{"id":484,"date":"2010-08-19T11:02:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-19T10:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/2010\/me-anthropologie-creativity\/"},"modified":"2010-08-19T11:02:00","modified_gmt":"2010-08-19T10:02:00","slug":"me-anthropologie-creativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/me-anthropologie-creativity\/","title":{"rendered":"Me + Anthropologie = creativity!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I spent a glorious hour in Creative Beadcraft<\/a> in Soho today looking for just<\/em> the right gemstone for my teardrop mosaic which currently in progress. I came away with the most beautiful Swarovski crystals (ehm…and quite a bit more). It was a veritable Aladdin’s cave for a magpie like me.<\/p>\n

Aware that I needed to get back to the studio to actually do<\/em> some mosaicing before collecting the kids, I walked briskly back up Regent Street towards Oxford Circus tube station when I saw the famed Anthropologie store <\/a>and was diverted in like a magnet.<\/p>\n

My first 5 minutes left me a bit cold – beautiful clothes I know, but the thrifter in me just cannot contemplate spending \u00a350 on a necklace I could easily make myself or \u00a370 on a t-shirt. OK, so the clothes department was not for me (well, at least not until I am a rich and famous artist!) and I was just about to leave when my eye was drawn to a magnificent vertical garden adorning the huge left hand wall of the store. When I say huge, I am talking about 15 metres high and 10m wide.You can see a bit of the wall below…<\/p>\n

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I walked towards it and breathed in deeply – that most wonderful gift of plant oxygenated air. Stunning. When I turned, I was enthralled further by enormous lampshades made out of throwaway materials – plastic lids, bottles, old jewellery and toys.<\/div>\n

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Now we were talking! Thrifty ole me started smiling again. I wandered into the homeware department and was soon picking up objects, smiling and stroking with glee at the little details – those small (and not so expensive) things that make a house a home. Brass owl and cat hooks, fox doorknockers, beautiful<\/em> measuring spoons and the good old fashioned cafe au lait bowls, just like the ones I drank out of when I lived with my aunt in France as a child (funny how things come around eh?).<\/p>\n

I went to pay for a gorgeous children’s book that was in the sale, written and illustrated with paper cuts\u00a0 by a self taught artist, Nikki McClure<\/a>. Loved it and love the fact that she has clearly carved out her creative career outside of the box.<\/div>\n
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As I was at the till paying, I was telling the cashier how much\u00a0 I admired this stunning feature they had made of recycled bottles and rope.<\/p>\n

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She told me that their interiors team made it using glass cutters and a blow torch. “Aha!” I said, “Please tell them there is an easier way”…and I went on to explain my recent discovery of how to cut a glass bottle<\/a> an awesome technique that you can use in mosaic making. She was amazed at how easy it was and now wanted to give it a try! I love these bottles and it has given me more ideas of beautiful things to try and make from recycling glass.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on my visit to Anthropologie, I realised that just being in such an environment – where attention to detail, design and beauty was so meticulous and passionate – got me into a great creative zone. While I was there I got so inspired by possibility. I came away with three new ideas of things to make – a synthesis of things I saw and things in my head. So good. I think I will have to make some Artist Dates<\/strong><\/em> and hang out in beautiful shops (perhaps leaving my credit card at home)! Anyone have recommendations of cool places to hang out in just for creative inspiration?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I spent a glorious hour in Creative Beadcraft in Soho today looking for just the right gemstone for my teardrop mosaic which currently in progress. I came away with the most beautiful Swarovski crystals (ehm…and quite a bit more). It was a veritable Aladdin’s cave for a magpie like me. Aware that I needed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,21,18,25,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artful-living","category-developing-as-an-artist","category-mosaic-loving","category-mosaic-tips-n-tricks-advanced","category-reusing-and-recycling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}