How do I design a new piece?

Inspiration is all around me in the form of nature, the sea, movies, memories, etc.

The physical process of a piece coming together can be as spontaneous as pulling colors influenced by a photo or piece of fabric, or as thought out as sketching ideas and working from a memory or some story I want to tell. Not to say spontaneous means quick! Besides bead and stone choices there are so many things to think about like style of piece in terms of length and strands or weight, colors to predominate, cost that will affect the final price, style in terms of modern or vintage or ?

This is great fun for me. Hours can go by and piles of storage trays with a faceted montana blue colored stone pulled out and a watery teal chalcedony added there... Strung temporarily and stand in front of the mirror to see if it's coming together as I think it is... Take it out in the sun to see how the colors work....

 

To show an example of designing with sketches, I've scanned in a couple pages from one of my sketch books. Most of the time I've made multiple sketches on scrap paper, but I've been just saving the one I want to work from and putting that one in my sketch book with a photo of the final piece. The other sketches hang in there with other random sketches I've made on vacation or while waiting for a doctor appointment. You never know when a flip back through my stored "mind" will take me to a sketch that just has to get out and see the light of day!