It's Easy to Set Up a Creative Workspace in Your Home

Creative space from blog Soul PrettyNova Bronstein - If you're anything like me and Sheffield School jewelry design instructor Haley Mindes, you look forward to a shopping trip to a bead or craft store more than the mall. If so, you may already have an area in your home carved out for creating. Below you'll find some key elements that come into play in setting up a work space that's not only functional but also inspiring, encouraging you to sit down and create more often. Haley's told me what she thought better organization was all about.

I'd like to say that organization is the major contributor to my imaginative process - but in actuality, the messier my space, the more creative I'm being. If my work area is cleaned up it means I have completed a project or company is coming over! 

We all have projects we've been “meaning” to get to. Having a workspace that inspires you may have you sitting down to start on those projects sooner than later. Your work area may be on your dining room table, at a corner desk, or in a dedicated room that you can close the door to (lucky you, with no constant cleanup!). Haley and I hope that Corner desk by Martha Stewart on Home Depotthese tips will help you to create or improve your work space, and have you excited to sit down and start making!

Organization

Make it easy for yourself. Keeping organized means that you don’t have to spend lots of time hunting down what you need. You'll waste less time searching for things if they're always put away in the same place when you're not using them. Recycled glass jars, a magnetic spice rack, and pinned or clipped buckets or fabric bags can be great for storage.

Organizing your beads or other craft supplies in see-through containers or tucking away materials you may plan to use someday (but not today) in drawers or on shelves in baskets or boxes can also clear up clutter on your work surface, maximizing your actual work space. Plus, decluttering can have a powerful effect on your productivity, as it's a pleasure to sit down to work. 

Photo: Everything Etsy

Dedicated Space

Knowing that you have a dedicated place of your own where you can have some quiet time - not a shared space - will help you relax and let creative thoughts flow. Getting lost in a project can be a form of meditation. If possible, you want this space to be only devoted to creating. The goal is to make it so that when you sit down to work, you associate the space purely with your creative process. That means that you don’t associate this space with chores like paying the bills. Associating this spot with paying bills can block your creative juices! 

 Photo: Retro-Modern Project

Inspiration

Surround yourself with things that will inspire you! You may find yourself with some unexpected time on your hands, but when you sit down to work, you might feel like a blank canvas. Have images available that inspire you; they will give you a place to start. Here's what I do for inspiration.

I keep a big cork board behind my work bench covered with images I like at the moment, and I change them whenever I'm working on a new collection. I pull images of architecture, landscapes, fashion spreads, and nature and use the shapes, textures, and color palettes as my starting points. I prefer to use non-jewelry images so that I'm challenged to interpret whatever it is that I'm looking at through my own lens, finding my own voice for how it translates into a jewelry element. 

Remember, inspiration and your creative process can start anywhere. You can be working on a full-fledged project that you take to fruition, or you can just play with making samples, it’s all progress and can lead to great work. You can always revisit what you've made at a later date and a with fresh perspective! So, don't forget to sometimes put judgement on pause.

Photo: We Heart It

Build your ideal work space. It's a creative process in and of itself, and the very act of defining your work space will lead to your creative growth. And take your time. There's no rush to get everything perfect. It's not a race; it's a journey! 

Interested in making some of your own smashing jewelry? As jewelry design Instructors at the Sheffield School in New York, Haley and I encourage you to take control and rev up your creativity! Check out the newly launched Jewelry Design Course offered at the Sheffield School. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any other school in the world.

• Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.
• Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.

Use Bold Geometrics to Give Rooms Impact

 

Janet Ramin - Is the sight of the same old solid colored wall getting you down?  Does the prospect of picking out a print throw you into paralysis? Well, suffer no more! Our series on Graphic Power is here to help you pick out a pattern.

There are many kinds of patterns out there but they can be categorized into just a few: floral, nature, animal, geometric, abstract, and scroll.  In this issue, we’re going to concentrate on the graphic power of geometric prints.

Geometric patterns are some of the oldest types of design, based on simple shapes of circles, squares, rectangles, and ellipses. Over the centuries, we have had endless variations of geometric patterns but a few have become quite distinct and popular. In Arab cultures, geometric patterns play an important role in design. Religion decreed that artwork can be limited only to geometric patterns and calligraphy as any figurative art was considered a form of idolatry and a sin against God. Consequently, incredible complex patterns arose from simple geometric forms as shown in ancient tribal rugs and mosaic tile work. Shown above is a Persian rug showing a diamond pattern with tribal motifs of varying geometric shapes. Persian rugs can be used in both traditional and contemporary homes as their small patterns complement most furniture styles.

Current designers have re-interpreted Arabic patterns and translated it for modern homes. Designer Thom Filicia uses interlocking hexagon shapes for his contemporary take on Arabic styles. This simplified design, available from Safavieh, is perfect for the more minimalist decors.

The Art Deco style which originated from the 1920s also used many geometric patterns in its décor.  The most popular included the waterfall, the ziggurat, fans, as well as the simpler forms of stylized triangles and diamonds.  In the third photo of the slideshow above, we have an Art Deco-inspired wallpaper from Graham and Brown called Trapeze. Shown in a plum colorway, Trapeze uses elongated triangles and radiating suns for its pattern. Art Deco patterns are perfect for elegant, glamorous homes. 

Midway through the 20^th century, pop art became big and its bright and colorful parodies of cultural traditions influenced design in every field. The diamond lozenge pattern in mauves and grays called Helsinki as well as the orange curved diamond pattern called Trippy from Graham and Brown wallpaper collection (first two photos in slideshow) are inspired by this mod era. 

Also emerging from the mid-century era was the op-art movement. Optical art takes advantage of optical illusions, the interplay between illusion and the picture plane. M.C. Escher was a Dutch graphic artist who used optical illusions in many of his works. Pictured above is a rug designed by Thom Filicia for Safavieh which creates an optical illusion of stepped-up blocks when all there really exists in the whole composition are only two geometric shapes, a hexagon and a parallelogram in various orientations.

For those who desire a more subtle geometric design, we have simple geometric shapes in burnt orange and browns that are linked. Called the Hicks wallpaper from Graham and Brown (last photo in slideshow above), this elegant pattern would complement any contemporary home. 

We've covered only the tip of the iceberg with these examples of geometric patterns. But as you can see in the variety, they evoke different moods from fun and wild to subtle and elegant to complex and ethnic. Next time you're looking for something dramatic or different, find a geometric print that fits the mood of your room.

Interested in learning more about fabric, wall and floor treatments? Take a look at Sheffield School's Complete Course in Interior Design. At Sheffield, you'll learn how to transform a space, create color schemes, and select furniture, lighting, and accessories.