Design Ideas

Today I received my Fire Mountain Gems and Beads catalog in the mail.

I love catalog day, and I’m always so excited when the hubs hands over each thick installment of this beading superstore based out of Oregon. This time the Fire Mountain Gems and Beads catalog focuses on “Crystal and Glass’ with an additional informative article about “Designing with Color”. Each installment is like a magazine… but with no ads! (of course, we all realize the reason they have no ads is because each page is filled to the brim with their gargantuan selection of beading supplies).

What I love most about the FMGB catalog (besides the lovelies listed inside) are the pages upon pages of design ideas. They are a wonderful font of inspiration that sets my mind working on what I would do to give the piece of jewelry my own little spark. In fact, I only had to turn to page 18 before the design idea there sent my brain into high gear, planning how I could take this bracelet idea one step further and heighten it’s customizability (is that a word?).

We never know when something we see, read, smell, taste, etc. is going to inspire us to something more — even if what is inspired is not even remotely similar to the inspiration. It’s a launching point to greater things, and sometimes that’s the most precious and priceless act, and it’s one of the reasons I like sharing anecdotes, images, phrases, and the like. One can never tell where inspiration will strike.