The creative process fascinates me almost as much as colors, textures, and patterns. By 'process' I mean how one makes the journey from raw materials to finished art. Each artist has his or her own preferred method for inspiration, planning, and execution. I don't know how typical my process is, but I'm going to try to catalog it as much as I can, because I find it fascinating.
To begin the process, one must have the materials (whether it is jewelry or food, one has to have the basics on hand). As an artist interested in many media, I collect just about anything - stones, beads, textiles, beetle wings, feathers, scrap metal, shells, seeds. They reside in my studio in baskets or boxes or out in the yard in little piles.
The next step is to have lots of inspirational material at hand - magazines, books, websites. I have hundreds of books on jewelry, art, and other visual inspiration (textiles, photography). I also buy magazines like Ornament, Lapidary Journal / Jewelry Artist, Art Jewelry Magazine, Stampington's line of publications - Altered Couture, Artful Blogging, and Belle Armoire Jewelry, to name just a few. I flip through them (like I do recipe books and food magazines) during lunch or at night. The ideas just sift around in my head.
When I have just a little time to create - or I am giving myself 'permission' to create (that is, when I'm not fully engaged in a large contract for a client, or an event) - I notice that a part of my brain becomes locked in to seeing colors, textures, and patterns and processing them, no matter what I am doing at the time. I can be eating, sleeping, walking - and an idea just pops into my head. It can be jewelry, clothing, food - anything.
When a specific idea comes to me that I like, I keep a journal for sketching my ideas.
Then, when I set aside time to create, I head out to my studio and set out my current piles and sketches and I start fiddling with the bits and pieces . . . and the funny thing is, I can set out to create a bracelet but I might end up making a dyed and embellished scarf. I try not to force things, to "have" to do what I set out to do. This makes the whole art process so much more enjoyable to me.
The photos above are a collection of small pieces of slate, obsidian, bottle glass, and weathered copper sheet found on a beach in Mexico. This pile has been sitting on a corner of my workbench for months . . . when I'm on the phone, I sift and sort and play with the bits. I've been waiting for ideas to solidify. The copper is gorgeously, naturally patinated and I want to get it just right.
Right now I'm leaning toward a bracelet incorporating the small pieces of slate alternating with the copper sheet somehow. I like the verdigris, warm peach, and lilac colors together. I'm envisioning silver bezels or frames . . . and link connectors, for a loose bracelet. It hasn't quite 'gelled' yet, so we'll see.
As this project progresses, I'll continue to share in the process.
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