(Design copyright 2008 Margot Potter for Simply Beads-click on image to see close up)
This year I've tried to expand my work outward from my comfort zone, thusly my new moniker The Impatient CrafterTM. Take for example the Triple Take challenge I do with Katie Hacker 
and Candie Cooper for each issue of Simply Beads Magazine. We all get a similar array of materials and our mission (if we choose to accept it) is to make an innovative and interesting project from them. We take turns doing an accessory, jewelry item and home décor item. For the August issue, we had a fabulous sampling from Ornamentea. This is my design. I'm so in love with this one, it makes me think of a Francis Hodgson Burnett book. Of course it's impossibly impractical, but if you love Victoriana think of how delightful this would look on a shelf or set up on a plate stand with a tea cup and a calling card on a small table. If you'd like to learn how I made this design (I even did a little embossing on ceramic!) you can get the instructions for free right here.
(Design copyright 2008 Margot Potter for Simply Beads-click on image to see close up)
I was preparing for my trip to Paris as I worked on this issue, so I also created this digitally crafted and decoupaged ‘Ah, Paris' necklace. To find out how I made this design, you'll have to purchase the magazine when it goes on the newsstands.
Designers work up to a year in advance on their ideas. This means we have to be visionary enough to forecast where the market is leading and what sorts of projects people will want to recreate. Sometimes I get it right and sometimes I don't, but I always try to make projects that innovate. That's not to say I'm not inspired by the work of other artists, because we all are. I just effort always to give credit to the person who inspired me and to put my own unique spin on the idea. Design is in its essence a dialogue. It's a dialogue with the person who will view it and a dialogue with the person or item that inspired you. A good designer knows how to make that dialogue dynamic. The challenge for me is almost always how to be dynamic and yet still accessible for the Average Jane. I can get way out there when I'm designing for myself, but my work is in magazines and books and my intended audience is the women who haven't given themselves permission to be creative. So I want them to feel welcomed and guided in a way that isn't intimidating or overwhelming.
There are plenty of designers who tackle the advanced tutorials for fellow artists. I'd rather inspire the people who've been told they aren't artists and taken that to heart. I'd like to think of myself as the Pied Piper of Creativity. I want folks to feel a bit like they did when they were five and someone handed them a 64 box of Crayola crayons and a brand new blank notebook. I hate rules and rigidity and snobbery, art should be fun, free, expansive and utterly lacking in judgment. Ultimately it's not about the artwork, it's about the journey you take while creating it. The artwork is just your souvenir.
We all tend to take ourselves and life and the world around us far too seriously. It's just life. We're basically here on the planet for the same reason, to learn how to love unconditionally, which is why I believe that we should strive in all that we do to, "Create Without FiltersTM."
Stop by HHH Enterprises for my Fabulous Friday (Holiday Edition) Finds post later today. Until then, craft on with your bad selves.
xoxo
Margot