In an earlier post I showed a picture of my start on the Visual Journal page. This is a workshop I have been following online from Strathmore. Here is the final look of my page. We learned to use some art materials that I have never used before. It was interesting and I thank Pam Carriker very much for teaching it.
Aha! I just found another way to inspire creativity. If you can’t get to an art exhibit for real…go visit Ragged Cloth Cafe. I haven’t taken the time to get over there for awhile. Wow. I was just there and now I’m pumped and writing down notes and ideas. There are some wonderful new posts over there. I saw something on tv yesterday and was thinking about photographing it, but photos of the television screen do not normally come out well, so I have committed it to memory and would like to create it.
Oh yeah, another thing I did this morning is take a few pictures of some textures and items I found interesting. Here’s one for your viewing pleasure and inspiration. (pssst…The flowers are fake, but pretty nonetheless.)
Just to be sewing and in an attempt to jump start creativity this week, I decided to start on a new sample for a class I will teach at the shop. ( I did create on Wednesday, but it didn’t translate to cloth. It was a story for my little kids class at church.)
I purchased the fabric for this sample last Saturday. Now I will need to sell the class to recoup my costs. Anyway, I decided to work on what was in front of me to hopefully start the juices flowing. Here is the block and the fabrics I am using.
I bought 4 fabrics for the blocks, which will alternate and the sashing and border will be the yellow fabric. The blocks are woven. The collection of fabrics is called Serenity and is by Don Baker (?) it looks like (it’s hard to read). Clothworks makes it.
I liked making the block and writing down notes for the class….but I don’t feel the juices flowing yet. It was good to be sewing and experimenting again, though. I have read one suggestion to “just show up”. I guess I could try that. But today I think I will read an article in the new QA magazine by Jane Davila…called “it’s About Time”.
BTW I will be putting in some work time at the Paducah quilt show on April 21 and 22 (that’s Wed/Thurs). I will be working for Betty Blais at the Embellishment Village booth. Come by and see us!
I finally made up my mind to WORK yesterday, but of course the phone has to ring. When I am mentally geared to get something done creatively, I simply cannot give my focus away by answering the phone. I am not wired for that. And with struggling to get back on a schedule and really wanting to get some work done…I can’t handle interruptions. Does anyone else feel like this? I have less than a month before the art fair, and I know how fast that month will go. Of course… I will have to leave and go to the Paducah quilt show this month too…it’s only for two days…
Anyway, yesterday was a day to explore some new ideas and techniques for me. Sometimes when I explore I am pleasantly surprised and pleased with the results. Some days I am not, and then I feel like I have “lost time” because I really want to get something accomplished, but I have no results in order to guage that by. Does anyone else feel this way?
There were two pieces that had been bugging me…they were mounted on plexiglass, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that they were “unfinished”. They actually needed a “framing” look. So I did play around with some ideas and came up with this. I think they look better. I guess at least I got that “done”.
Sometimes after not working creatively in my “studio” for awhile, it can take me some time to get back into the flow. March was very busy what with traveling, teaching and vending, so there wasn’t much creative time. But I am ready to get back into it! I think I did manage to get another piece in a series started. I did some screening on a piece of rust dyed fabric…no picture as I need to save that back while I do more work on it.
This post is for Diane Erickson at Sweet Annie’s jewelry who put pictures of her workspace on her blog. She wrote a post called Creative Minds are Rarely Tidy. (Amen to that, btw.) I am trying to help her feel better! My sewing room just does not have enough nooks and crannies for storage. Just for the record, this room is now cleaned up and no longer looks just like this, but this is how bad it can get! This is the Un-Tidy Truth About My Studio!
Tomorrow I am off to vend at the Decatur quilt show. If you are in the area, come by and see me.
Art Journal---A Creative Journey 