Navigating the internet in an orderly manner

Pinterest has been around for a couple of years on the world wide web, but has just launched officially in the UK. When I first heard about Pinterest, I wasn't interested in creating an account. I already have a Tumblr account which I love. It is a wordless stream of images that inspire me and I love the weird, dark, psychedelic corners of that particular online world. I felt Pinterest didn't fill a specific need of mine and would therefore become just another account for me to manage. It also seemed to be a place where people collected images of products they wanted to buy, which didn't interest me.

I was coaxed reluctantly into joining by Melanie Bowles of The People's Print. We were running a collage-based fabric design competition together, and Melanie believed we should create public mood boards that people entering the competition could use to inspire their design process. Melanie invited me to join her 'I have no fear of depths' board , which focusses on joyful abandonment and the beauty of deep unknown oceans. I created 'We shall not cease form exploration' which collects images of explorers and adventurers of the skies, the seas and the wild recesses of planet earth, including these: 

It was clear that all three of the winning designs had been created with inspiration from our mood boards.

As I have mentioned before on this blog, I am naturally prone to physical disorder, though I am a big fan - almost a worshiper - of orderliness, which I strive towards at all times. This is my desk area at probably it's most tidy. 

I am also a naturally visual person, and find things most easy to understand when they are presented in a visual way. This is the reason I originally started making illustrated sewing instructions, and also why I love a good infographic! I am a ceaseless list writer and often my lists take visual form. This is the list I jotted down when ideas for styling the next DIYcouture photo shoot were keeping me awake one night.

Pinterest therefore works with my brain very well. Unlike a blog that shows a vertically linear stream of posts, Pinterest allows me to collect a number of images into a group. In a way this allows me to 'keep' them, almost like a visual form of internet favourites.

The following images are from the Pinterest board I created to help focus my ideas for styling the next DIYcouture photo shoot (which will show the clothing created from the winning fabric designs). This image of palm leaves was originally posted on a Tumblr called Eidetica.

This image was originally posted by Susie Bubble as part of a blog post about inspirational styling and photography. The imaged was pinned by textile designer Francesca Colussi. 

Alone, they are great images. As part of a group of pictures that I have curated, they take on different meaning.

I have collected these images with purpose and return to them in the build up to my shoot as I build props, cover old shoes in new fabric and design backdrops. In this way, Pinterest has become a very useful tool to me and I must thank Melanie for forcing me to use it.

Pinterest are now promoting their services specifically to a UK audience and have launched a 'Pin It Forward' campaign, where bloggers discuss how they use Pinterest and introduce other bloggers who find Pinterest useful. I must say they are not paying us to do this and I  am happy to encourage people to sign up, as I needed that extra push to sign up too. If you are now interested in Pinterest, please do sign up and follow my boards. Rather than running word searches, I find it useful to seek out designers I like who have Pinterest accounts and see where their boards take me, so I do hope mine can lead you down some unexpected online avenues.

Thanks to Lucy Kate Crafts who introduced me yesterday and now it's my turn to introduce Cathryn Clarke from A Crafty Chai, whose pinning activities you can follow here.