Inspiration Thursday

Hi Everyone
Over the last few weeks I've been looking around for inspiration re the development of a new range of clay beads. There's so many ideas out there, Im now wondering which way to go first ?
Each month Im planning on choosing a particular piece of jewellery which I will use as inspiration for my development work. For the very first piece, I've chosen this necklace :






As you can see I've taken the piece from Pinterest and added it to my boards - Im going to create a new board with the inspiration pieces alongside my inspired work - I haven't come up with a name for the board yet ! Will do that this morning. When it's up and running I will share a link from the blog so we can all share. By the end of the year I should have 12 new beads. These beads can then be used for creating jewellery collections.

This particular piece has been created by an Australian jewellery artist called Jayne Flanagan. Her work is lovely - take a look here for some great examples. I've read that Jayne paints her polymer beads, something I've not had a great deal of success with. I'm not sure why but my painted beads have, over a short time, been damaged with regular 'wear and tear'. A layer of seal or varnish would stop the damage - I guess ? However, I don't especially want to treat my beads with anything other than a simple wax polish finish, although I don't rule anything out. Janes work is making me think about creating beads with different coloured clay layers where the lines exist. I will use the central surface pattern idea as my starting point. I want to experiment so who knows what will happen ? I also have a plan to use ribbon ties for a statement necklace using the beads Im going to create. Let's see where I go with this ?

My new 2015 work plan is to use my week (planned short periods of time each day) for development work. I want to review developments each Thursday. I like to work to a schedule and my week/month is coming together with specific jobs each day. I hope to have a timetable over the next week. Wish me luck !!!!

Thanks for reading.