, and the shapes and lines are so enchanting. Not to mention some of the beautiful mythologies and intriguing pantheon of gods and goddesses.

The interesting thing about the use of color in Ancient Egyptian art, is that most combinations were chosen for their spiritual significance, and not for their overall appearance. Symbolism was an important part of the design process.

Today I did some browsing through photographs of Egyptian artifacts and landmarks. Sadly, many of the unique pieces I found were photographed in museums far from their homeland. The Egpytian Supreme Council of Antiquities is constantly negotiating the return of many important artifacts, including the bust of Nefertiti.

Perhaps these images will inspire some enchanting beadwork!

1. Das Auge des Horus - The eye of the Horus, 2. Nefertiti, 3. tutankhamun, 4. Tutankhamun 2010,
5. Wadjet, 6. DSC_0604, 7. Egyptian_Statues_IMG_0763, 8. Egyptian pyramids,
9. Egypt-9B-020 - Amenhotep II, 10. Egypt,
11. Egypt Adventure your key to Egypt, 12. egypt, 13. Egypt

Copyright 2011 Inspirational Beading and BigHugeLabs.com
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A Flicker of Inspiration: Winter Berries

During the winter months, color is a little scarce out in nature. Most of the leaves have gone, and the flowers are sleeping away the cold months, waiting for spring. So it’s no wonder that the few hardy plants still around, like holly and mistletoe, make for fantastic holiday decorations.

Berries are a wonderful inspiration for beadwork, since their round shapes are easy to imitate with beads. Today I have a collection of colorful berries to share, which might just inspire some juicy beaded designs.

1. Strawberry with chocolate, 2. Winter Berries, 3. winter berries,
4. Purple berries on bright orange stems of a Bamboo Palm... Chamaedorea erumpens,
5. White Berries, 6. The dense of mistletoe, 7. Holly Berry with Snow (cropped),
8. A Berry Good Day, 9. berries for the birds at Christmas.,
10. Japanese beauty-berry (Callicarpa japonica),
11. White currant * Johannisbeeren, 12. Berry Bright Bokeh,
13. i can taste summer! a.k.a. childhood summer! a.k.a. childhood reminiscence! a.k.a. those were the good times!

Copyright 2010 Inspirational Beading and BigHugeLabs

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A Flicker of Inspiration: Daisies

When creating bead designs and patterns, it is sometimes best to stick with the obvious. For instance, when making flowers, we usually choose colors that represent the most common variations of the species we are trying to recreate. Beaded roses are usually red, and daisies are usually white and yellow.

Sticking to the basics helps to make sure that our inspiration is clear, though taking chances can also have some beautiful results. I like to use purple when working with daisy patterns, and the little flowers could be seen as purple daisies, or as violets.

Today’s necklace uses both white and purple with daisy chain and daisy patterned peyote stitch. I combined one of my favorite color palettes, sour violet, with the design behind my harlequin necklace. This piece is a big improvement on the original, with a smaller bar and sturdier straps.

I know always using purple and daisies together could get boring any time, so today I had a look through some fantastic daisy photographs on Flickr. The colors, shapes and textures are so amazing! Here’s just a small selection of the flowery treasures I found:

1. Orange Daisies, 2. Red Daisy Close Up, 3. daisy, 4. Blue Daisies #2,
5. Cape Daisies, 6. Lazy day on a daisy, 7. Livingstone Daisy, 8. Daisy Damp,
9. Daisy Tell Me True!, 10. When all else fails, give the one you love Gerbera Daisies...,
11. Daisy for you, 12. daisy, 13. Daisies in Punta Indio - Margaritas

Copyright 2010 Inspirational Beading
Flickr.com and Big Huge Labs

A Flicker of Inspiration: Harvest Time

Nobody does color like Mother Nature, and this is her best time of year. Like a young girl with rosy cheeks on a hayride, she's showing us how beautiful a little color can be. Today, I put together a little collection of harvest delights, with colors and textures that make for great inspiration. There are a few handmade items hidden in the mix, too!

