Four tips to find design inspiration

           As someone who was used to working on one piece for the duration of two weeks thinking of a concept, sketching, putting together the metal pieces, wires, enamel colours and spending hours applying colours in between firings, I was used to taking my own sweet time working on my enameled panels.

           But since I started working full time on my jewellery it suddenly hit me 'I needed to have at the very least three to four ideas in progress at the same time!! Also I needed to have a bank of ideas complete with the planning for the process,all set in my sketchbook in advance since making jewellery is so much more complex with regards to the various components that go into the manufacturing process. I need to keep one eye on my supplies while designing making sure that I have the required gauges of wire as well as sheet metal, not to mention my bead drawer!!

So where do I look for inspiration ? My four fail-proof design triggers

Enamel and filigree necklace
Copper, cloisonne enamel
© 2011 Nayna Studios™

1. My favorite bead store! There is a shop in Mumbai, that can single-handedly offer up hundreds of ideas, they have glass beads, cabochons, pearls, metal beads, semi-precious stones, donuts you name it!! Every time I go there with the intention of spending only a few hundred bucks and end up completely blowing my budget :D My recent captured series is a great example of this. I had bought the glass pieces with no idea of what I was going to do with them but I ended up making these cute pendants with them.
2. Individual components are just as good as design triggers, sometimes I will look at a particular clasp or a finding and weave a complete design around that component. At other times the way a particular component (and I am partial to clasps here) is used changes the entire look and turns the design around.
3. My old work, yes it helps to jog your brain by looking at your own old work, no idea about the logic there but it works. I look at an old piece a necklace maybe and it suddenly occurs to me why not work on this on a different scale, vary a technique or maybe make a bracelet with the same technique. 
4. Last but not least looking at other artists work, this one never fails to start the cogs off! Of course a good amount of time is spent wondering whether I will ever be as good as them but quickly enough that itch to get into the studio and get my hands on some metal take over :)

Drop a line if you have any more ideas, would love to hear them :)
P.S. Can you figure out where the clasp is on this one??