Karen Landis » Inspiration

Feeling Bad (About Your Work) Is Good

Karen — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:28:30 +0000

Ira Glass, of This American Life, gives such sage advice for anyone who makes things that I had to share this video with you. When you’re struggling with a technique, when you’re disappointed in a design, when you break a piece because you pushed it further than it was meant to go, ask yourself what Ira would do? And in your head (or online), you’ll hear him say, “”It takes a while. It’s going to take you a while. It’s normal to take a while. You just have to fight your way through that. Okay? You will be fierce, you will be a warrior, and you will make things that aren’t as good as you know in your heart you want them to be.” But as he mentions earlier in the video, the cure is “do a lot of work”.

Color, Color, Everywhere

Karen — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:11:01 +0000

I agreed to give a presentation at the October Beadaholics meetup on applying color theory to jewelry designs. As I’m doing research for it, I thought I’d post the sites I use as references.Â Why wait, right?

Fashion Trendsetter has a fabulous color trends section. I love the Lenzing Textile & Color Trends Autumn/Winter 2010/11 booklet you can download (look for the pdf download on the right). It’s color trend heaven. I’m also using the InterfiliÃ¨re Fashion & Color Trends Summer 2010. I took the forecasts with me to several bead shows to help keep me on track. It can be overwhelming to try to pull together colors on the spur of the moment. A little color prep goes a long way.

Several sites make the Pantone color forecasts available. Fire Mountain Gems has lovely pages for the Fall/Winter 2009-2010 and the Spring/Summer 2010 colors posted. They also offer the Color Association of the United States color forecasts. You can download pdf files for each of these.

If you print a color forecast, be aware of the differences that can occur if you don’t have decent ink in your printer. I sometimes have to run a test sheet to get the ink flowing properly because I don’t print that often. Luckily, I have a little Canon printer that does a pretty good job with color.

You should really check out all of these sites (and look for more) to determine what color palettes work for you. You may not want to be a slave to color trends but you should know what they are. It’s also educational to read the descriptions of and inspirations behind the trends.

Favorite Quotes

Karen — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:34:32 +0000

Here’s one:

“The world is more malleable than you think and it’s waiting for you to hammer it into shape.” – Bono

Craft Show Checklist

Karen — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:07:49 +0000

Are you participating in a craft show this summer? You may want to take a look at Brandy Agerbeck’s Craft Show 101 post over at Loosetooth. She documented her experiences preparing for and participating in the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago back in 2003. She shares her philosophy on participating in shows, a list of what she made/bought, a diagram of her booth layout, tons of tips and lovely photos of her booth. Brandy has some great advice for both newbies and pros.

I still covet those bowls she made to hold her jewelry.