Sharing...

...Fiona Dempster.

"In different ways and in different places, you come across the idea that your voice or your making is precious and special because nobody else in the whole entire world is going to make what you make, in the way you make it, with the dreams you have dreamt of it, with what you bring to it, with the spirit you imbue in it and the experiences that have wrought it.  Nobody else can make your work and that is the gift you bring to the world." 

Words that make my heart sing, that give me purpose as I sit down with needle and thread, that inspire me to give the very best that is in me.  I hope they speak to you also. If you haven't seen Fiona's blog and/or her website you're in for a treat. Please visit Fiona at Paper Ponderings to see her blog and for fantastic visions of her book art work wander over to her website Fiona

With the weight of Fiona's words I'd better get back to sewing hadn't I?!

What next?

 I have to wonder about the business that goes on inside my head.  The thoughts and ideas roam around up there willy-nilly.  Sometimes they make perfect sense and I feel as if I'm guided. Sometimes they make only some sense and send me down another road.  I envy those who find their voice early on and follow it with a devotion to the art they have chosen.

I do know myself quite well however.  You know how sometimes your throat feels scratchy and you just know you're coming down with something?  How you almost foresee a fall, immediately before tripping on the pavement?  That is how it is for me with my creativity.

Recently, as I worked on a house-to-be, it came over me - is it a shadow or is it a window opening?  I'm not quite sure.  But I knew that this house that I was stitching was not to be, at least at this time.  That I needed to break out of house building and move on to something else.  Could it be that when it comes to the work of my hands I'm just naturally capricious?

"We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us." - Joseph Campbell

Snails pace?

spring fever, a listless, lazy feeling felt by some people at the beginning of spring weather.

 

Is this what I have?  Moving ever so slowly and not really getting anywhere.  For several weeks now - as the sun has finally come out and the weather warms - I am having a very hard time getting back to doll work.  What is the matter with me?  I have a list of themes, I have heads all ready for attaching and yet I can't even begin to think about sitting down at my table and actually making more progress than that.

I think I am adrift in a sea of possibilities. The strangest thing is that I'm perfectly willing to plow in and clean the screened porch top to bottom; clean closets and wash everything in sight; actually do a weekly cleaning of the house (now I know there's something wrong).

Mr. Finch's snails

I seem to have gotten off my creative path.  I'm trying to be patient with my snail's pace, hoping the 'zest' will pop up one day and my hands will be flying again. 

In a little over a week we'll be traveling out west -- I hope during that time I will become so homesick for my studio that when I get back my mind will be focused and my hands will be busy.  For now though, I guess I'll just enjoy the welcome spring weather and let time be my friend.

"What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us." - Henry David Thoreau

"Art Making" - Collections and Obsessions"

I just discovered this book!  It was published in 2008 but I was probably collecting bead books at that time and didn't notice it. 

Page after page of collections and thoughts from various mixed-media artists.  Most of the art focuses on 'found objects' - both manmade and natural.  Its a feast for the eyes and an inspiration for any artist.

I just have to relate a couple of the many quotes strewn between the pages of this glorious book.

Beryl Taylor

"I find things all the time, wherever I am.  I often have the feeling that they have been waiting for me to come along and pick them up.  It thrills and excites me, because I know that I am going to begin a new piece based on my latest find." - Beryl Taylor

KC Willis

"It must satisfy me visually and emotionally, and when I work in my studio, touching fabrics and gluing down pieces of the past, I am happy." - KC Willis

"To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk." - Thomas Edison

An Old Friend

When I am at a loss for words -- or even ideas I turn to this beautiful old book: "Abbott's Ready Reference Illustrated Self-Pronouncing Dictionary".  I found this lovely at an antique store quite a long time ago.  Although it had had a lot of use and was partially falling apart I decided to bring it home with me. 

In these days when questions are answered and pictures are searched on-line it is a step back into quieter times to open these pages (trying to protect those that have finally come popping out of the binding).   The pages have darkened to a beautiful tea-stained color which for me only enhances its beauty.

While paging through this time I found flowers that I had long ago pressed into the pages.  Still beautifully colored they lay on the pages where there is an illustraton of other flowers. As I paged further I found some leaves and other flowers sheltered within these pages.

Some illustrations have made their way, copied onto silk, into my earlier book art.  Others sit there waiting for their time.  Don't you love these pictures of shoes and boots?  I do love using words in my artwork -- perhaps it time to revisit this precious book once again and see what treasures I might find.

"I was reading the dictionary.  I thought it was a poem about everything."  - Steven Wright

My Little Heart Book

Recently our Guild invited Sue Tregay to talk to us about color and design.  Part of her presentation was a section on her 'little books' - which she keeps faithfully to record every part of each painting that she creates.  These books include inspiration pictures, thoughts, methods and design.  They are fat with pieces of paper glued onto the pages and lovely to see - all that information, inspiration and talent packed into those pages.

I have kept books on my work before - but never really stuck with it.  After the meeting I decided to begin a 'heart' book - since so many of my hours these days are wrapped up in hearts. 

Here I will jot down quotes that I might use later on, themes and titles for each heart (some to be used, some to be saved as 'maybe's').  There are pictures which I'm collecting for inspiration and there are pictures of my own work as each piece is finished.  I'm including how-to's as I go along and techniques that I want to remember.

Hopefully, in time, my book will be chock full -- and at some later date I can page through it to live again the fun that I'm having right now.

“Doing the work points the way to new and better work to be done.” - Julia Cameron - "The Artists Way"

Fiber is good for you!!!

