Inspiration for the things I make comes from many sources. I need lots of eye candy to keep my brain moving in new and unexpected directions. Because I’m on a small island with not a lot of places to get eye candy, I often turn to the internet or to books and magazines.
Soft Peach Convertible From Cowl to Scarf with Color Inspiration |
I use the internet mostly by looking at pictures of other people’s work and fashion photos. I can bookmark pages for inspiration but because I find so many, the bookmarks have quickly gotten overwhelming. Plus, they often go away. Because I don’t have a color printer, printing them isn’t an option unless I’m just looking to the shape or idea of something instead of the color for inspiration.
I also buy or borrow books for inspiration. I copy pages out of borrowed books, but again, without the color, I can only use them for shapes etc. Books that I’ve bought, I put little sticky notes on inspirational pages or fold down the corners. But, it is kind of a pain to go through a bunch of books trying to find that one picture I know I saw somewhere.
Steampunk Neckwarmer with Color and Style Inspiration |
Rose Scarves with Several Inspiration Pages and Yarn Used |
By far, though, magazines are my favorite place to go. They are easily portable from the beach to the couch. They are cheaper than books and I don’t feel bad about ripping out the pages. I then file them into categories such as sweaters, color inspiration, or freeform crochet ideas. When I need some inspiration, I start pulling out the files and going through them. I take the page and match yarn colors to it. Then, I keep the inspiration page nearby as I work on the item. I’ve started taking photos of the item with the inspiration page because I want a record of what I used and how the final item turned out. I find it interesting to observe my own creative process. Brains are such amazing things! The creative process can take you to such unexpected places—a page torn from a magazine and a pile of yarn transformed in an evening to a soft scarf that becomes eye candy itself.
I was very interested to read your post about what inspires you to freeform crochet. I'm new to freeform and have not even started yet so I enjoyed your post :)
ReplyDeleteThank you. Freeform crochet is my favorite type of crochet to make. I hope you end up enjoying it as much as I do. It's not for everyone though. Some people like the structure of a pattern.
ReplyDeleteFor someone who knows next to nothing about color theory, this is a great way for me to get inspiration the colors to use in my freeform crochet pieces. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Patrice. I know a little about color theory but rarely pay attention to it. I just know what colors I like together when I see them.
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