Non-Bead Tools for Creativity

I've been rearranging my bead studio contents lately, getting them into some semblance of order, or trying to.

In the process, I've learned few interesting things about myself and about my creative process; how I go outside myself for ideas and inspiration. I don't get to bead as much as I'd like to, however, I do think of beading designs and put together beadwork patterns, beading projects and ideas for certain beads quite regularly. Unfortunately, too often, I get distracted before I can make a note of my thoughts, and making a quick sketch is usually out of the question, unless I'm just sitting quietly, which is rare.

Using Images

I have my own set of "tools" for enhancing and encouraging my creativity; to keep the thoughts and ideas flowing. I absolutely love bead post cards, I hang pictures of all kinds - snapshots, cartoons, various non-bead related images from fashion magazines, showing shapes, lines and colors that catch my eye, and notes to myself and from my family. I have several binders full of pictures of jewelry, torn from fashion magazines over the years, but I have gotten lax about that in recent years, as I started to find that too much input was a bit overwhelming, not to mention expensive - those magazine bucks can be better spent on beads!

I do, however, find myself consulting these images often, but rarely for an exact idea to swipe. Yes, OK, I'm guilty - I've re-created (after my own fashion) a necklace or bracelet I've seen in Vogue or Elle or some other high-fashion magazine, but I do not use these on the Beadwork site. I have, however, given credit to certain pieces of jewelry that inspired me to create something similar, but not identical. However, even those images that I have no intention of modifying and beading for myself are inspiring. The shapes, the colors, the overall "look" of a particular piece can become an inspiration for something completely different and equally, if not more, beautiful.

Coloring Books

Even though I have had no formal art training, and have not studied drawing or painting, I still do it as often as I can. It makes no difference to me if my sketches or paintings are technically good or bad. it's what the image arouses in my creative mind that matters.

I have a little collection of various marking pens, watercolor pots, colored pencils, crayons, oil pastels for drawing, chalk pastels for coloring polymer clay and rubber stamping ink, inks, dyes, glitter, pigment powders, acrylic paints and even wax-based rub-on stain, all of which allow me to play with color. I even have a couple of those teeny sets of colored pencils that are kept in a CD case, which I use with an unlined wire-bound 3 X 5 card pad. That way if I have to wait somewhere, I can do a little doodling.

Definitely Do Doodles!

My mother was a natural artist - never trained, but she had a wonderful talent, and an eye for color, composition, line, texture, and especially for lighting. She also understood the value of good doodling - doodling being those silly little geometrical, sometimes organic, round, wavy, squiggly designs drawn to pass the time. I see fewer people doodling these days, perhaps due to the increase in technology. People are seldom seen with a pad of paper and a pencil; more often, it's a Blackberry or a laptop. Hard to doodle on a computer.

My mother doodled constantly, creating amazing images, much like designs created made by the drawing toy called a Spirograph, popular back in the 1960's. She could balance her doodles, maintain the shape, spacing and the balance, almost without looking. She said it helped her to keep balance in her drawings, and to judge space and balance by eye.

I've emulated this habit of my mother's and found that it does work well as a hand/eye coordination tool. When I have been doodling regularly, I can see spacing in a project without having to string and unstring, over and over,until I've found the right balance. I can also estimate size and proportion, and can generally get a better idea of how many of what size beads I'll need for a particular section in a project.

Design Beadwork on Paper for a Change

While many of us design beadwork using computers and design-specific beading programs, it is still a lot of fun, and a great way to learn, to design the old-fashioned way - with graph paper and colored pens pr pencils.

Graph paper programs are still available, and it's easy to print out sheets, then cut them into small sections to keep in your purse. Then, if you are so inclined, and if you already have your little colored pencils with you, you can begin doodling out a new Peyote or Brick stitch design, or a design using any stitch you choose - there's paper available for just about any stitch you can think of.

If you don't have your colored pencils, try doing little "dot to sot" type drawing, connecting the beads into an image. You can even sketch the image lightly onto the graph paper, then fill in the appropriate beads later, once the sketch is complete.