Inspired by Anatomical Hearts, Love, Sayings & an Olive

Happy Valentine's Day! I meant to do this post well in advance of V-day, but of course I never got around to it. I am going to try to explain my train of thought concerning the inspiration of some of my new items and hopefully you'll be able to follow along.

When I created my Valentine's inspired items this year I started by thinking of hearts and anatomical hearts. I didn't want to try to make an exact anatomical heart, so I started with an actual heart shape and added valves coming out of the top in a design that appealed to me. I call it more of a representational heart since it is far from anatomically correct. Next, I thought of what I would put in the hearts which led me to thinking about words associated hearts and love.












Love in my heart
Lust in my heart
Joy in my heart
Passion in my heart (Unfortunately, "passion" didn't make the cut because it was too long)

From "love in my heart " I started thinking of "My Heart is filled with Love" which made me want to literally fill the anatomical heart with the word love. I added the hearts as a fun accent and to add some color since I new I wanted it to be black on white. It made me think of graffiti or writing on a chalkboard (like when your teacher used to make you write the same thing over and over).

The black on white and black on red clay that I used in the previous pieces reminded me of last year's XOXO design, so I decided to take that pattern to another level with my "Love to Give" necklaces featuring the same pattern inside the anatomical heart. The X's and O's represented the love that was stored up waiting to be showered on someone. ( I think we've all been there).

Finally, I figured if I was adding to last years XOXO design , I should also think about doing something with my popular "Wood You Love Me" series. The obvious idea was to create a faux bois representational heart pendant called "Wood You Have My Heart"

The silly play on words from that series made me think of another silly love pun "Olive You". I had actually been thinking of making something with that saying ever since I made some custom olive cufflinks for a customer last summer. I never figured out how I would do it though. I thought of putting an olive sitting in the bottom of a letter U, but I thought it was a bit too corny. With the valentine's inspiration flowing, a light bulb went off and decided I should turn the pimento into a heart (Duh!). So I took my original design from the custom listing and added the heart. I just loved the thought of a man giving the silly sweet necklace to a woman. It would be sure to bring a smile to her face. Cufflinks will be coming soon. Wouldn't they be sweet for a wedding.

Well, I hope you were able to follow along, as my mind can be a bit manic when I am creating. I will be keeping these items in my shop as well as adding a few more love inspired items that I didn't have time to finish. I figure Valentine's day is nice for celebrating love, but we should celebrate on the other days too, so my love items are here to stay.