This is a piece I did last weekend, but didn't have time during the week to post here. When I was done and stepped back to truly look at it, I was surprised how dark it is. It has a desolate, trapped feeling to it. It started out as something inspired by the science fiction series I've been reading, but it took a turn along the way. I'm wondering if long days/evenings at work have been taking a toll. I suspect whatever I start working on this evening will be lighter. We'll see where my mood and muse take me....
I finished the WIP I shared last week. Taking a cue from Gina Lee Kim's book, I added sail boats. It was fun to get my alcohol inks out and play with them on photo paper. The masks are washi tape I trimmed down. The "Discover" is copper I cut, engraved and then burned before using brads to attach it to the piece.
The Joy piece, below, was a quick little thing I did yesterday - just playing around and experimenting. It reflected how I felt about my Thanksgiving weekend.
This past weekend I finished what I think is my favorite watercolor thus far. The colors are vibrant and gorgeous. I'm not sharing it here yet, however, because it or a print of it might be a gift for someone. Instead, I'm sharing the piece I started next. There's much I don't care for about this one, but I've learned some things not to do, which is good. This piece needs much more done to it, but I can't seem to figure out what yet. I'll keep playing with it and maybe something will come to me.
This is the "red" exercise from Gina Lee Kim's book that I'd been following. A vase of flowers isn't something I'd typically choose, but the point is to practice various techniques. I like the way the crackle medium worked on the vase, although it doesn't show up so well in the photograph.
Here's the completed (I think) piece I started at the watercolor class I attended. When I got home from class, I changed the leaves from summer to fall. This past weekend, I added mountains in the background. One usually paints the background first when using watercolor, but things don't always go as expected.
I caught a bug a couple days after my 10/9 post which took me out of commission for awhile. Then I revamped my craft room / home office shared space to include a dedicated yoga/meditation space. Then work got hectic with very long hours. The last few days life is finally returning to some normalcy 😊.
This past weekend I attended an all-day watercolor workshop. It wasn't what I'd hoped or expected, but still a day well-spent. It was really nice to be in a group of others interested in learning watercolor, sharing their experiences and seeing how they make art. I love how we're all so unique! We got to practice and experiment for part of the class, and I learned ways to use a pallet knife with watercolor. At the end of class we used tape to mask off tree trunks, painted the background, then removed the tape to paint the trunks. I liked the effects of the knife on the trunks and will incorporate it in future work. The photo above shows how my piece was at the end of class. When I got home, I kept working on it. It still has a ways to go...
This past weekend I finished the piece I shared as a WIP last week, adding texture and dimension to the tree trunks, more leaves here and there, and a quote.
This week I worked some more on a WIP I started a couple weeks ago. It's slow going, but that's ok. Progress is progress.
I wasn't in the mood to finish last week's WIP so I started a couple new ones this week, both exercises in Gina Lee Kim's book. I like how the poppy exercise turned out.
This last week I played around with some flowers, and then got the drawing gum out to see what that's all about. Oh My! I think I'm going to use this stuff a lot! I love trees and birch trees are one of my favorites, so the fact that drawing gum helps to create them, well, I'm over the moon. Sure, I could use acrylic or some other medium to create the birch trees over the watercolor, and likely will in the future, but I really like this effect. I plan to add leaves and I'm not sure what else, so it's definitely a WIP, but this was a fun practice session.
When I sat down to practice watercolor this week, I was inspired by the beautiful landscape panels at Glass Art Stories.
I finished two watercolor courses in August, and this month I'm learning from a watercolor book by Gina Lee Kim. I followed her work a few years ago and then forgot about her when I wasn't creating for a couple years. Thankfully, I stumbled on her work again and ordered her book. She reminded me watercolor doesn't have to strictly be watercolor. It can be augmented with other mediums. DUH. I do this all the time with my art but it hadn't yet dawned on me for watercolor. And it was exactly the inspiration I needed after failing miserably at my watercolor practice last week (see below). I felt good for practicing but was very disappointed in the results, frustrated to the point of wanting to return to acrylics. Gina Lee Kim to the rescue! 😊
No
watercolor practice this week, but I did meet a watercolor artist at
the State Fair Friday, buy some of her art and talk with her about the
classes she teaches (both watercolor and quilting). I will likely take a
class from her at some point - she's talented and nice.
