Category: ideas & inpirations

Ideas & Inspirations No5. ~ Portuguese man-of-war (Bluebottle):

 

Portuguese man-of-war (Bluebottle): a small marine creature that I remember from childhood.  I have lovely memories of strolling the beach, with stick in hand, bursting the little blue bubbles washed up along the shoreline – but, don’t be fooled, although not lethal, this iridescent beauty can deliver a mighty sting…

The moment I saw the vibrant, blue/purple of this gorgeous ‘Noro Silk Garden’ yarn I was reminded of those earlier days – the felted crochet crown is 100% pure wool with the band crochet directly onto it – the textured coronet is a continuous band of fairy wings which have been individually hand-beaded with tiny glass seed beads & then hand-sewn to the finished beanie. I’m rather please with the result…

Ideas & Inspiration No4. Scribbler

Scribbly Gum: gets its name from insect larvae “Scribblers” that live on the trunk & under the bark, leaving these interesting marks when the bark peals & falls off.

Nature’s graffiti artists I call these busy little critters –

My Freeform Handbag ‘Scribbler’ is the result (available for sale in my Etsy shop)

Ideas & Inspirations No3. Acacia

Acacia (Wattle): is another beautiful Australian native that comes in a variety of shapes & sizes & is a particular favourite of mine.

The cheerful yellow flowers are easily recognisable, but it’s the foliage that I find most fascinating – ranging from round, soft, silvery greys… to sparse, spiky olive green branches… to bright green fern-like stems.

My Freeform Handbag ‘Acacia’ came into being one winter when these lovely shrubs were in full bloom….

Ideas & Inspirations… No 2. Banksia

Banksia: it is so easy to be inspired by the interesting textures & unusual colours of this uniquely Australian woody tree/shrub – the leaves are waxy, serrated & vary in colour from olive greens to bright ochre – the flower spikes are sculptural & vibrant & age into bizarre, gnarled seed pods which alone are a great source of inspiration.

My Freeform Crochet Handbag ‘Banksia No3’ (is available for sale in my Etsy shop) was influenced by a beautiful Banksia growing in my garden & I took it for granted for the longest time in my garden – fortunately I managed to take a photo of it before it died.

Ideas & Inspirations…. where do they come from? No 1.

I’m not entirely sure if it’s possible to answer these elusive concepts… I might even be tempting fate by trying to analysing them… nevertheless, the questions have been asked, so I’ll give it a go but please, understand that I speak only for myself, others may (& will) come from completely different directions.

As I’ve said in an earlier post, I’ve been prompted to write a short series about ideas & inspirations… what they are & where they come from?… and attempt to answer these so often asked questions … what inspired you to do this or that? Where do your ideas come from? Why & how do you choose certain colours ~ textures~ shapes over others?

The dictionary defines idea as ‘just whatever is before the mind when one thinks – notion conceived by the mind’ Ok, so that’s not very helpful… and defines inspiration as ‘sudden creativity in artistic production – a sudden happy idea’… A sudden happy idea, Oh, but I do like that!

And, I guess that about sums it up… A sudden idea that stirs the blood, ignites the creative fire & burns until something is done about it. I know it’s been said thousands of times by many artists everywhere & sounds so very cliché & glib but I really am influenced by nature’s offerings & my surroundings – a landscape (be it urban or rural), sunset, cloud formation, someone’s garden – a leaf, flower, rock, sea shell, coral, feather – a yarn, colour, texture or shape – I may come across an outrageous colour combo in someone’s garden, rush home, rummage through my stash & see if I have something that might help to interrupt what I’ve just found – if not, I’ll search the shops until I find it… this can take a day or two, more often it takes weeks… but, if I’m truly excited, I’ll search until I find it.

But having that said, these are just words &, as they say… ‘a picture’s worth a thousand words’ so I’ll be posting images of my work & what I believe influenced or inspired it, or what may have sparked the initial idea – I will be revisiting some items & many of you may be familiar with these pieces already but perhaps not so familiar with what inspired the original idea…

…and please, I value your comments so feel free to chime in at any time… stay tuned & enjoy!