As part of our on-going emphasis on education this year, I want to share some previous posts that may help you fill in some gaps! From creativity to color, from design elements to jewelry school, these resources can point you in the right direction.
Do you want to design for yourself?
This is the conclusion of my series of articles, with links to all the previous articles
Beadwork basics online
Dictionaries, glossaries, and encyclopedias of jewelry making info online
Creativity online
Color training and tools online
Jewelry design tools and articles online
Jewelry class listings by geography
Beading shows with classes
Design school directory

Gloria Jean-Browne, of Beading Design Jewelry, has some excellent advice posted on the Creativity Portal. If you have seen your sales go into a slump, don’t automatically blame the economy…sometimes we have to take a good hard look at what choices we’ve made!
Read her excellent article here: What to do when your handmade jewelry isn’t selling

Online tools
Imagination Prompts
Are you looking for some random writing prompts or story starters for your journal, blog, or other creativity-related project?
Oblique strategies
A handy online version of Brian Eno’s creativity tool
Creativity and the periodic table
Roll your mouse over the table to see examples of each strategy
Excellent articles
Don’t wait for the muse
Apparently you shouldn’t sit around waiting for yours even if you do happen to believe you have one!
Creativity. We could all use more.
References three good articles on living creatively
Judith Reilly’s creativity page
Twelve life lessons for creativity
Six myths of creativity
This study may change how you generate ideas
11 tips to suviving a …read more

Ready, set, go make something!

This short series of discussions that we’ve been having about the various pathways and journeys that you can take into designing your own original work was not intended to turn your creativity into just another mechanical exercise. It’s also somewhat artificial to imagine that most of us are so organized and linear in our creativity that everything always flows in one pre-determined order. Still, I believe that the more you understand about your own preferences and biases, the more you may be freed to try new things.
I hope you will spend some time thinking about the …read more

Structure: Patterns and techniques
No matter how intuitively you work, at some point you will need to make some decisions about the structure and pattern you’re going to use in order to avoid having to go bead buying right in the middle of a project. That is usually not the best time to be making clear-headed decisions!
You might be the type of person who decides what project to do based upon what type of stitch you feel like doing, and you make most of your structural choices at the very beginning of your design process. For me, the technical details are …read more

Materials: Building a palette
I usually like to build my working palette and choose my materials after I’ve decided upon focal point, theme, and color, but it can be fun to try it the other way around. Some designers like to use this method most of the time, sorting through their beads and treasures, and letting the raw materials “tell” them what to choose. I’ve personally never had the stones speak to me. My more practical method to building a palette works well for me, whether it is my first step or somewhere further down the designing road. I’ll share it …read more

Technique Tuesday!

Have you ever thought about selling your designs? Not the finished product, but the designs themselves? Here’s how Christina Ritchey decided to go about it:
Creating and selling jewelry tutorials

Color Scheme: So many colors, so little time
Color is one of the basic elements of design, and many designers start off with just knowing that they want to make something purple. Or green. Or green and gold. Choosing your color scheme first is a perfectly natural pathway into designing. You might find that making your color decisions overlap your decisions about focal point or theme. Sometimes the focal point and color scheme develop together, one from another. Other times your theme will suggest or limit a color scheme. And still other times…you just simply want to make something purple. It’s …read more

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 …read more

Focal Point…show me where to look!

Just as it does in a painting, the focal point in a wonderful piece of jewelry captures your gaze and directs your eye where to settle. Additional focal points can create a sense of movement by guiding your eye around a piece. Having a strong focal point can create a sense of dominance and unity in your piece.
Choosing your focal point first is a common way to start for many designers: you have a beautiful cabochon, a treasured charm, or a stunning glass bead. It’s not good enough just to own this treasure…you want to …read more