Artsy travel thoughts…

I had written earlier about my frustration over not having an easily transportable art form when travelling (peeved post), and have continued to give it a lot of thought. Thank you to those who suggested ideas! I am beginning to realize that I have really limited myself by my self-consciousness over my lack of drawing skills.

For as long as I have thought about art in its varied forms, I have felt that people should just try – try playing with different mediums, with different styles… dabble with textures to find something that appeals to or intrigues them… not worrying so much about what is produced, but more about the journey. I do this to a degree – I get excited about trying new mediums and techniques, however I still let my old hang-ups and insecurities stop me from progressing down certain paths.

Within Instagram I follow a variety of jewellers and cats (an oddly pleasing mix!). Today there was a post from Manon at sistersofthesun. It was a picture of some watercolour sketches of jewellery-to-be, and the start of the actual projects. I found it really pleasing and quite inspiring. I haven’t been doing a lot of jewellery sketching lately, although ideas are starting to flow again. I looked through my idea books and found pages and pages of past jewellery sketches.

Jewellery ideas

Jewellery ideas

Perhaps this is how I should break into sketching – take along some watercolour pencils and a small brush, and put a bit of time into developing ideas a little more thoroughly – not that I am naive enough to think I’ll produce jewellery the way it has been sketched (I rarely follow through exactly as planned, although it has happened on occasion) but it is a way to get my mind into a creative space. That may lead to studies for wall hangings… brainstorming images as I look out the train window.

I need to keep reminding myself that I’m doing this for me – it doesn’t have to measure up to anyone else’s standards. I was always the kid in school with my arm crooked around the picture I was drawing so no one else could see it and sneer. Do others have problems with this – the constant worrying that people are always looking over our shoulder and declaring our work not worthy?

 

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Flowers are fun…

My first flower workshop has been completed – another coming up on April 18 (see the Classes page for more information).  I think everyone had a lot of fun in class this morning.  I’m always so pleased to see how different everyone’s final project is… each flower was unique.  Everyone made a beautiful and whimsical creation.  I find it very inspiring… thanks all!

Flower workshop

Flower workshop

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It’s a funny thing…

Did you know that you can wipe up exploded fabric paint from the floor, the table, the cat’s plastic place mat, the counter top and the cupboards, but oddly enough, it doesn’t come off of fabric… Sigh… ah well… live and learn (it’s not like the name “fabric paint” didn’t give me a few clues!). 😀

The happy news is that I have finished my iPad mini cover… Yay!  It went through quite a few versions, but I think I like this one.  It is a bit of an experiment – hopefully it will hold up to the rigours of being hauled around in my chaotic purse.  I didn’t save all the versions as some were pretty unfortunate, but here is a mini retrospective…

Original cuteness, the blackout, the backgrounding and the flower explosions

Original cuteness, the blackout, the backgrounding and the flower explosions

And here is the final product – there is a bit of a glare due to the fact that I used some shiny and pearly paint:

Completed iPad case

Completed iPad mini cover

 

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Cuter than I can cope with…

I wanted to be a princess when I grew up, and I’m hard on iPad covers.  How do these two connect?  Well, today I broke another iPad mini cover… it’s starting to get ridiculous!  As always, my go to place for “new” stuff is UsedVictoria.  Yay… there was an iPad mini cover, brand new, for sale.  Less yay… it had princesses (or whatever the characters from Frozen are) on it.  I wanted to be a princess, not carry them.

Original cover

Original cover

Time to get out the trusty fabric paint.

Blacked out

Blacked out

So far I’ve just smeared some black paint on it to render it less precious and more useable.  Festive paint to follow!

I’m happy to report that the case is a different style than the others I’ve bought, so fingers crossed it lasts longer.

Oh, and by the way, I don’t want to be a princess anymore, although I do still enjoy wearing crowns!

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I’m a little peeved…

People who knit and crochet are lucky.  Wherever they go (except maybe a pool, although I’m pretty sure it can and has been done) they can take their art form/hobby/passion with them.  I didn’t take to knitting or crochet… I have a heck of a time following patterns, and I definitely don’t have the patience to finish anything.  My peevishness stems from the fact that none of the crafts/art forms I do are easily transportable.  While I have no problems needle felting in public, there are so many supplies to bring – especially if you’re someone who has a hard time focussing on one project at a time.  I have done some beading in a pub, but snipping wire during a poetry reading and trying not to drop beads just didn’t go well.  The propane torch probably wouldn’t be an option at the pub either… go figure…

I wish I sketched, but I can’t draw… even my doodles are more like scribbles than anything else.  My dear sister showed me a few Zentangle patterns, which have made my doodles a little more interesting (sometimes), but for the most part there are scrawled flowers, crowns and scribbles over every scrap of paper on my desk at work.

Zentangle inspired doodle

Zentangle inspired doodle

I won a trip through the Canadian Garden Council and Via Rail – Canada’s Garden Route – yay!  It’s a truly fabulous round trip to Halifax via train.  I can’t wait!  But what to bring?  I know I’ll be looking out the window a lot, reading a lot, dreaming a lot, but creatively I don’t know what to do.  It’s a little frustrating!  I will be writing about the journey, and definitely photographing everything I can, so perhaps those will help to fill my spare time.

Anyone have any thoughts on something portable I can take?

It's really going to happen... Tickets have arrived!

It’s really going to happen… Tickets have arrived!

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