1. And the beet goes on :), 2. pumpkin white, 3. two cloves and bulb of garlic,
4. New Potatoes, 5. Spinach, 6. UK - Oxford - Town Garden - Rhubarb sq,
7. Butternut Squash Medley #3, 8. Green Cabbage - The Delicious Daily 11.09.2009, 9. Heirloom Tomatoes,
10. Whole Kernel Macro, 11. Soaking White Beans, 12. Apple Bushel,
13. Green Beans, 14. Red skin potatoes, 15. farmer's market find: baby turnips,
16. Welcome Great Pumpkin, 17. bigchestnuts...variety " marroni", 18. And the crowd goes wild,
19. Colorful niblets, 20. carrots_5278.jpg, 21. Mushrooms,
22. Freshly Cut Zucchini, 23. acorn squash, 24. The Fall Color Assortment of Wool Acorns,
25. look what the little bit of rain woke up

A Flicker of Inspiration: Animal Prints

One of the best things about off-loom beadweaving is that we can take any image, pattern, or idea, and turn it into a beautiful cuff or tapestry, or even a beautiful jacket. Transferring a real life pattern to special beading graph paper, and then following the design is a lot more difficult than it sounds, but the results are worth it.

As usual, Mother Nature provides us with some of the most beautiful prints and patterns imaginable. And with beading, you only need a photograph and a little hard work to wear leopard skin. I searched high and low for some truly inspirational photographs of patterns, shapes and colors found only in the wild. Perhaps they will inspire your next creation!

And, if you need a little help getting started, I also founds these fun beading patterns:

Monarch Butterfly, Pink Zebra Print, Leopard Spots, Tiger Eyes

1. Eye of a Tokay Gecko, 2. Monarch Caterpillar, 3. Coral Trout Eye,
4. Atlas moth (Attacus atlas), 5. Poison Dart Frog Sitting on a Leaf, 6. Msitu Baby Giraffe,
7. tortoise shell, 8. Thrigby Leopard, 9. Parrot Feathers,
10. Zebras, 11. Cheetah cubs, 12. Tiger! Tiger! Burning Bright, 13. Snake Skin

Copyright 2010 Inspirational Beading and BigHugeLabs.com

A Flicker of Inspiration: Sunsets

August is here, and that means summer is nearly over. Although we may rush to try and fit in a few more summer activities, the days will grow shorter, and lazier. One of the most telling signs of summer’s end is our reluctance to head indoors. Sitting around the campfire or on the patio until the sun goes down is a great summer tradition, and makes for some beautiful memories. Perhaps these colorful sunsets will inspire your next great beading palette!

1. Post-storm sunset, 2. Palm Tree Sunset, 3. Purple Sunset over Toronto,
4. Pirate Ship Sunset, 5. Spring Storm, Sunset, 6. Fiery Sunset Over Snow Fields,
7. Field at Sunset - HDR, 8. Field Sunset, 9. Mountain Sunset,
10. Simien Mountain Sunset, 11. Mountain Sunset, 12. Gun Beach Sunset, 13. Landscape

Copyright 2010 Inspirational Beading and Big Huge Labs

A Flicker of Inspiration: Beautiful Butterflies

I really love using Flickr. Not only is it filled to the brim with amazing photographs and art, but there are so many fun things that you can do with it. Today, I thought I would create a mosaic with a few of my favorites, and share it with you. Perhaps these lovely colors and shapes will inspire your next great project!

Credits:

1. Male Golden Birdwing butterfly Bangkok, 2. Colorful Butterfly, 3. Blue butterfly,
4. Butterfly, 5. Another beautiful butterfly !, 6. Irridescent Glass Wing Butterfly,
7. ~ Butterfly ~ " What Wingspan " ? ~, 8. Monarch Butterfly, 9. Butterfly at Tucson Botanical Gardens

Copyright 2010 Inspirational Beading and Big Huge Labs