Spell Your way to Inspiration - Spell with Flickr

Here is a little visual inspiration courtesy of a new flickr toy find: Spell with Flickr. All you have to do is type in your word and hit "spell" and voila. A lovely mix of letters in many colors and textures and styles. They even offer up the Html code so you can put it in your blog, like me!







I really love the industrial feel of my letters, as well as the different color combinations. Something about the scratched paint on the old sign letters makes me crazy (I wonder why). I feel inspiration coming on - Maybe I will make some initial pendants, rings or magnets that remind me of the old distressed letters.... maybe. You'll have to check back and see.

Here's another idea. Wouldn't it look great to frame each letter (Remember, Don't take the flickr images without the artist's permission) of a word that is meaningful to you and "spell " it up on the wall. Also a cool way to put your kid's or pet's name up on their wall. This project would also be a great excuse to get out there and get some cool letter pics of your own.

Since it is Sunday, take a little time to play with Spell with flickr and see if any inspiration springs forth. Put in names or meaningful words and see what comes up. Once you get off the computer, try to take a look at the signs and letters in your area and see if you find anything interesting. If you get a great letter photo or create a letter wall display, comment here or convo me on Etsy and I will post it here on the blog.

PCAGOE Letter Project

Recently the PCAGOE (Polymer Clay Artists of Esty) completed a collaborative project for the Etsy headquarters and lab. We created a wall hanging with Etsy's slogan. We decided to create it in the same style as our PCAGOE banner with different members each creating a letter and then one member , Dawn of HardflowerStudios.etsy.com, created the background and assembled the final piece. This was no small undertaking and it took us a couple of months to complete. We recently sent the gift to the Etsy Labs along with some polymer clay and a pasta machine. We felt that in order for the labs to be complete, they had to have some polymer clay for artists to come in and use. Plus, we are all about promoting polymer clay as an art medium, so this was a way for us to hopefully do our part to introduce it to some artists who have never used it before (few as they may be)!

The wall hanging was happily received by the Labs and they even wrote about it on the Etsy blog. If you ever visit the Etsy Labs, please keep an eye out for the wall hanging and please take a closer look. The detailing really can't be captured with a camera! I created the O in .com and the last A in handmade (see below).






















I think the best part of the project was how different each letter was, but how great they all looked together! That may just be another life lesson to make you say hmmmm.

PCAGOE members who contributed to this project:
Ilysaart, StudioBijou, MarciaPalmer, ScottGarrette, MaureenThomasDesigns, HardflowerStudios, MamaStaub, BlueLadyStudios, BenCanDance, IttyBittiesForYou, MadeinLowell, Faffcreations, TheColorofDreams, DeerCrossDesigns, BreezyDawnDesigns, NatureStudio, LadyRayCello, ColorFunky, NothinLikeIt, Peggers, BlockPartyPress, Treasurefield, Nanjodogz, Polyclarific, BlueDogBeads, MithrilDreams, and Cutesis. The letter board was compiled by HardflowerStudios.

I wanted to add a special thanks to Judy from Artsyclay.etsy.com come for surprising me this weekend with a very cool feature on her blog!