Text 3 Finding inspiration

Visits to museums, galleries, and exhibitions are an excellent way to begin. Even if you live far away from a major city with national museums, there is plenty of inspiration to be found by visiting your nearest town's own museum. Fragments of old pottery or glass displayed there can be tremendously interesting, as are images of local industry—whether it has been a major influence on the area in the past, or is still. If you are fortunate enough to have access to a larger museum, then seek out the specialist jewelry section. You could also look at the metalwork and blacksmithing sections, which tend to house artifacts relevant to jewelry making. Consider also armor, swords, knives, tea and coffee sets, flatware, and stained glass such as Tiffany lamps.

Plan and prepare. Try to assess what you want to see before setting off on a long trip around a museum. Ask for a map of the layout and visit the rooms you are interested in first. Take a notebook and pencil with you and jot down anything that you find truly beautiful.

Look closely. When you examine a piece of jewelry, have a really close look and try to decide how it might have been made. Look for repairs and seams, or ask the museum curator if an item has been X-rayed. This could help you figure out how it was put together.

Gathering ideas

Get into the habit of gathering and recording inspirational ideas.

Postcards. Start a postcard collection of pieces that you have seen and liked from exhibitions. Pin them on a wall or bulletin board to provide something inspirational to look at with your first cup of coffee in the morning.

Scrapbook. Cut out pictures from magazines of things that interest you and keep them in a scrapbook or album. Or scan and download images and use your computer to help you file them all.

Where to look

Museums: Visit museums and study the jewelry, brass and copperware, agricultural and industrial tools, and anything else that you find stimulating. Remember that small local museums can be fascinating and will give you an excellent feel for the topography of an area.

Galleries: Find out where your local galleries are. Visit all their exhibitions and ask to be put on their mailing list—these resources are there for people like you. Recognize which exhibitions you enjoy and those which you don't. It's fine not to like them all!

Exhibitions and open studios: Read local newspapers or listings in magazines for news of other exhibitions. For example, your town may have a festival where local artists open their studios to the public. Take the opportunity to see other artists' work, buy inspirational pieces, and talk to them about what they do. Some exhibits and fairs may feature artists actually making their work. Take the opportunity to observe the techniques and tools they use.

Magazines: Most magazines connected with fashion carry jewelry advertisements or even special features about jewelry. Even in magazines that are unrelated to fashion, you may find pictures of people wearing jewelry or lists of galleries exhibiting jewelry. There are specialist magazines too – ask at your local library or news store to find out what's available.

Books: Books about jewelry provide a fantastic insight into the way jewelers around the world work. Research these sources of inspiration in your local library, or look up jewelry-related books online.

The Internet: Use the image option in a search engine to find inspirational and informative photographs, drawings, and graphics related to any subject you can think of from a huge range of sources. As with any source material, don't copy other artists' work, but do use it to inspire you.

Text 4 Using photography

Photography is useful to you as a jewelry designer in two main ways. First, use it to capture anything that you find visually inspirational. Keep these images so that you can refer to them whenever you need to. Second, you can photograph your own work, either for your own records or to market it, for example through a website.

When looking for inspiration it's a good idea to keep the camera with you all the time, ready to take a picture of anything that catches your eye—close-ups of a flower or a mosaic tile pattern, for instance. Photography has changed considerably in the last few years and there are now more options than ever. The advantages with a digital camera are that you can get close up to your subject without having to alter the settings, and that you can just keep snapping until you know you have the right shot. From your photos, you may find interesting outlines, light and dark shapes, or perhaps some unusual lettering from old advertisements. Inspiration can come from surprising sources. For example, surface effects such as weatherworn brick or muddy tire tracks may inspire thoughts of beautifully textured silver.