Well seasoned

The keystone pieces from our four 2011 collections - Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. From left to right First Shoots, Hydrangeas, Autumn Bouquet and Snowflakes

One of the things I am often asked is what inspires you and there is no simple answer if I'm honest. There are so many things from nature, buildings, fashion and people and inspiration can come at any time and in any place (hence why I always have a sketch pad or picture taking device with me!).

And so when it was announced that our four collections for 2011 would be called Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter there was a general consensus as to why I called them that. It must be because I was inspired by the seasons. And the answer to that would of course be - kind of!

You see nature and the seasons are a wonderful thing and the amount of inspiration in terms of form and colour is just amazing. It would be so easy to just copy natural forms and say "here you go - here's my collection" but that is far too obvious for me (and a little unimaginative). Yes I may take a form that inspires and design around that form (see my next post on my Hydrangea designs for our Summer collection) but more than that nature teaches us that as well as being beautiful it is practical. Everything has a place and purpose in nature even if sometimes (like my waffling on) that purpose isn't obvious.

One of the beautiful things about working so closely with our clients is that I can listen to their ideas and concerns very carefully and one of the things that has become obvious to me is that as more and more brides express concerns that they find it hard to find pieces which truly suit the time of year they are getting married. They might find a design but it is too blingy or not blingy enough - or it might be too delicate or it might be too heavy. This is easily rectified for our Tiararama Couture clients as we take their ideas and design for them but what about our clients who don't want to have a piece exclusively designed?

It was second nature to me that when I began to look at designing our 2011 Collections I took the same concerns that our Tiararama Couture clients had into these Collections. I was looking at much more than just the pretty shapes - I was looking at something much deeper. For example when it came to designing my Spring collections I'm not only inspired by the tangible events of spring, I also take inspiration from the essence of Spring - the time of year, the light and the feeling. Each piece in Spring has a clean, compact feel, Summer's designs have a lighter, airy feel, Autumn is warm, elegant and comforting and Winter is full of bold, sparkling, cold and celebratory designs.

Beading and wiring techniques as well as the types, textures and shapes of beads used in the designs suits certain times of the year better as well in terms of light with simple clean beading in Spring, more open wiring techniques in summer, closer beaded pieces in Autumn and more bold, structural beading in Winter. So when I'm designing I'm not just looking at shapes, I'm looking at the techniques to get the best out of the raw materials I use to create designs at a particular time of year. I'm looking at the practical as well as the creative. That isn't to say that a Spring design can only be worn in Spring or an Autumn piece only worn in Autumn. We have adapted a number of designs for brides to better reflect another time of year. For example we created a version of Autumn Bouquet for a summer wedding by changing the bead type and warmed Daisy Chain from our Spring collection up so it looks fabulous for an Autumn wedding.

Going forward our collections will still be called Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. I'm taking the same principles into designing our 2012 collections. I may be introducing some quite different techniques (which is very exciting for us and can't wait to show you our new ideas) but one thing you can be sure of - whatever the pretty design, the feel of the piece will reflect the season it falls into.

It is all very exciting here at Tiararama Towers at the moment with lots of drafting and mock ups being created and we are arranging lots of photoshoots for our new (and old) designs. If you would like to get involved with these photoshoots - whether you are a photographer, boutique owner, designer of stunning things 0r if you are organising your own photoshoots and would like to use some of our pieces - get in touch. It would be fabulous to collaborate with you!

So until next time......