Do you want to design for yourself?
Learning the basics of beading and jewelry making by following how-to instructions is a good way to develop a repertoire of techniques. But sooner or later, the day comes when you find yourself wondering if it would be ok to modify that pattern just a bit. As you tweak a bit here and a bit more there, you eventually end up abandoning other people’s patterns altogether. You’ve become a designer, an explorer of uncharted territory…and you are loving it!
Whether you like to work intuitively or from a carefully structured plan, there is always a magical spark at some point that starts off your creative process. Maybe you simply feel the need for a green necklace to go with a specific dress. Or maybe you have picked up an incredibly cool ammonite fossil and you must figure out a way to wear it. Perhaps there is a new stitching technique that you’ve been wanting to try, or a song lyric is stuck in your head and needs to come out in another form.
There are many different ways to enter into designing. A basic understanding of the elements and principles of design will do any artist a world of good when it comes to creating a pleasing piece, whatever the media, and over the years I have found that certain combinations of these elements and principles are of particular importance to me when I’m working on a new design. This is not an entirely logical process when I’m in the middle of actually doing it, but I’ve still been able to tease out some preferences that influence my work. Probably nobody other than you will be able to look at your piece afterwards and pick out exactly what your motivation was for designing your treasure. But they probably will be aware of the impact of your finished piece as all the elements work together to create a piece that is much more evocative than the sum of its parts.
I want to share with you the entry points that I most often use in designing my pieces. I hope that some of these concepts will be helpful to you. I really want to avoid turning a discussion on creativity into a “paint-by-numbers” kit, but am hoping instead that you will find it liberating to consider your own preferences and play with the process. Please add your own thoughts in the comments section…I’d love to know if any of my ideas ring true for you too.
We start tomorrow with focal point!
creativity, designing, tutorials
July 13th, 2007 at 8:24 am
This is a great idea! So many newbies don’t know where to start, and so many oldies still can learn a thing or two.
July 13th, 2007 at 8:36 am
[...] Bead Arts: Cyndi is starting a new series especially for people who want to get into designing their own original work. [...]
July 13th, 2007 at 8:51 am
Right Tammy! I wrote this series for myself, to clarify my own thinking
August 1st, 2007 at 8:16 am
[...] is a list of all the articles in this series: Introduction Focal Point Theme Color Scheme Materials Structure [...]
December 30th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Does free really mean free???I recently found this free online auction site AuctionNitro.com. There are ABSOLUTEY 100% no fees to
list items, sell items or buy items! You can even feature, bold etc., at no cost as well and there is no
“gotcha” fine print. However, I found myself sending several emails asking over and over “it is all free?
What’s the catch?”FREE MEANS WHAT IT SAYS - FREE!!!It seems that the word free today carries so little real substance that it has to always have a catch to it.
-Does Free mean almost free?
-Does Free mean only if you subscribe and pay later?
-Does Free mean just for some people?When a product and/or service is advertising free, in my old fashioned mentality, it always means free!
Try it, Use it, Love it or leave it but don’t abuse it! Today it seems that talk has become so cheap that
what our country once stood for “Free” is now just a passing phrase for marketers.