Welcome to Inside the Studio!
Each
week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio,
creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our
readers and hope you’ll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free
prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we
choose a random winner.
week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio,
creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our
readers and hope you’ll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free
prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we
choose a random winner.
Congratulations Wendy from the Crafter’s Apprentice!
You have $25 gift certificate to your choice of Claire Lockwood’s shops:
Please email Claire with your contact information.
Come in for a visit at Humblebeads Studio.
We are in the middle of moving, but live marches on and the march is slow and steady toward the holidays. I don’t mind an early start, after all I’m in a business where I create handmade goods for customers who are most certainly going to make handmade items for the holidays. Those take time and planning, so October actually seems like a pretty late start, so here I am with snowflakes, sugar plums and mittens on my mind.
Above are my holiday Bonbon Flower beads that are class samples for a workshop I will be hosting online in November. I will be finalizing my holiday bead collection next week, here is a sneak peek into my design process.
First, I start by gathering inspiration and of course that means time spent on my favorite site, Pinterest. I gather images and create collages for myself. I print these out, make notes and start sketching.
Homemade holiday – I wanted to capture the cozy feeling of log cabins, hand-knitted mittens and folk art inspirations.
Forest Finery – Woodland creatures, snowflakes, snow-covered berries and greenery were my inspirations here. A whimsical nod to nature.
And here are some of my sketches that will be coming to life very soon. You can see where some of my inspirations were influenced by my mood boards above.
The new beads have to fit into my current collection and play nicely with what I already offer – here are some of my current beads that fit in the winter theme.
So that’s a quick tour of my latest bead inspirations. It’s okay if you’d like to make yourself a cup of hot cocoa now and watch Elf, I won’t judge.
But before you go, let’s do our weekly drawing.
Leave a comment and next Friday we will pick one random winner.
What’s your favorite holiday or winter color combination?
Leave a comment below to win a $25 gift certificate to Humblebeads.com.
Alice
October 3, 2014 at 10:35 pmI love how you get inspiration. What a great idea.
For winter I like blues and whites with a bit of red tucked here and there.
Katherine Thompson
October 4, 2014 at 12:41 amI enjoy learning about other artists' process. I sometimes have so much in my head that I try to do everything at once. When that happens there really is no clear path, such as the one you've presented. It really makes everything make sense! 🙂
Katherine Thompson
October 4, 2014 at 12:45 amOh yeah my favorite winter combo is reds, cranberries, maroons with gold or antique gold or bronze. I like to add browns, and teals.
Carol Briody
October 4, 2014 at 1:25 amMy favorite would have to be bright red combined with lots of silvery sparkles!
Marybeth
October 4, 2014 at 1:48 amThank you for sharing your creative process. I like the cool sparkly colors for winter: blue and white, silver.
Liona (Blue Merlin Creations)
October 4, 2014 at 2:41 amIt's such fun planning for the next season, isn't it? I don't have any one favourite Christmas colour combination, but one I really like is teal, purple, and gold!
sasha + max studio
October 4, 2014 at 5:25 amAlways good to see what creative next thing you're up to! I love red and white, always a classic.
Melanie McGready
October 4, 2014 at 9:11 amI would have to say Christmas is my favourite time of year. I'm a bit traditional when it comes to Christmas colours, so I love reds and greens with some gold thrown in. The blues in your current collection look wonderful too, so I might have to add them to the list. Thanks for showing us some of your inspiration photos.
Kristen
October 4, 2014 at 10:19 amI am impressed at how organized you are with the collages and drawings. I have always liked all the different designs you come up with and it's nice to see how you do it, thanks! I love the dimensional pine cone the best.
Divya N
October 4, 2014 at 1:51 pmI like the traditional red and green combo as much as anybody else but this year I have been loving green and hot pink and royal blue and gold for festive occasions
Becky Pancake
October 4, 2014 at 2:27 pmHi Heather, I really like seeing your inspiration boards and your process. I am an over the top Christmas girl. I stopped counting at 500 ornaments. I have a book where I record when and where I get each of them. My family and I make ornaments each year. It is my favorite part of the holiday.My whole house turns Christmas including changing all of the pictures on the wall. I like the traditional red and green and also blue and silver but the number one color on my tree is pink.
haezz
October 4, 2014 at 3:36 pmThanks so much for showing us a bit of your process. Can't wait to see your new collection. Christmas is my all-time favorite holiday. The colors I love are mulberry, teal (blue and green) and silver. Add white lights and grapevines and I'm in heaven.
freshbakeddesigns
October 4, 2014 at 4:35 pmThat cranberry red with mossy green, maybe with a splash of silver or gold. Love getting to peek inside your thinking process and studio, Heather!
