As I watch my garden growing again this spring, I think about how much the Creators infinite variety of shapes affects my design sense. The broad leaves of the bush bean, the beautiful swirls of the cabbage, the graceful tendrils of the peas trying to support themselves and my personal favorite, the Hubbard squash and pumpkins with their giant leaves, soon to be a jungle
at one end of the garden.

The first custom stair railing I ever made was inspired by garlic; the long twist flat leaves and the seed stem with it’s roller coaster bends and turns. But the idea is to take that inspiration and turn it into something new, as a painter does a landscape. The suggestion is there but it has your creative slant/artistic to it…..and it has to look good and fit the space as well!

Another source of inspiration is how other cultures have chosen to express themselves visually. I had a recent job that was inspired by the pueblo culture of the southwest. Basically I was inspired by their artistic inspiration of creation. Their geometric graphics on pottery….interpretations of nature.

So we ended up with a railing that was geometrically graphic in style but not a direct copy of their work. Just inspired by

The pickets were worked off a kachina legging, but simple. The tops of the pickets were from the shoulders of a kachina. The decorative band was inspired by a Navajo blanket detail.

All this to say, as my dad use to say to me, your brain is your most valuable tool. Use it!