Experimentation

How do we know when 'enough is enough'?  If you visit with me often you know that I go full bore into something, testing, making, talking and writing about it.  And then, one day, sort of like a bit of fog or smoke - elusive - I know that its time to move on or over or back.  Its time for me to experiment once again. 

Thus this messy table has appeared.  It's covered with bits and pieces of fabric, with buttons and bobbles and beads. All waiting for my next passion.  How blessed I am to be able to sense a discomfort and refill my mind and hands with a something different and challenging.  

"Part of the elasticity that you need, in order to continue to create, is the foregone conclusion that not all of it is going to be fabulously successful.  But it's all going to be part of a long lifetime body of experimentation." - Elizabeth Gilbert

Autumn Equinox

The weather is slowly changing. The days will soon shorten.  This time of the year is so beautiful to me.

I love going into the storage closet and pulling out sweaters, jackets and yummy warm socks.  Although my life changes very little from season to season – at this time of the year I have wonderful memories of the first day of school, football games, leaves changing and then falling to make a rustle of my morning walks.

With the change of season I feel a change of direction.  I don’t exactly have a road map yet but my mind is moving, one step at a time, toward work that will lend itself to cooler days, hot cups of tea and the enjoyment of bright blue Fall skies.

"Delicious Autumn!  My very soul is wedded to it and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the ever successive autumns." - George Eliot

Changing My Ways

For quite awhile now, I have made dolls (and birds) using colored and or patterned fabric as the body.  Each one was made individually from start to finish.  And then rabbits came into my life.  Because each rabbit is made using the same coffee stained fabric for heads, bodies, legs and arms I found that I could make up a group (or is it troupe) and then add their 'decorations' later.  I can even make all of the faces at the same time, add whiskers and decorate their toes.

This probably seems like nothing to write about -- but its made a huge change in the way I prepare these little critters and I love it.  I work for a day or two and make up 5 or 6 blank rabbits at once.   They will then sit there waiting patiently for me to take one at a time from its perch.  That's the fun part, decorating, making up the stories, etc.
  

I love this new-to-me way of working and I'm looking forward to many hours ahead in the company of rabbits.

"If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." - Wayne Dyer
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Here we go again...

 

I find myself at a crossroads right now – you know the kind where a directional sign all of a sudden appears to beckon me.  I’ve been here before – many times. Through book arts and beading, punchneedle and embroidered stitcheries and of course in between here and there, doll making in one form or another.

So what direction are the signs showing?  Punchneedle is dominating them – not the traditional designs mind you – but experimentation - finding out the possibilities of adding fabric or paper  or even metal to the design - thinking about adding natural objects and found objects to a piece or two.

I think there is something within me that yearns to go back to the kind of work that is a bit more portable.  It can be stopped and started with little conflict.  It can be worked on in little bits of time or longer time spans.  Perhaps it’s the time of the year – that time when I long to be outside on the screened in porch, or sitting at the desk in my studio that looks out upon the side garden and its small pond and beautiful plantings.  I want the flexibility of movement, the freedom to stop and start as life presents me with the perfect day to be out and about.

 Are you in for another journey with me?  We’ll see where this particular path takes me at this particular time.

"The good life is a process, not a state of being.  It is a direction not a destination." - Carl Rogers

Change

Spring is the time of year when change is all around me.  As I step out the back door I am surrounded by beauty - and each day that beauty changes into something else. The flowers begin with a bud - a promise if you will. 

By the next day, or sometimes later in the afternoon, they start to change, slowly revealing the colors of their petals.

And this day, they are unfurled even more.  Almost every plant in our yard is either blooming, in full bloom or already losing their blooms.  Change is inevitable in our natural world. Accepting change as it comes, enjoying the different phases and stages is all part of living this full life of mine.

"If you surrender completely to the moments as they pass, you live more richly those moments." - Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Shopping for Ideas

I recently had a very fun day -- an out-and-about day wherein I had no schedule, no errands to run, no 'things' I had to find.  I just browsed among beads and ribbons, among jewelry findings and 'found' items, among buttons and fabric.  Sounds fun huh?  It was!

I feel like I'm in sort of a transition place right now.  I have no deadlines to meet so my mind is wandering around the world of 'what-if'.  What if I try to incorporate more of my 'old' book art techniques into the figure work that I'm doing these days?  What if I use more 'organic' beads and cut back on the 'glitz' that has become my work in recent months?  What if I try to incorporate more of those things I love (besides beads) into my work - things like fibers, ribbons, found objects. What if I try to make my work more: whimsical, mischevious, active, free, contemporary, and spirit filled? 

And so, as I browsed today I found some treasures for possible use.  Could I use these metal rings to encase faces?  And what kind of faces would I encase?  Could I use these 'keyholes' for something (perhaps as a face themselves or on the body of the figure)?  Can I lighten up the colors I use (see the beautiful light turquoise of the bird's eggs)?  Can I bring nature into my work (see the small wire bird)?  Oh I'm humming here...

Hope you'll travel along with me on this latest art journey -- it might take us awhile to get there, but it should be fun along the way.

"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving". - Lao Tsu