Out of ideas for your next beaded project?

The checklist that I am recommending could probably be longer, but this list will keep you busy for a very long time. It has certainly done so for me. You will be designing and making beaded jewelry for many years should you take this list as seriously as I do.

It is highly recommended that you keep a notebook or two or three or more. You will have more notes than time to make all the jewelry from your imagination.

Here is a checklist of how to accumulate jewelry designs from unique ideas for a day when creativity takes a holiday or is being stubborn.

1. Visit your parents or your grandparents and snoop through the jewelry boxes. They may have some pieces that you would like to duplicate with the newer variety of beads and beading techniques or to make trendy jewelry

2. Visit flea markets, garage sales or vintage shops and roam the aisles looking for inspiration from old or broken pieces of jewelry, old clothing, era photos, and lace fabrics.

3. Watch period movies and observe adornment ware of body and of clothing. Be sure to have your pen and paper ready to note ideas.

4. Review past and current issues of teen magazines, general interest magazines, ethnic magazines, celebrities, and other fashion or beading magazines and books. Gather information as to the marketplace where your creations and styles of jewelry designs would sell effortlessly.

5. If you make beaded pendants review animal, flower, coin, insignia, flag, and button publications.

6. Most of us purchase commercially made beads. Take a look at how to make beads. This is another outlet of bead jewelry making artisans. This will open doors to create original bead designs sparked by the process of making your own collection of designer beads.

7. Research the different types of jeweled ornaments from our country and from other countries. This investigation will open history, geography, ancestry, heritage, traditions, legends and much more.

8. Investigate the mythical and the spirit world. There are thousands of storybooks of imaginary stories of gods, goblins, leprechauns and other fantasies produced by children and adults. Unwrap religious legends or develop your own by meditating and withdrawing within the imagination of the mind.

9. Question people as to why certain pieces of jewelry are worn. What meaning or story hides behind that trinket? One of the most elaborate bracelets that tell many stories is the charm bracelet. Each charm contributes to the story. It is a memory bracelet.

Yes, I do have many notebooks. Because there are so many ideas, it is also necessary to keep learning jewelry and beading techniques to be able to make these beautiful adornments of beaded necklaces, bracelets, earrings, pendants, anklets, rings, and more.