I spent the majority of my day today sorting through, cleaning and organizing the stained glass my husband no longer wants (too small for him so I get them). They'd been stored in open boxes in his shop where he also does wood working, so they had lots of sawdust on them. I'll use them to make pendants and jewelry, as well as small stained glass items. I *might* use some to make mosaic art as well. I've not worked with mosaics before, but I saw something recently out of larger pieces of glass than the usual mosaic art, and liked the effect.
This week's class exercise was 3D spheres. I found the shadows tough to do, so will continue practicing this week.
I've tried watercolors a few times over the years, but always been so frustrated with the results that I'd quickly return to acrylics. I love the texture that's possible with acrylics, plus it's so forgiving. If I decide I don't like something, I can just paint over it. Watercolor has more limitations, and I don't like limitations. However, I also know I've always tried watercolor just randomly without any research or instruction. Since this is my year to learn from others, I decided to try watercolor again. I started classes this past week and, no surprise here, learned I was doing several things incorrectly. I'd been using watercolor crayons, watercolor pencils and a cheap watercolor pan set and random brush. All were wrong for a beginner so off to the craft store I went to pick up enough supplies to get me by until my Amazon package arrives this week. The photo above is my initial practicing of proper brush technique and shading. While I'm one who likes to fast forward to results, I'm forcing myself to truly practice every lesson in the classes. This particular exercise was both challenging (being new to me) and therapeutic in that it was somewhat rhythmic, requiring focus and patience.
This week's creative time was spent doodling sunflowers and starting a watercolor tree at sunset. The drawing class I'd been taking just wasn't cutting it for me. The instructor uses Procreate and while she said the lessons easily translate to traditional tools, I struggled to make the leap so am looking into alternative classes. While I'm searching for ones for drawing, I think I'll look into watercolor too. Who know what will entice me? It changes all the time. A couple weeks ago I picked up some fabric for a new collage I have in mind, but ever since I brought it home, I haven't wanted to sit down and get started on it. Sigh. But alas, at least I'm creating something each week. :)
This week I got the Friendly Plastic out and experimented a bit. What a relief to find I had sealed it up well so it didn't dry out and get brittle over the last few years. These might be transformed into pendants or embellishments for greeting cards.
These are the ceramic tiles I adorned last week using alcohol inks and fire. For someone who likes to be in control, this project was challenging because there's little control to be had. The good news is if you don't like a result, you can wipe it clean and start over (and yes, I did that a few times - ha!). The orange and green one is my favorite, as I was somehow able to make it resemble flowers. What I'll do with these tiles is a mystery, but I had fun making them.
Other than doodling and starting a new drawing class, I haven't crafted or created anything for a couple weeks. There have been a lot of changes going on at the office, and when home, I was preparing for our annual Fourth of July party. Weird, now that the party is behind us, I'm finding it hard getting back into creating. It's like exercising, if I take a break, it's tough to get restarted. By posting this today, I'm hoping it'll encourage me to get back on the horse (so to speak). It's a photo of the glass pendants I made this past winter/spring. I really like the new technique of lumpy soldering - it's much more pleasing to my eye than smooth solder. It adds another layer of interest to each piece.
I don't know what I'll be posting next week, but it will be something new that I work on this week. :)
This week's post is a bit different, but it's still something creative. My father used to fly radio controlled airplanes and it brought him much joy. Now that he no longer flies his planes, this old airplane mobile is about the only airplane-related item he has. I wanted to fix it up after all these years of neglect. Some chain was missing and one of the hoops was gone, but I had chain that was similar and was able to make a new hoop out of 9 gauge galvanized steel wire. The wire wasn't easy to bend, even with a wire bender, so it's not perfectly round, but it's close enough. A little paint so it matches the rust on the other hoops and voilà ! It brought a smile to face when I hung it up for him Sunday - definitely worth my time this week. ♥
I'm pleased to say my first beaded fabric landscape collage (boy, is that a mouthful) is complete. Is it perfect? Ha! Far from it. Am I happy with it? You bet I am. I dove in and saw this project through to completion, even though there were times when I questioned my sanity. The point is I tried something new, experimented, watched videos for tips (especially helpful for the binding, which I ripped out and started over more than once) and didn't overthink things like I have a tendency to do. I learned a lot on this project but more importantly, had fun and am eager to try my hand at another one.
