Inspiration

It can be a bit of a challenge to find inspiration — not everyone is brilliant at free-hand drawing and so when it comes to finding images for embroidery or card making (just to mention two possible situations) I believe many people turn to internet for suitable material. Something I have found to be useful is the wide range of inexpensive adult colouring books available in book stores and newsagents. Don’t get me wrong — the term ‘adult’ is only a way of classifying these books/magazines which are considered to be a good form of relaxation — they promote a mindful process of concentration on the act of colouring in the images without losing oneself in unnecessary detail. But back to us — we creatives can find a myriad of simple line drawings — although some are not so simple — between the pages to use as models for our embroidery etc.

And whilst I’m here, let me just mention my own personal go-to internet sources where you can find so much inspiration for experimenting with new skills and admiring those of creatives who are already experienced in them. Whilst youtube offers limitless opportunities to follow tutorials in all manner of crafts — it can at times be irritating to find the videos bogged down in publicity which is usually a source of income for many ‘creators’ in there — can’t blame them trying to cash in somehow on their film making efforts, but as a viewer I try to look elsewhere if the possibility exists. So where else? For photographs galore, Pinterest is a great source as also is Instagram. Where Instagram goes a step further is with the reels covering crafting tutorials — there are ads on instagram but they don’t usually hamper the viewing of the individual reels.

But in all honesty, quite apart from inspiration offered by my surroundings and well dressed shop windows and passers-by — most of my inspiration comes from books! You can find my own personal library (or at least, a part of it) listed in here on the Resources page