Don't get me wrong - I never mind being asked... It's just that sometimes I feel a little bit helpless trying to answer. The short answer is "I really don't know"... and I so wish every time I could give a definitive answer, something that would work for every single one of us be we professional or hobby crafters and designers.
What I do know is that these days I view the world in an entirely different light... I'll take you back ten years...
Then I was a high flying, confident, European Finance Project Manager and the only way I was heading was up the corporate ladder - for those of you who know me does that surprise you? Knowing the me I am now I would probably say it would...
A typical day for me could involve getting into work to find myself two hours later on a plane to the other side of the continent - sometimes flying back that evening - sometimes staying for a week... From one day to the next I wouldn't know which country I would be in let alone when I would next see my own bed. I spent more hours than I care to admit infront of a computer and I lived, ate, slept, breathed my job... nothing else mattered. I was driven and determined - a young woman whose life was a bland, colourless existence of hotel rooms, offices, airplanes, airports, conference calls and factories all over the EU. Did you notice that I described it as bland and colourless? I wouldn''t have said that at the time - to me it was exhilerating and exciting. It made my brain tick and I couldn't even see past my own ambition... Again, many who know me now might be surprised by this...
Then the thing happened and life changed dramatically and very quickly, leaving me unable to do that thing I loved and somehow slowly I had to pull myself back from that. It wasn't easy and there were times when I didn't think it would ever happen... My hopes and dreams had been wiped from my slate and I needed something to bring back that excitement...
When I was 11 I was kicked out of art classes being told I would never do anything creative with my life - bit of a kick in the teeth as I desperately hoped to be a fashion designer then... that's when I'd thrown myself into all things science and mathematical... but funnily enough I'd always had a hankering to try something that involved using my hands, leaving me with something tangible at the end of the process so I started to make cards, was lucky enough to be taken on as a freelance demonstrator with Docrafts and from that moment on my brain started to see things in a different way...
Instead of black and white figures I saw colour everywhere, different shades and intensities and I felt like I urgently had to soak up all the inspiration I could find and gather together all the ideas I could... still to this day I look around everywhere to find inspiration...
Let me give you a few examples...
- I have a house absolutely chocca bloc to the rafters with magazines, cuttings and books about different crafts and styles. I admit it's the absolute bain of my husband's life and I am trying hard to get this under control but maybe we can talk about that in another post
- When I go into diy stores I pick up brochures and grab swatches of wallpaper
- Fashion and home design catalogues are a great place to look
- go outside and look at nature - if it works there it will work in your designs... Nature is the ultimate artist!!!!
- I love to search the internet to see what is inspiring others and also chat to fellow crafters, I learn so much from them...
- Photography and photographers... I guess this comes from my dad who himself is a fabulous photographer and now, of course, chatting to Louise Jolley, our in house photographer always makes me see things from a different perspective... I love Lou's photography - it is vibrant, colourful and so well staged... she is one clever lady!
Everything but everything these days inspires me - my eyes react differntly to shade and tone and I feel like I am the person I was meant to be... I am excited beyond excitement when I am creating and my mind is awash sometimes with so many ideas it doesn't know which one to start with first... That has to be a far better place to be in life...
So I thought I would share with you something today that I saw whilst searching through Facebook today and tell you why it inspires me... I'd love to know if it inspires you!
I found this on a Facebook Page called "Spice of Life"... So what is it I love about it?
Firstly, tulips are my favourite flowers - my beautiful best friend and god daughter had tulip bouquets when I was married - so its a winner from the start... but really it's the colour combinations I'm going to take from this picture... the vibrant red and violet - colours that would normally clash but here just stand out so much that I can't wait to use them myself in a project... then added to this they are foiled by an eggshell blue background intensifying the focal image. I would never have thought of putting these together but I know that these shades are going to be making an appearance in a project very soon... I don't know when or where, just that they will!!!
So everyone, that is my post for this evening... I hope you have enjoyed
Take care and we will speak again very soon
Love
Becky
xxx
