Reverse inspiration

Often, I make beads all week, thinking of a group of names as I go along. At the end of the week, I look at the possibilities within that group of names, and match beads to them.

I can tell you now that there will be very few, if any, new beads online this week-end, as I'm trying to build up a stash for jewellery making while I'm on holiday. What this has led to, however, is some sort of reverse inspiration - because I *know* my group of names for the next listing.

When I was a child, a 'rock musical for kids' swept through Germany, about a little dragon called Tabaluga, who goes on a journey to grow up. He meets lots of different individuals, who try to convince him that their way of life is the best and only way - the dolphins tell him to just enjoy life, the ants tell him to work hard, a stork tells him that he is meant for better things, born to the skies, a giant tells him a story of how people often miss out because they're simply afraid. In the end, he meets an old, old turtle, Nessaja, who has seen everything come and go, and who has worked out that it is balance, and keeping a child-like wonder at the world, that might, just might, bring wisdom and maturity...but, as she says...does any of that really matter?

Tabaluga is now in the second generation, my son enjoys hearing it, and I know the whole thing front to back and back to front. And while I'm at the torch this week, names come to me, for which there are no beads yet, but I know exactly what they'll look like. Some of these names, just as a tease:

• Playing with clouds
• Cradled by the storm
• The songs of leaves
• Little Dragons
• I make time

.....Guess I better get torching!