Thrifting for Ideas

Come with me today for a thrift shop excursion.

There are so many great thrift stores in New York City and Long Island where I live.  My favorite one is huge.  I like to go and find inspiration for art making.

Let's go inside....

There are isles and isles of goodness here!

Costume jewelry, colors and designs all inspire my artwork.

I like to photograph what I see and then play around with creating digital art.

This thrift store puts leftover earrings, jewelry and trinkets together in bags.  Kind of like a bagful of surprises.  It's fun to go home and open them up to see what treasures you've scored.

I put color combinations of the jewelry together as color palettes.  This gives me ideas...

Picking through thrifts stores has been passed down to me by my parents.  They were vintage and antique people.  They bought and sold at flea markets. New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were all the places they went on the weekends to buy their wares.

Patterns and textures abound at the thrift shop.  I don't buy everything I see, but I take lots of photos for inspiration later on to make art.

People look at me strangely.  Why is she photographing our junk?

Let 'em wonder!

Colors and textures make me happy.


I found tons of handmade pottery.  I would've bought it all if I had the room at home.  I satisfied the urge to overspend with just a few pieces.

Sometimes you find some quality pieces.

Embellishments are so inviting.

I love to look at all of the design elements.

Even my companion found a few items he liked.

Everyone becomes a vintage picker when you get to a thrift store.

I hope I've inspired you to go check out the thrift stores in your area.

Happy picking!