Whoever said that fiber is good for you must be right!  Everytime I look around my studio at the various stashes of ribbons, floss, yarns and fibers it makes me feel good!  Sometimes I reach out and touch those beautiful hanging ribbons and fibers just for the fun of it.

Sometimes I stare at a particular strand, looking at the color blends, being inspired to translate those patterns into something of my own. 

Sometimes I dump out all these rolled up balls of yarn and fiber and revel in the fact that they are here -- ready for use -- ready for looking -- ready for dreaming.

I am the "Fiber Queen" - long may my fiber collection reign!! Anyone need a special color of some ribbon or yarn, let me know because I probably have it! *smile*

"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort". - Franklin D. Roosevelt

My Little Space

I'm not sure which season keeps me inside my studio more -- winter, with the cold air and snow or summer, with the heat and humidity.  I'm so lucky!!!  I have a wonderful space in which to sit day after day and do what I love - stitching, stitching, stitching.  A place that keeps me warm in the winter and cool in the summer. 

So here is my worktable in all its messy glory!  This is my nest, my solitude and my solace.  I have little dishes all over the top of the table in which bits and pieces of collected items sit waiting to inspire me.  I only allow the things I love to grace this space -- no bills are allowed, no to-do lists, not even bad thoughts.  This is where creating is supposed to take place, where ideas are supposed to thrive and this is where I seat myself almost each and every day to make 'stuff'.  Sometimes I feel like a hermit -- and then I know that I need to get away from this table, at least for a bit, to soak up inspiration in other places.

Where are those other places?  Art galleries (or any place else where art is exhibited), fabric and fiber shops (oh the colors and textures and patterns), lunch with a creative friend (good food can be considered inspirational).  After getting out I am usually ready to get back to 'work' - did I say work?  Of course not - I am not only lucky to have such a wonderful space in which to ply my trade -- but I'm also lucky to be able to play, play, play.

What are you playing with today?

"If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older". - Tom Stoppard

A Magazine-aholic!

I have to admit that I am (and always have been) a 'magazine-aholic'.  Is there such a word?  If there is, I am it!  I cannot resist a magazine.  As a child we used to visit my cousin's house on Sunday afternoons.  He was an only child and got to buy any comic book he wanted.  I would find a corner and curl up with all of his comic books - coming out of my hole only to have dinner with everyone.  As a young teenager we would visit one of my grandmothers.  She lived in a wonderful old California house - Spanish style with nooks and crannies and rooms that didn't seem to have any purpose at all.  She also had a huge selection of "Life" magazines. These were the original "Life" magazine with photos that took your breath away and that opened the world to the reader.  You have to remember this was a long time ago - well before anyone had even heard the word 'Google' or 'news 24/7'.  I would find a niche, stack up a bunch of pillows and a bunch of magazines and be lost for the whole afternoon.  Then came late teenage years when I discovered "Seventeen" and "Glamour".  I dreamed over these - shared them with friends - planned my whole fall wardrobe based on that fabulously thick September issue.

As a young wife and mother I was an avid reader of "Good Housekeeping", "Woman's Day" and "Family Circle".  Recipes were clipped, beauty tips were followed and tips for cleaning, cooking and child rearing were pondered.

You could say that the current creative part of my life began because of a magazine.  That magazine was "Somerset Studio".  The first issue I picked up, quite a few years ago, had a theme of Alice in Wonderland and it certainly was a wonderland to me.  Here people, just like me, were creating marvelous, inspired pieces out of paper and paint and found objects. I was hooked!!  Also during this period I began to pour over "Cloth, Paper, Scissors" and "Quilting Arts" each of which showed me the manipulation of fabric in ways I'd never imagined before.

Now I am a beader -- and there are bead magazines galore out there.  Unfortunately for me there isn't much beaded embroidery shown, or discussed.  Sometimes I can get ideas for my work from jewelry pieces but for the most part, these days, I get my inspiration from books instead of magazines. The magazine I now turn to is "American Crafter".  Not that they have much of anything regarding beads - but I'm trying to train my mind to see future beaded pieces by looking at a particular piece of pottery that appeals to me, or a figure, or a tapestry.  I try to translate what I see into bead form - almost as if I was translating from one language to another.  It isn't quite as satisfying as curling up with magazines strewn hither and yon and me in the center - but for now it will have to do.

"The world is but a canvas to the imagination". - Henry David Thoreau

An Inspired Collection

Do you keep little things around that inspire you? I certainly do - in fact I have not one, but three dishes on my work table into which go items that please me, that help to stir my creative juices.

The first is a ceramic dish which I happily bought from a local potter during a studio tour. This dish holds all of my 'natural' wonders. A shell picked up at the beach on our last trip to Charleston; acorns picked up on my walks last fall; a feather also picked up on one of my walks. Then there is a piece of quartz with its shiny pointy things (obviously this is not a scientific definition) and more shells.

The next dish is wooden, part of a set picked up at a thrift shop. This smallest of the dishes holds little metal pieces that I have picked up along the way. In the back of my mind one or more of them will become part of a beaded piece but for now they sit there teasing me with their presence.

This wooden dish is much larger and it holds precious cabochons. Oh the inspiration in this dish! Some of these cabs are simply flat stones that I have collected, others are 'real' cabochons purchased at favorite bead shops. All of them whisper to me as I go about my daily beading.

Is there a bit of the magpie in each of us, the part of us which cannot imagine leaving a penny on the ground? Perhaps the love of beads and beading fulfills that need to capture the shiny and hold it in our hands.

I constantly add to these collections, and hope that I always will. Sometimes I even take one of these beauties and incorporate it into my beading -- but if I never did that, if they lay there forever just for my pleasure that would be okay too.

"Observe the wonders as they occur around us." - Rumi