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Friday, July 19, 2013

Jewelry Inspiration In Bloom

Last Sunday was our 40th anniversary, so my husband and I decided to take a little road trip down the Oregon coast to celebrate.  A vendor, at a recent show, told me about a state park, in Newport, Oregon, called Shore Acres.  He said it had gorgeous gardens that were well worth seeing.  So we made Shore Acres our end-point destination.

Shore Acres - Newport, Oregon
The entire trip was so much fun. The gardens were amazing and I love the beach, the sand between my toes and the sound of waves crashing.  But today I just want to share some flowers at Shore Acres that inspired some new jewelry.


I noticed a number of flowers with pink and yellow petals. They were so striking and beautiful. The pink and yellow dahlias, pictured below, especially captured my attention.


I couldn't get these flowers out of my mind, so I decided to challenge myself to create a piece of jewelry in pink and yellow.  This was a big challenge for me, because I rarely use pink and I almost never use yellow in my designs.  Now I was challenging myself to use both colors in one piece!

Trying to work outside my comfortable color zone, must have tapped into a different area of my brain, because the necklace that emerged is quite unlike most of my recent work.

I don't even have many yellow beads, but fortunately I'd recently acquired a yellow ceramic pendant from Joan Tucker of Off Center Productions. I managed to find one strand of yellow pearls in my stash and some golden-yellow glass tubes.


I found some yellow and pink glass cubes in my somewhat larger collection of pink beads.  I added  gold colored metal accents and this is what I came up with.  It looks very summery, but I'm a little surprised at how unlike me it is. LOL!  I honestly can't decide if I like it or not.  What do you think?  Be honest!


In any case, it was fun to push myself to experiment with some different colors.  I feel that pushing myself to experiment builds creativity in the same way that exercise builds muscle.  I can feel my "creativity muscle" growing!



If this has inspired your creativity, you might want to check out the great pink and yellow components and jewelry below.  Have fun!



Ceramic components by Suburban Girl Studio



New polymer clay components from Kristi Bowman Design.



Bronze Flower from THEAElements

Ceramic cab in a creamy yellow glaze with pink highlights


Polymer Clay by Tree Wings Studio


Enameled Earrings by Melismatic Art Jewelry

What have you done lately to strengthen your "creativity muscle"?  

Linda



12 comments:

  1. I really like the design and the yellow pendant is so sweet! To be honest, the gold is too much for me (or rather these bright spacers). I would prefer something either in a darker shade of gold or a complete different colour :)

    But you will laugh, yellow is also not my colour but I pushed myself last saturday to work with it! I bought a nice bright yellow polymer clay and just went with it. I am not finished with adding colours and finishing the pieces, but... it was sooo hard! It was just sooo... sooo.... sooo yellow! ;)

    *waves*
    Claire

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    1. I once had a custom order for a yellow necklace and I found it sooo...sooo hard too. I think your idea of a third, darker color to sort of ground it, might be a good idea. Too much bright yellow and pink hurts my eyes. ;)

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  2. Beautiful necklace and components!

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  3. That necklace is so rich and elegant...and just lucious! I too have an aversion to pink and yellow, and when told recently that someone's favorite color was yellow I feared what I could create! The person in question had done a wonderful favor for me and I intended to bead a piece for her. The pictures from Shore Acres (one of my FAVORITE places) are proving to be a great inspiration! Thank you so much and please make plans to return to Shore Acres in December...they decorate with thousands of lights!

    To you and your husband: a belated Happy Anniversary!

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  4. It's pretty, but I'm not sure that I love it.

    I think what's wonderful about your inspiration photo is the gradient of color. It makes me want to go build a pink to yellow blend in polymer clay and play with that. :-)

    Nature is definitely a HUGE source of inspiration.

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    1. Sandy - I think you expressed my feelings about the necklace, too.
      The colors would make a gorgeous polymer clay blend. I can just imagine it!



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  5. I am a fan of rich, saturated pinks, but yellows.... not so much. Makes it hard for me - personally - to love this necklace, but I can totally appreciate what went into creating it. I love that you are working your "creativity muscle" in new ways!

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  6. Good for you Linda! It's so much fun when we break out of our comfort zone and try something new. You created such a fun summery necklace! Yellow is a hard color for me too, so I don't really have any advice although I do like the idea to add a third darker color—I think that could be a nice touch.

    And thanks so much for sharing my beads! :-)

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  7. Your inspirations really sparked for you. I have been wanting to incorporate pink and yellow for some time and this is the perfect push!

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