As I made many of the flowers I was trying to pay attention to which styles were interesting for me to make, exciting to make, boring to make,or  “I never want to make this style again”.

Once I settled on the three main “contenders” for a line of brooches and earrings. I next set out to make five of each of these. Making a multiple of  five helps me to think deeply about the design and the mechanics of the “making of”, refine the techniques, try out different color palettes, and see which designs excite me the most.

For this particular series I decided I wanted to add fabric. I had so enjoyed making the initial fabric collage that  I wanted to explore different ways to add fabric to the brooch design. I also wanted to use my French flea market metal” treasures”.

Each of the flower brooches was made specifically for  each of the four women in my original story.

I leave soon for workshops in France and will be writing weekly from there about what I see, what I am inspired by, where we go during the workshops, and anything else I find that you might be interested or inspired by for making art. Please join me!

Last post on using “Narrative or story” as  inspiration I showed you my first steps in developing a  new line of jewelry. Remember my inspiration is the gardens of Versailles and four women who were there. I wanted to develop brooches and earrings that these women might wear.

I started by drawing 20 different flower shapes.

Then made several in polymer clay.

Here are some of those.

Next step was to decide which one had the most potential (and interest) for me to make as a possible new jewelry line.

I’ll show you next step next post.

Don’t know where the time goes these days except that it is going at warp speed! That’s one reason why my workshops in France are so important to me. Time really does slow down there. The days are physically longer (it gets dark about 9:30PM or so) but also, there is a slower way of life in the countryside,

Small things are savored slowly and thoughtfully. It may be arranging fresh cheese and tomatoes for lunch. Or picking fresh wildflowers on my morning walk to place in a vase from the flea markets for the breakfast table . Or walking the old road between our village and the next to get fresh bread for the morning.

I have the info up on my France workshops page here for my early bird discount  for France 2014. Please email me for the details. It would be a pleasure to share this with you.

Creative Sparks, by Cynthia Tinapple and myself is now available as an Ebook! Click on the sidebar on my site or at PolymerClayDaily.

On another quick note I am now part of the Seek Your Course regular contributors team. I’m very excited and honored to be a part of this. My first post will be in June. I’ll be writing about Finding Art Later in Life (among other creativity ideas.)

Next week I’ll get back to Narrative as Inspiration.

Here’s a quick exercise for you. Pick a favorite knicknack and photograph it or do a quick drawing of it everyday for a week in a new environment.

A few posts ago I started taking you on my journey of using “narratives or stories” to inspire art work. Here’s another example.

I started by writng a short (very short) vignette about four women waiting in the garden at Versailles after a gala dinner there. The women were from the 1920′s. I  found imagery from old postcards and fashion magazines (that I picked up at the French flea markets) that depicted women from the 1900’s.  The fashions they wore, the jewelry, the mood of the women depicted all fed my narrative and this fed my ideas for the actual art. The story has alot of adjectives in it- descriptions of the gardens, what they are wearing, etc. These descriptions can be translated into art techniques- for instance, “curliques and paisleys” (into surface designs), sculpted topiarys (for shapes).

Next: How many ways can I interpret the story- brooches, earrings, pendants, bracelets, collage, books, wall pieces, boxes, vessels, pillows, sculptures? I want to brainstorm and design as broadly as possible at first.

In order to focus, I set intentions/tasks/assignments for myself as a way to develop ideas. First I decide to interpret one of the vignettes as a fabric wall hanging.

Next to further develop jewelry ideas I draw twenty different flower shapes- flowers from the garden at Versailles, flowers from other source material and flowers from my imagination.

Then I make a number of these flower shapes in polymer clay and fabric and decide which I like best, which ones I can see myself making many of, which ones pique my interest.

This is a bracelet I made using the scraps from several collages and adding polymer clay centers.

Next week- what happens next in the process!

I first met Margaret Reid at a Ravensdale Polymer Clay Gathering long ago in WA.- in 2003 I believe. She made an impression in the workshop I taught there by “marching to her own drummer” and making exquisite work. Soon after I had the pleasure of co-teaching a 10 day workshop with Gwen Gibson at La Cascade in 2004. And we had the pleasure of Margaret attending the workshop. Once again, she takes the ideas presented, makes them her own and makes them exquisitely.

For the last several yeaar I see Margaret once a year at la Cascade. Her quiet (yet hilarious) presence is a joy and  she always inspires me and keeps me striving to be a better artist.

Margaret sent me several pictures of her work which I would like to share with you. She is also in the gallery at the back of the Polymer Master Class book.

Margaret and I are hard at work on a collaboration which I hope to share with you in the not too distant future. Theres a bit of pressure Margaret!!