Words and Wildflowers Creative Prompts – Issue 115
We LOVE research and learning as a way to get inspired and boost ideas and creativity!! So, Kenzie and I are going to be sharing the inspiration that we collect here in our second newsletter…. once a week!!!
Here’s how it works:
We provide the inspiration. You interpret it however you wish… any medium, any size. It is meant to inspire lettering and floral art combined together. But, you can:
- Just do the florals, just do the lettering, or combine them together.
- Use the provided quote for your piece or select your own.
- Use colors from one of the inspiration images or select your own favorites
- Create the floral art… as a still life in a vase, a single flower, a border, a pattern, a bouquet
Hope you will create with us and post your work at #wordsandwildflowers2026 and tag @lorisiebert.studio and @snippetsofwhimsy
Quote of the week…
“Strive to reach the highest.”
— This is the motto of Queen Kapiʻolani.
Inspiration of the week: Shangri La Museum
The Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design is housed in the former home of Doris Duke near Diamond Head in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Shangri La was built between 1936 and 1938 after Duke’s honeymoon, which took her through the Islamic world. Her travels in Egypt, India, and the Middle East inspired her to design a home that reflected the beauty, diversity, and craftsmanship of Islamic art and architecture. Her experiences in North Africa and South and Southeast Asia also shaped her vision of combining Islamic design with the natural landscape of Hawaiʻi.
For nearly 60 years, Duke commissioned and collected artworks for the space, eventually forming a collection of over 4,000 objects. The structure was designed by Marion Sims Wyeth, and Duke personally collaborated with artisans to incorporate Moroccan ceilings, Persian tilework, and Mughal-style gardens into the home’s design. Over time, she expanded her collection to nearly 4,500 works, especially ceramics, wood, glass, and textiles from 1600 to 1940.
In 2002, the building opened to the public as the Shangri La Museum for Islamic Art, Design & Culture.It remains the only US museum dedicated exclusively to Islamic art, and fulfills Duke’s wish that Shangri La be open to students, scholars, and others interested in the appreciation and study of Islamic art.
Hand lettering inspiration of the week: Souun Takeda
Souun Takeda was born in 1975 in Kumamoto Prefecture, and he trained under his mother and professional calligrapher, Souyou Takeda. After graduating from Tokyo University of Science, he joined NTT where he worked for three years before turning to the path of the calligrapher. Since then, he has worked on numerous projects, including the title lettering and logos of many films and TV programmes. In recent years, he has been expanding the range of his activities overseas.
Since his mother is a professional calligrapher, Souun Takeda first took up calligraphy at the age of three. He was brimming with lively curiosity as a child, always wondering why the strokes of a character are written in a fixed order, or what sets apart “bad” calligraphy from “good.” He often played around with calligraphy, loosening up the strokes or writing faintly on purpose.
Takeda studied engineering at university; even now, his mind is full of thoughts of atoms and equations, and he has a wealth of knowledge on the sciences. When it comes to calligraphy, it’s not as if he feels a compulsion to write. Rather, what he holds on to is his gratitude for and curiosity towards his existence in the present, a point in the long galactic time.
