Inspired travels! Marcia DeCoster

I just had an amazing opportunity to travel with a group of like minded beady people through some of the most amazingly picturesque cities of Europe.  We started out in Prague, followed by Vienna, Budapest and finally two wonderful days in Paris.

The trip had so many facets to it, it's hard to capture all of the feelings surrounding so many special moments, but I can tell you I had so many opportunities to connect with our worldwide beading community and it was awesome!  In so many places I got to feel the love as I met beaders from all over the world, some for the first time.

So where is this post going?  Well I want to tell you some stories of those meetings, and of the wonderful time we had exploring the Bohemian collection, and I will.  Perhaps in a second post.

Now what I want to discuss is inspiration.....because as I reviewed my photos I realized how many of them were jumping off points for something that may eventually be beaded.  There were patterns and shapes everywhere that invoked just a wisp of an idea waiting to be explored more fully.  Let's have a look.

First up is St. Stephens Cathedral in Vienna.....a Bargello pattern in the roof seems to beg to be beaded.  I'll leave that one to the peyote gals who can really do it justice.

And of course a little tiara inspiration from the Swarovski shop.  The Bad Liz of Tiara fame should have a look at these!

For me there is this whimsical sign.  Forever I've wanted to bead some sort of fairy house and this one would provide some good inspiration.

 This one's from a museum in Vienna.  It was reasonably under whelming for the most part, but there was a wall of these.  I can't help but thinking it it something Kinga Nichols might bead.  I also wonder at the idea to put art and whimsy into armor used to defend one's body against an act of war.  It seems at odds to one another.

More whimsy here on the walls of the Klosterneuburg abbey.   This is a tour we took while river cruising on the Danube from Vienna to Budapest.

I think the scroll work on the walls would lend it self to a very detailed craw pendant.....hhmmmm.....

and of course jewelry in paintings provides plenty of inspiration

Here is a fence....perhaps in Paris, perhaps in Budapest, I really should take notes, but again it looks like the perfect pattern to be done in CRAW.  Funny that my eye is always drawn to these geometric patterns.

Hexagonal units, interspersed with diamonds, outlined in gold bands.  This would make a beautiful bracelet.

 Oh and did I mention CRAW, perhaps in size 15's?

This street poster was that faint glimmer of a design......I have ideas.

A fence at the Rodin museum provided a little LOVE inspiration, Paris being the city of love after all.

The inspiration here is all color and I so wish that I didn't have to contend with window glare....these were in a window shop near Montmartre.  I often think that a packaging engineer might have been a good career for me, but alas I didn't have the artistic drive when I was young enough to pursue that type of career path.

I don't know how I would bead this, but I was struck by the elegance of the shapes and sometimes just the idea of creating a certain mood is enough to evoke an idea.

 The next two pieces were from a beautiful collection of Bijoux in an art and design museum that we  stumbled on in Paris.

It was pointed out that Nancy Cain has a piece similar to this.  The ornateness might be hard to capture in beads, but certainly the shape and the jewels are compelling.

I am a lover of travel and I see inspiration everywhere.  I love looking back at my photos as they tell a story and these ones told the story of friendship, beads and inspiration!  I hope you may find some inspiration of your own in my photos, or revisit your own travel photos where I am sure plenty of ideas abound!