Do you want to design for yourself? Theme

Theme: Your guiding concept

Suppose that you have an idea or a concept that won’t leave you alone…you just must design something with that theme in mind, but you can’t find the notion of theme on your list of design elements and principles? Never fear, theme is a wonderful potential pathway into designing. Many many of my necklaces started out as a concept or theme, and then hung around my brain or notebook just waiting until the right focal pieces and materials fell into place. I made several Hand of G-d necklaces that started out this way. Here’s one:

For Such a Time As This

I knew what I wanted this necklace to convey long before I had the items to make it. In this case, I made the focal beads specifically for the necklace, after having chosen the name and all the symbols that would be included, including the colors.

When you chose to enter a contest, you are often called upon to create something to fit a theme. This is a great way to stretch your creativity, but you can easily set your own concept challenges. Practically anything that is important to you, from the sublime to the ridiculous, can be the inspriation for a conceptual piece of jewelry. The grandeur of the earth and heavens, or the minute detail in a seashell…Creation itself is very inspiring to many artists. Places you’ve traveled to, especially places much different from home. Favorite hobbies and pass-times. Lines from a favorite poem. Verses of sacred scripture. Family and pets. Ancient, antique, or ethnic styles. Look anywhere and everywhere for the things that stir your soul.

We’ll be continuing this series with color scheme next Monday.