Inspired by...

The winner of the giveaway for Irina's Inspirations for Jewelry is DW of Lamplight Crafts. When I clicked through her link, I noticed she only has 7 followers (now 8 since I joined). If you feel so inclined, stop by her blog for a moment, maybe make a comment, and join her Google Friend Connect. I am sure you would make her day that much brighter. And DW, please email me at jennifer.glassaddictions @ gmail.com (remove spaces).

Now, onto what this "inspired by" post is all about. We thought it would be a great way to stretch ourselves creatively if each week we shared something that has inspired our work. Maybe it was a photo, a song, a mood, a component, or a color.

Now before you get all stressed out about how you are going to manage to share something new every single week...the answer is, you don't. You can share things you've made in the past and share the story of how it was inspired and the process you went through to arrive at it. Your story might help spark someone else's "ah ha!" moment or help them look for inspiration in places they never considered.

That being said, try not to fall back on older pieces every single week. Again, we are all in this creativity stretching thing together, making each other accountable to get inspiration from our experiences, and trying to prevent or overcome creative "blocks".

And of course you are allowed to skip weeks. No one will come to your house and force you to blog every week.

To kick this off, I am going to show you something I made a couple years ago because I sold most of my new work a few weeks ago before I photographed it. Yes, I agree that was not the smartest thing I've done lately. Everything else I have on hand right now is a work in progress.

The piece I'm going to show you was inspired in part by Pirates of the Caribbean. I've seen the first three, and they are just plain fun. Plus Johnny Depp is in them. Enough said.

Ok, wait. Not enough said. Before I show you what I made, I have to share some more Johnny Depp. Because I am the author today and I'm trying to give you ladies some inspiration. Perhaps some metal stamping is in your near future? (This break is courtesy of Sylvie at Beaded Laughter)

Here's the piece inspired by the movie and sailors in general. This bangle is called Davy Jones' Locker. 

From this angle, you can see skulls, what looks like the wheel of a ship, a game piece, shells, pearls, a cage for catching fish, a lampwork disc just cuz I wanted to add some of my lampwork beads to it.

From this angle, you can see a compass, another ship's wheel thing, more shells, pearls and a lampwork shell and lampwork disc.

And finally, from this angle you see a "captain's log" with words like undaunted, fearless, etc. There is also a mermaid, octopus, more pearls and shells and lampwork. 

This bangle was so fun for me to make. I had it with me at a show a couple weeks ago and both men and women were fascinated by it. It's just plain silly fun.

Now it's your turn. Link your blog below so we can see what you are inspired by.