Tuesday, April 29, 2008
We're here, amazed spring is almost over.
Gracie, who is now 2 and a half, started a toddler program at a local learning center. As a result, our family is cycling through many, many, many colds and viruses as our immune systems catch up to speed.
There's a detailed update of Miss Gracie on my LiveJournal.
I'm working hard on jewelry- new spring and summer collections.
I haven't painted or collaged or scrapbooked in ages. I really want to get back to those things. I miss them so much. I'm still just trying to figure out how to find balance between being a mom and being an artist.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
This is so very, very clever. I have a binder I keep all my stickers, ephemera, and journaling things in (for collage and scrapbooking), but I am so tempted to make one of these now because just being able to see it all easily would encourage me to us it more.
This would also be great great for unmounted stamps, of which I have so very many.
Yes, I will be making this!
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Tonight we had pasta for dinner, with tomato sauce. When Gracie is done eating, sometimes she sort of messes with her food until we can get her down from the highchair. Usually she just separates it into piles or moves it into another section of her plate. I guess tonight her nose was itching, and she rubbed her hand (which had tomato sauce on it) across her face to scratch the itch.
I guess the sauce got in her nose and stung a little, so she started to blow air out of her nose- hard. Before we could get to her and wipe the sauce away from her nose, she exhaled and...
a six inch piece of fettucine just flew out of her tiny nose!I knew milk and liquids could be ejected from the nose- she's even managed to get soap in her nose during baths and blow a ton of bubbles (which fascinated her to no end...)- but not large noodles. Wow!
It must have hurt- the noodle was wide and tomato sauce is acidic and spicy. But she laughed and laughed. Wow.
I guess her sinuses are going to be clear for a while.
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"As free human beings we can use our unique intelligence to try to understand ourselves and our world. But if we are prevented from using our creative potential, we are deprived of one of the basic characteristics of a human being."
---His Holiness the Dalai Lama
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I did a little more re-org in the studio today, but I think I finally got to where I need to be. I got most of the crap off my workspace, which is really important to me. I get easily distracted, and since I tend to really spread out when I work, I need all the space I can get. So I finally started to stash things away. I always resisted that because "out of sight, out of mind..." but sometimes you just have to store things away.
After I cleaned and organized, I made a bunch of necklaces and bracelets. I'm getting into the jewelry making groove, which is good, especially with the holidays coming up and the thousands of beads I have made in the last year waiting around in clear storage boxes.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
I'm reading a terrific book right now- "Living the Creative Life" by Rice Freeman-Zachary. It features 15 different artists, and discusses their inspiration, their work space, their work habits, etc. It also has little exercises sprinkled throughout the chapters designed to help the reader integrate their creativity with the rest of their life.
This topic is really relevant to me at the moment since I haven't had much creative time since Gracie came home. I'm getting more and more time in my studio now that Gracie is older, but when I get in there, I have no idea where to start. I either organize, clean, or do busy-work, like label finished jewelry, answer email, or putter around. It seems like such a tremendous waste since I generally feel really inspired and am always itching to get to my desk and *work*.
A great idea from the book is to have a little ritual to mark the beginning of creative time. Some artists light candles, some write in a journal, some do a quick sketch. I'm trying to figure out one that might work for me. Since I'm a list maker, and I keep a big sketchbook with photos, sketches, and notes about what I'm working on, I think it might be a good thing for me to list what I have been thinking about, what I *want* to try, and what I hope to get accomplished that day in the studio. Maybe it will help me get going.
I HAVE been working- I have been busy finishing several projects I started a while back. I finished about 40 photo/art pendants. Right now, I finally am finishing a project I started months and months ago- the "candy pop" beads (see photo to your right). I have had a lot of requests for them, so I am making over a thousand. It's VERY time consuming to wrap and decorate every.single.bead, but it's sort of hypnotic and soothing.
My lesson from this? When you start a project, finish it. It's okay to put it off a bit, but it's not so fun when you have 40 unfinished projects floating around and have ideas for 50 more projects you can't really start because of all the stuff going on!
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Two scrapbook layouts I finished recently. I'm like a turtle when I scrap- I spend too much time in my shell, agonizing over color choices and paper and accessories, and then I get nervous over how I am not very good at this at ALL.
Then I pop my head out and start the process, agonize some more, and then finish.
Very slow going.
I think if I am going to continue this obsession without becoming completely frustrated, I need to deal with a few issues:
- I need to stop worrying about what everyone else is doing.
- I'm not published. I'm not on a design team. I may never be.
- There are some VERY talented people whose work I see regularly in the magazines I read and the forums I visit. I don't need to emulate them. I don't need to be on top of this hobby.
- It's okay if I use old supplies, especially old paper lines.
- I'm doing this for me, for Gracie. I'm doing this to document our lives, and share important stories. The bottom line is to get the photos on the page, and into the book.
- It's not about supplies, or latest embellishments, or being "good enough". It's about documenting a life and enjoying myself in the process.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
This is a week for rubber stamps. Unmounted stamps in all shapes and sizes. I feel like a kid in a candy shop.
I started doing more Mokume Gane in clay (that's a technique where you pile thin thin layers of clay on top of one another, and then press a stamp into it, and then slice off the layers to reveal a pattern in many colors), and so that's how I am justifying all my recent stamp purchases. I am now on the constant lookout for clear, deep designs in stamps that I can use with the clay. I have SO many ideas for color combinations and designs. Now I just need to find the time to work on them.
There was nothing fun in the mail today... I'm waiting for several vintage images from Above the Mark, and I just received a sheet of clear, unmounted stamps from Fancy Pants (the one above left) that I pre-ordered months ago. They are lovely, HUGE stamps with lots of detail. It's a 12x12 sheet full of stamps.
I need to stop buying stamps. But I'm becoming somewhat obsessive. So many stamps, so little time (and budget!)
Tom built me a machine that makes clear stamps. I need to start making them instead of buying them. It's a somewhat time consuming process, but once you get the hang of it, it goes by pretty quick.
Another thing to add to the "to do" pile.