The weather has been so good I gave up the craft room again this past week to work in the garden. The rock riverbed had filled in with so much dirt over the years the rocks could barely be seen, so it was time to rip it out and start anew. It was a lot of work and took nearly every night as well as the majority of the weekend, but it looks a lot of better. Next to it at the south end I set up a small memorial area for Mom, under the lilac bush. It includes a memorial wind chime from my coworkers and a memorial stone from my best friend. ♥
I also ripped out a few roses that were diseased and had gone wild, amended the soil and planted a mix of flowers for hummingbirds. The bees and butterflies flower mix I planted awhile back hasn't germinated as well as I'd expected, so I sprinkled more seeds there. The seeds that didn't germinate were from a school fundraiser so I don't feel so bad about the cost. In another section of the garden, the wildflower seeds I ordered online and planted just a couple weeks ago are sprouting nicely (although they might not show up in the photo below).
The best part of the garden is the tomato plants. They're looking really good this year - best ever at this point in the season. Then again, I got them in much earlier than usual.
As of this post, I've been blogging five weeks and it's helping keep me on track with my creativity goals. It's supposed to rain this week so I'll likely switch my creative time from the garden back to the craft room.
Yesterday morning I was torn. I wanted to get out in the garden since it was my first free day without rain in a long time and I don't have everything planted yet, yet I'd committed to creating every week and hadn't made it into the craft room in several days. As I poured my thoughts out onto my journal page, I entertained the idea that gardening is actually a creative endeavor. I hopped out to google and found numerous people and studies that confirm this (here's one I especially like), and decided then and there I was going to enjoy my creative time in the garden without guilt, saving the craft room for rainy days. So, this week my creative photo is of the herb garden which I overhauled Sunday - removing the cedar mulch and landscape fabric, ripping out plants that have been doing poorly, working/amending the soil and planting a boatload of wildflowers. It was a long, hard day but very enjoyable and therapeutic.
I
finished beading the sun this week and debated whether to stop there,
making the sun the one focal point, or continue beading other parts of
the collage (and if so, which other parts). Knowing when to stop and
when to keep going has always been a challenge when I create. As I
pondered what to do, I realized if I stopped, I'd never know if adding
more would've improved it. If I add more and don't like it, I can undo
it or toss it. At least I'll have tried and in the process, practiced
the skills I'm seeking to improve. My theme this year is practice, so the decision was then easy. I kept beading. I don't yet know if I like it, but I'm not done. 😉
This is my current WIP - beading a landscape fabric collage. It's my first venture into sewing (other than mending) for many, many years. A friend who quilts gifted the fabric scraps to me, I watched a couple instructional videos and got started. Once the fabric was all sewn, I decided it needed more oomph so out came the seed beads! I haven't applied seed beads to fabric for over 30 years.
My mom was an excellent seamstress and I now have her machine alongside mine. I feel her with me as I venture back into sewing, and I remember the younger, more carefree me as I bead. The project is not just fun, but therapeutic.
It's been 3.5 years since my last post. Much has happened, including breast cancer, closing my business, returning to the corporate world (new role in a new-to-me company) and the loss of my mother. The experiences sparked a lot of self-reflection, especially my cancer and losing Mom.
One thing I realized is how much I missed making things. Not being in the craft room much in 2016 or 2017, I set a goal to create at least 10 hours per month in 2018. It worked so well I kept it as a goal for 2019 and added an element of learning something new each month. This one is a bit dangerous, because I already hop around to various mediums so frequently that I don't get good at any of them, so learning new things seems like giving vodka to the drunk, but my goal is to learn from others instead of trying to figure out everything on my own. My hope is I'll settle in on just a select few mediums and focus my energy on them. The more I practice them, the better I'll become.
So why take time away from learning/practicing/creating to blog again? Because I believe it will help hold me accountable to my goal. I'd also like a record of what I'm doing so I can see my progress over time. So, while I'm putting this online for anyone to see, I'm doing it for me. If you stumble upon this site and have a positive or encouraging word to share, feel free.
