Get your “Mental Gears” working!
May 19, 2008 by Cyndi Lavin
Filed under Bead Stringing, Beading, Make Art Monday, Mixed Media, Other Bead & Jewelry Sites, Polymer Clay, Wearable Art
Make Art Monday!
Mental Gears
This fabulous medallion came from my friend Amy Fraser’s new Mindworks collection…is it cool or what? I mixed it up with a combination of brass, bronze, copper, and pyrite! Yup, those 10mm round beads are pyrite that I got from FMG. They’re really heavy, so pairing them with the open-work copper hex beads made a lot of sense to my neck 
***Free Stuff Alert***
Amy has generously donated a medallion from her Prophecy collection for me to offer as a free giveaway! It is not the color of the one shown below, but is a similar shape. What Amy and I want you to do in order to win this medallion is to leave a comment telling us what you favorite source of inspiration is for your work. As you look through Amy’s medallion and painting collections, you’ll be amazed by the varied sources of inspiration she draws upon. So, what’s your personal fave for your own work? Next Monday, we’ll randomly choose a winner!
OMG, girls! That’s gorgeous. Your work really complements each other. I just love that piece!
bobbi c.
I found this mental gears piece, very interesting. i hadn’t seen any of the other collections that you two had done together. Its very interesting to see the medallions with a different setting. I love to do beading, I haven’t done it very much as of yet. I lack the inspiration for creativity though, I am looking for ways of sparking my creative side though. Nice work.
You guys have something good going. Beautiful pieces. Janet C.
I hope this is where we comment on the Prophecy collection.
I have always gotten my inspiration from Nature. I am Native American, that made it come so easy. Nature is the perfect palate. God makes no mistakes! One can spend all day just taking in all the beauty and the perfect colors placed in the natural world.
These medallions are just beautiful! They truly feed the soul.
Yup! This is the spot, Diana
Thanks for all of your comments, guys! Amy and I had a good time working this one out.
My inspiration mostly comes from looking out the window to be honest. I want to be outside, rather than sitting behind a desk, and I doodle little pictures of jewelry in my notes and margins. Earth-tones, leaves, and an overall organic feel are prevalent in a lot of my pieces.
Wow! I am impressed buy the beautiful creation that you two talented artists have put together! I am a long time friend and admirer of Amy’s work and am more impressed with each new collection that Amy creates! And what a gorgeous model!
The Prophecy Collection is gorgeous!
I find a lot of inspiration in color. My saltwater aquarium is full of colorful fish, corals and invertebrates. I have used a lot of the color combinations I see there in my designs.
Really beautiful. Most of my inspiration comes from nature as well
My inspiration comes from everywhere! Depending on my mood, it may be from a series of books on a particular topic. Or, it may be from a walk through the garden. I seem to get on a theme and then search out all the information on that theme that I can find.
Beautiful necklace – how neat to do a combined piece with another artist.
I find most of my inspiration in antique jewlery and nature. I try new strenghtening ideas from Bead and Button Magazine. Those that I use to rebuild old Jewlery are the ones that most resemble the original design. Thanks for the Truely wonderful help this my first year doing this!
How absolutely marvelous! You two certainly do wonderful work together. My inspirations comes from my “black thumbs”. I can’t garden for beans but I love flowers and birds and I love to paint them.
My inspiration is the earth and the natural and organic feeling it evokes. Your work is absolutely stunning by the way. It has true presence.
EXALTED BEAUTY – Is awesome! I love it all- My grandaughter, Watching her inspires me more than anything the youth, innocense, and the love in her eyes Inspires me!
I find my inspiration in the everyday things; always when I’m not looking. It’s in the mechanical workings of things usually for me. I like circuit boards, gears, broken things. To take a “broken” thing and create a new life is what it’s all about.
That necklace is gorgeous. So impressive, I would love to pair that up with some of my boho skirts!
My inspiration comes from lots of places, many unexpected – like some commercial on tv or a shadow from the buildings downtown! I love color and patterns and nature for inspiration, too!
My inspiration comes from events – a birthday coming up, a holiday or a season and sometimes a need. That gives me the push to start thinking and also some sort of parameter. What would that person like, what colors fit, does it fill the need and so on.
Your blogs are so very inspiring. You show such a variety of stuff; they must help everyone to grow a bit in their art.
Very nice!
I get my inspiration from magazines, clothes, but especially from the beads themselves. When I look at beads, if it moves me, an entire project will spring up inside my head, and I’m ready to go. Sometimes it takes a while to find the supporting beads I’ve imagined, though.
I get inspiration through the colors in nature.
Your work is beautiful!
I look at fashion mags to see what the designers are doing and what’s selling, but my inspiration most often comes from nature. I use a lot of floral motifs and colors in my work. I take close up photos of branches and blooms. I look at the way shadows play on the trees or the way sunshine bounces across water. And the colors from my window are never the same.
I get inspiration from fellow designers. That is not to say copying but a place to “take off”. Results is nothing like the orignial inspiration. Some times they say something that gets me going. Bev
So beautiful. It never ceases to amaze me the incredible work you do!
My inspirations pop into my head at the oddest times. A lot of times I have to stop what I am doing, and draw/jot it down. I get my color inspirations from nature, flowers, birds, and paintings. Also from mistakes I make, “playing around” with beads and components, and from you talented ladies. Thank you for your inspirtion, and sharing your talent.
I get inspiration from my own photographs, especially two kinds: I have one camera that takes such good close-ups that I can fill the screen with a head shot of a moth, for instance. The other camera tends to blur motion shots, so I exaggerate this. Both kinds of photos give me a new way to look at everything, and makes me realize I can’t even take reality for granted, as it is different from a bug’s eye view or in motion.
beautiful, I love the color of the pendant and the photo with the flower, i get my inspiration from nature.
I get my inspiration from many sources, but mostly from things I’ve seen during my travels. My travels in the Middle East are especially a source of inspiration for me.
Amy’s pendants are gorgeous, by the way. And I love the finished necklace…
My inspiration comes from nature. So many beautiful things to attempt to re-create.
I believe sometimes inspiration comes from within ones self. The mystery inside that shows the imagination of many things all rolled up into one. I would call this piece Mystic. For the Mystery within. A piece of gathering of many things to bring about belonging all as one. Beautiful item I would love to have it.
I’ve been getting inspiration from blogs lately. Just so much out there. I like inspiration that comes from other art fields as well. Real Simple mag is another source of inspiration for my scrapbooking
From people I know and my surroundings