This free 3 week series will help you feel inspired and teach you how to get inspiration and express your inspiration through making jewelry.
Each week you will receive 2 prompts. The first is a journal prompt where you can write a list, journal or create an art journal page in any way you like. You can use paint, crayons, collage or other mixed media, colored pencils or simply words. I like making lists. You may want to draw or write a poem.
The second weekly prompt will give you ideas to take inspiration from your art journal page and translate it into a piece of jewelry. I’ll share what I made, but I expect that your piece will be quite different because your response to the art journal prompt will be quite different from mine.
Each week is full of inspiration and ideas to express yourself through making jewelry.
Find the previous prompts here:
Week #1
Week #1-A
Week #2
Week #2-A
Week #3
Today is the final prompt of this mini series.
This prompt will help you translate your art journal page into a piece of jewelry.
Here’s the video:
In this video, you’ll learn how I take inspiration from the art journal page I created with the week 3 prompt, create a map for a jewelry piece and then ultimately create a jewelry piece.
The steps are also outlined below if you prefer to read rather than watch the video.
Going from Art Journal Page to Jewelry:
Step #1:
Look at your art journal page again. Does anything call out to you or stick out to you? Anything inspire you?
If you used words, look for words that call out to you. In Week #1 I used a word as inspiration for my page.
In Week #2 I used photos in my art journal page and used those as inspiration in a very similar way to how I did in Week #1
For this week’s prompt, I used the colors in my page and also was inspired by the shapes that I painted.
Step #2:
Just like in the previous weeks, make a map of ideas.
This is a starting point for your jewelry and you may find that you only follow it loosely or use it as a springboard for inspiration that takes you in a different direction.
In this case, I wanted to focus on the art page (my mini painting) as a whole, including the colors and shapes.
Then I wrote these categories:
Themes
Colors and Stones
Techniques
(The same categories I used in the previous weeks.)
Themes: As you can see in the photo above, for themes I wrote down: nature, branches, tree, leaves. These are taken directly from my journal page.
You may not have a direct interpretation and that’s fine. Brainstorm and write down anything that comes to mind.
Colors and stones: brown, red, orange, dark colors.
Again, I took these colors directly from my journal page. In week 1, I used a list and just came up with colors I thought went along with the word I had chosen to focus on. Anything that comes to your mind is great. It does not have to be a direct translation. We’re using our journal for inspiration.
Techniques: Use this category to try to narrow down some ideas for techniques you may use since there are so many options in jewelry making. Again, it does not have to be a direct correlation, but it can be.
I wrote down charm bracelet, which wasn’t necessarily directly related and necklace with twig or twig shaped wire, which is more directly related.
Step #3:
Head to your supplies and start pulling together components you think you may use.
You might have already come up with some ideas for the supplies you have when you’re doing the mapping in Step #2. In my case, I knew I had these pretty, delicate leave charms waiting that I thought I would like to use.
Then I started going through my beads. I sort them mostly by color, so this was relatively easy since I was looking for specific colors.
This process can help you remember and rediscover jewelry supplies that you may have forgotten about or find new ways to incorporate supplies that you didn’t really know what to do with.
And, of course, in some cases you may need to order some supplies to find the perfect shape or color.
As you’re doing this, it is possible (and likely) that your piece will change from what’s on your map. That’s fine. The ultimate goal isn’t to follow a map word for word, but to make a beautiful piece of jewelry that you’re excited about and feel inspired to make.
Each step of this process can lead you down a different road and that’s fine and wonderful.
Step #4
Put together your jewelry piece!
Now, it’s your turn! Be inspired and make some jewelry!
I have had so much fun bringing you this mini series and have loved getting your emails about being inspired and picking up your sketchbooks and journals and finding new inspiration.
How did you like this mini series?
If you liked this mini series, you’re going to love my new eCourse!
In the Inspired eCourse we’re going more in depth with the prompts and you get creativity boosting activities to help you with your art journal prompts. Plus I’m also giving you a jewelry tutorial each week.
One week you’ll have a surprise package of jewelry supplies from me to work with that goes along with one of the weeks!
Inspired eCourse is 4 weeks plus an introduction week to give you a great introduction to art journaling.
It starts on February 15, 2016.
I know....it seems so far off, right? Well, starting today I’m offering a great deal on this eCourse! It’s half off through Monday. And considering you’re also getting some jewelry supplies (think: bead soup) in the mail, the price tag is pretty amazing.
Additionally, I’m having a sale on Rediscover Your Creativity & Make Jewelry, which is my most popular eCourse. It’s a 6 week eCourse that will help you rediscover or boost your creativity with creativity boosters, jewelry making skills lessons and tons of jewelry tutorials!
The 2 eCourses go great together. Rediscover Your Creativity & Make Jewelry starts on January 4, 2016 and Inspired follows right afterward.
You can get Rediscover Your Creativity & Make Jewelry on sale here: Rediscover Your Creativity & Make Jewelry eCourse.
Or Inspired eCourse on sale here: Inspired eCourse.
Or bundle them together to get the best deal here: Rediscover and Inspired Bundle.
Remember, this sale starts today (Nov 27, 2015) and lasts through Monday (Nov 30) and this is the best deal you can get on either of these eCourses.