Three places I draw inspiration from

As a jewellery artist, I am always looking around for inspiration to create new pieces. It’s all too easy to fall for the stereotype of the lightbulb moment when we suddenly figure out a new design for a pair of earrings, a pattern to enamel, or mechanism for a brooch. But even though those moments might exist, the reality is that creativity is something you have to feed daily to come up with ideas. Below are three of my preferred places to feed my creativity and draw inspiration from.

Other Art
I am always looking out for art made by others in all sort of forms and formats. I am quite lucky to work in an art museum, which means I am surrounded by wonderful works of art from different times and cultures. But I am also a huge fan of street art, I go camera in hand taking pictures of full murals as well as details of a pattern or colour combination I particularly like. It doesn’t matter whether you do something with these images later on or not, but it’s good to keep them saved on your phone to look at them every now and again, or to use as reference if there was something you wanted to incorporate into your work. Whether it is in a building dedicated to creative endeavours like an art museum or roaming the streets of your city, you can certainly find something to feed your creativity with by just stepping out.

Nature
I love the outdoors, and I think Nature is the goddess of clever design and harmonious forms. Apart from being really good for overall health, spending time in nature can be an insatiable source of inspiration. When exploring the outdoors, I try to pay attention to the shapes, the vibrant colours and its unique combinations, the textures, even the way things move. For example, a plump bumblebee landing on a delicate flower, bending it towards the floor whilst it collects all the pollen, then flying away and the flower bouncing back up. This might sound a bit abstract, but movements can suggest lines and patterns that you can then use in your sketches.
I also should add that my adorable doggie Milonga is a source of inspiration too! I love to photograph her and sketch her when I get a chance, and in fact, the commission I am working on at the moment is a dog brooch. So convenient!

My Roots
My family, the neighbourhood where I grew up, the culture I identify with and my heritage are massive sources of creative inspiration for me. They not only feed my creativity, I also want them to come through in the work I do. I enjoy going back to the places I know to rediscover them, remembering childhood tales and family traditions that perhaps I used to take for granted but that nowadays have a kind of magic to me. I like to look at all the broader parts of my heritage that I share with others as well, such as Latin American culture and aesthetic tastes, native cultures from Argentina and their decorative designs that had so much to do with how they viewed the world. What things from your own roots might serve you as inspiration?

There you go, here are three of my favourite places to go and draw inspiration from. Hope you try some of these and feed your creativity!