Over the years I have developed a process of designing that I think of as circling the wagons. I always start with an inspiration board. I cull through my Pinterest images and books for themes that reappear throughout my boards and begin to edit the images down for shape, texture, scale, materials, jewelry details and color. Then I review what I am discontinuing from the current collection and put the remaining collection next to my inspiration and the cross pollination begins. A point of view begins to appear and the gaps in the collection start to become obvious. I need more earrings that are a certain length, I need more necklaces with mass because I've been inspired by layering of ethnic jewelry, and so on. To some people this may seem formulaic but this process does begin to shape my path. I fill my periphery with vases of leaves, flowers, pods, stones, shells, vines and anything else that seems related to my direction. Those organic materials often become the inspiration for the top of an earring or the cap on a teardrop crystal. I study how a pod hangs off a vine or the structure of a seed head that's left behind from a flower that's bloomed in our garden. These small organic details become themes in and of themselves and work their form into the other dialog that's already going; and so begins my work process. I think this photo says it all.
