Jewelry Design Ideas

Are you flipping through magazines, pouring over online trend sights, and viewing the latest runway shows to be inspired for your next design? If you are like most designers eventually you may have trouble coming up with the next great idea.

Here are some ideas on how to design jewelry and break through that creative block.

Decide to design for a famous personality. Yes, imagine that Kate Hudson or Paula Abdul, Hillary Clinton, or Paris Hilton has just asked you to create a line for her.

The next step is to define colors, silhouettes, and materials that evoke the personality of that person. From there you are on your way to some fun and fabulous designs!

Another option is to raid your own stash of old designs and old jewelry. What can you take apart to make brand new again. Can you update some old successes into new ones?

How about working in 3 dimensions with paper? Cutting paper into shapes, folding, scoring, linking strips into chains can get you thinking in terms of what can be done with metals as well.

What about fabrics? Take a look at patterns, quilting, stitching, and layering. All of these can inspire you to create surface interest in metal, ceramic, plastic, wood, or any other medium you may use. It may even inspire you to look at new materials to include in your designs.

Interior design has often inspired me as well. I especially love Kelly Wearstler. It's amazing how easily environments inspire the design of objects. Take a look at some great coffee table books of popular interior artists and architects and you'll find yourself sketching in no time!

Even though every time you tell someone you design jewelry for a living, and they will always say, "Oh ,how fun that must be." The truth is that it is a competitive and fast moving business which demands the highest level of creativity over and over again.

So, yes it can be fun, and I hope that these tricks of mine will help you too to come up with great jewelry design ideas again and again.