Erin S
October 4, 2014 at 5:05 pmgreat winter beads. 🙂
I actually don't get into "holiday" color combos at all. I have always disliked the standard "red/green" Christmas colors, although if you change the shades slightly to a dark olive paired with deep cranberry or garnet, it's much better. For winter, I do like dark muted blues like iolite paired with crystal quartz or white and silver pearls.
Maneki
October 4, 2014 at 5:13 pmI must say that when it comes to winter I just love anything to do with frost, snow etc. The colours I see outdoors (hopefully, unless it's a warm winter). Focusing on whites — including bluish white, yellowish white, greyish white etc (think wool and linen as well as snow and frost) — matte browns and tans, a touch of sage green. If being adventurous, perhaps a touch of rowanberry. That's why I love your frosted tree pendants so much. They're just the kind of frosted winter colours I love. (Yes, in many ways I'm typically scandinavian in my taste when it comes to winter colours.)
After a season of sparkling autumn colours — my favourites! — I enjoy soft and simple winter colours that speak both of the weather outdoors (frost, snow, bare branches) and the cozy indoors (woolen socks, thick blankets, hot cocoa or rosehip soup, a purring cat in the lap). The light colour schemes remind me of how harmonious winter can be, whether you enjoy the days outdoors or indoors.
But for christmas I can enjoy classic red and green, though I prefer vintage hues rto bright colours. Of cause that's not the case with the christmas tree where I prefer the classic look with red and gold shiny baubles, glittering tinsel, yellowish lights and a gold or silver star on top. And then the white or red advent lights in the windows sill or gold advent stars hanging from the top of the windows. Not very fond of modern takes with, say, blue baubles on a white plastic christmas tree or trendy purples and hot pink.
Sarajo Wentling
October 4, 2014 at 6:42 pmThanks for the sneak peek into your process… and good luck on the move! As for color combos I'm torn between pale blues and silver and bright or deep reds with silver. Really, as usual, I'm torn in many directions all at once!
Kristi Jaro
October 4, 2014 at 8:29 pmMy favorite holiday is Valentines day ( I love hearts) and then Christmas. I do love the different colors of the holidays depending on mood and/or locations.
Nan Smith
October 5, 2014 at 4:37 pmThanks for the peek at your creative process. I find it fascinating to see how artists work. love your new line.
My favorite colours at Christmas are very traditional ..red, gold and green. I prefer the lighter,softer green of lime or citron with dark rich red and lots of gold everywhere!
Julia Richards
October 5, 2014 at 4:55 pmI like a woodsy look with white, brown, gray, and green. A bright spot of red or purple would make a splash!
ACBeads
October 5, 2014 at 9:46 pmMy favourite colour combination for the Christmas is dark red and gold or bronze. It's a pleasure to see your new collection.
Shaiha
October 6, 2014 at 3:05 amI tend to get stuck in fall with the deep oranges and forest greens. If I was to have to choose Yule favs, it would be gold with pine greens.
bairozan
October 6, 2014 at 8:06 amBird and house beads are my favorites for any season! Spring and autumn colors are a huge inspiration for me 🙂
Susan Lloyd
October 6, 2014 at 12:14 pmlove your collages and your little pendant beads….one day!
Katherine Thompson
October 6, 2014 at 12:19 pmI kept thinking about this question and I looked at what I was working on and realized that last ear I was drawn to work with the same colors, warm and golden cinnamons, ambre, greens, teals and soft gold. I really like to accent them with black.
Susanm
October 6, 2014 at 3:20 pmI like bright pink, teal and lime green. Throw is a little gold and it looks bright and seasonal.
Klassy Joolz
October 6, 2014 at 4:00 pmLove your Pin Boards, your sketches and of course your components. Christmas is such a magical time of the year. I like gold and bronze tones with a splash of red, a little animal print and some feathers…may seem different, but it works for me.
Thanks for sharing!
Colleen
October 7, 2014 at 4:35 pmHmm, my favorite holiday/winter color combo should be blue and white b/c I love blue. But, I really like a nice forest green with a deep red. They look richer and a bit old-fashioned to me, compared to the traditional bright red and green.