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Traveling is a big part of my inspiration. My annual summer pilgrimages to reconnect with family and certain particular places I've lived in my life as well as the more adventurous traveling to new destinations. And this summer I am feeling particularly grateful to have travelled at all. Last summer was a disappointment to say the least! (Though after finally accepting that I wouldn't leave Ontario anytime soon I gave in and was able to appreciate and even savour an unusually calm and relaxing July and August at home and within a few hours of home.)
This summer international travel felt risky. The constantly changing border restrictions, quarantining requirements, and hoops to jump through seemed daunting. My family and I were crossing our fingers but not holding our breath. That was a good thing, because we did have one particularly maddening experience at the U.S. border (I won't go into it, but it felt like a huge injustice.) In the end, we did manage to spend time with my family in Nebraska and then with the other side of our family in the countryside in France.
And how wonderful and nourishing it is! I get so much energy and ideas from travelling. To step away from my daily routine, to take a break from my things and rooms. To live with different smells, foods, sights, weather, people.
This summer, as I often do while we are visiting family in France, I spent many hours sitting in the expansive garden drawing. I am particularly attracted to the bignonia or trumpet vine that my in-laws planted many years ago. An elegant curving branch with a few bright orange-red cone-shaped flowers at the tip is a lovely thing to draw.
My drawings don't usually influence my jewelry designs directly, but studying different forms, shapes, palettes, and lines definitely informs my design work and thinking. And also, it is important for me to allow time for the freeing act of drawing, just because. Even if the small drawings on card stock end up with a quick note and a stamp and then get mailed away as postcards.