Ideas, Transformations and Getting the Most From One Item

I have been asked how I come up with ideas for the ornaments I create.  A lot of them are inspired by jewelry and some from architectural features, less from nature.  However, what I see and what the ornament looks like when finished may look totally different.  For the most part, differences in appearance can come from the supplies I have to work with.  Many of the findings I use are purchased on the wholesale level.  Buying by the gross (144 items), it can take several months, if not years, to use all of them.  While bulk buying works great for parts I will use in many of the ornaments such as the small 3mm gold-plated metal beads, various sizes and shapes of pearls, and the 2-inch head-pins.  Bulk buying of others just leaves me with lots of parts that I have to store.  I have bought certain components in the past because they were on sale.  The perforated disks, round and teardrop earring components being three.  There were several months (if not years) between purchase and usage, but once I started using them the ideas would keep coming.  An idea may be sparked just by turning the item from vertical to horizontal or rotating it 90 or 180 degrees.  For the perforated disks I had thought to use them as medallions for the tree.  I had seen several disks used in brooches, and had even bought several at yard sales or in bargain bins, but didn’t think of using them as tassel armatures until I casually tossed one of the brooches onto my workspace and it landed on some fringe.

I was placing an order with one of the companies I use, when the customer service operator asked if I would like to hear about their specials.  I agreed and she told me about some round and teardrop shaped parts for earrings.  The earring components were purchased and sat until I could figure out how to keep the chains and focal components separated.  One day I realized you could use any bead as a spacer bead and reached for my Delicas®.  I went through and added all the faceted beads I wanted, added the number of chain segments I wanted, and then added the Delicas® to fill the earring.  Once I knew how many Delicas® I needed, I could evenly space them out.  Since I wished the ornaments to be symmetrical, I started with the bottom-most chain and started dividing the beads between the 2 sides.  I use this technique in many of my ornaments where I have a determined length of wire.  I will start with the segment and ‘string’ the components I want on, them fill the wire segment with the spacer beads.  Many times, I will use 2 colors of spacers alternating every 5 or 10 beads for ease in counting.

 

 I designed these two from the earring hoops for a program at the Greensboro Gem & Mineral Club.  Jewelry and beading were also included in the clubs programs and I was asked to teach a program on Christmas ornaments.













Other times, I will focus on one of the findings I use, such as a bead-cap, and try to think different ways I can use the part.  I originally purchased one finding for use in a beaded tassel, then I needed a central bead while forming a traditional chandelier shape, so I use the bead-cap in the original shape and then flattened out.  Later I needed something to cover the ends of some cording and I used the same bead-cap.  Years pass and I use the same bead-cap to serve as a connection point in holding the ends of wire to form the globes.  I also look at the bead-cap flattened out and use to make a snowflake drop.  A year or two pass when I am making a miniature ornament and decide to use the same bead-cap, along with the un-folded aspect of the bead-cap.  Six different ornaments from essentially the same metal finding.

I count both the upholstered ornaments and the globes, both large and small, as one ornament since the major difference is shape of the base form or size.  Just a re-calculation of materials needed.  Whereas when looking at the ornaments there are totally different designs.