"Shan-Yu: Looks like you're all out of ideas.
Mulan: Not quite."
Several months ago, I received some animal print beads from Halcraft. (Animal prints are a major fall trend.) My challenge was to create a necklace, bracelet, and earring set using these large oval beads with a strong black print.
Even though I've been designing jewelry for years, I still have those moments when I wonder whether I've used up every last possible idea. The moment I pulled those beads out of the package was one of those times.
Since I didn't have the luxury of waiting around for inspiration to show up, I decided I'd play around with the beads on my bead board and see if I could come up with an idea.
This particular evening I randomly chose the Disney animated movie Mulan to watch while I beaded. ("Watch" might be too strong of a word. I listened and occasionally glanced up at the screen.) If you haven't seen this 1998 movie, it's about a young girl in China who disguises herself as a male solider to take her father's place in the military.
Once the movie began, I started to combine emerald green beaded links with short strands of rich gold-colored chain for a long, dramatic necklace with a tassel. Matching earrings and necklace followed. Somehow the act of watching the movie helped me go from zero ideas to one that grabbed my attention completely. Maybe the gold chain came from the mention of royalty. Perhaps I reached for the green as a tribute to jade, which is heavily sold in Asia. I doubt that anyone who sees this finished set would guess which movie I was watching at the time. But somehow, when I look at the pieces, the movie and the Emerald Eye jewelry designs are forever intertwined.
The experience left me musing about subtle sources of inspiration. It's one thing to sit down and deliberately decide to create a design inspired by a movie; it's quite another to have something in the background quietly nudging your creativity in ways you can't quite explain.
Has this ever happened to you? Can you look at one of your jewelry designs and immediately know what you were listening to or watching while you made it?
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Quotation source: IMDB (Internet Movie Database). I love looking at quotes in this database. It's fun to see if you remember the lines in movies you've seen.