Monday, December 19, 2011

Bloomin'

Challenge 47: Work with flowers - artificial or real, live or dried, picked or bought.

So I have this wreath that a coworker made from wild grape vines growing in her yard.  I really like grape vine wreathes, possibly only for the nostalgia of my mom cutting wild vines and making wreathes a lot when I was a kid.  The wreath I have hanging in my apartment now has been decorated with different ornaments - dried flowers, toy spiders, handmade birds and flowers that I've made from felt, and other embellishments.  Here it is!


I've made several felt flowers before and usually attach them to hats I've made or sew a pipe cleaner on the back and bunch them together in a vase.  I sold one this summer to a boy who wrapped it in the button hole on his coat, rendering it a sweet boutonniere - I loved that idea!  Here are close-ups of the flowers on the wreath:




I love the look of flowers, and really dig the funky blue poinsettias you can get at the store during this time of year - so pretty!


The end!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Face it!

Challenge 46: Face it.  What can you do with a face - yours or someone else's?  This doesn't have to be face painting; you could use food or something else to decorate it, or try molding it into a new shape with hands or tape and documenting it.

I actually have a lot of ideas for this challenge - I love painting, drawing, and sculpting faces.  These days, however, I've been finding that my time and energy are tapped.  I haven't done a challenge in a while and looked at this one and thought that I might have some old work I could showcase here to fit the challenge description. 

And then a wonderful, magical thing happened.  I scoured the digital pictures on my computer and found some gems. 

I few years back, a lot of people I know were trying out a funny website where you could take a photo of yourself and "insert" your face into pre-selected pictures, in essence creating a picture of yourself that looks like it's from another time in the past 60 years or so.  I can't remember the exact website, but I'm sure I could track it down if I wanted to check it out again.  Of course, I tried it out back when it was the new thing with my friends, and don't think I ever shared my photos.  Let this be my debut:


(1952)


(1960)


(1966)


(1994)


I know that these pictures aren't new work, but I thought they were funny and I needed a good laugh.  

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

45

Challenge #45: Create an image with masking tape or any other kind of tape, for that matter.  Try making it on a nontraditional surface.  Extra credit: Leave it for others to find.

My first thought was to create some kind of tape sculpture - an animal or building or something.  Then I looked around at different surfaces in the apartment and zoned in on the boring coffee table:


Regular, plain ol' table top.  Nothing much to see here, but it's usually covered with books and coasters and remotes and other crap.  Still, I decided to jazz it up with a little easy masking tape geometry:


BAM!  This table totally pops now!  So my sister roommate saw this later and I suggested to her that we paint in all the triangles.  She wasn't thrilled with the idea, so I will probably just leave the tape on the table and take a few pieces of it off every day until it's all plain again. 

I played with some editing tools and came up with a cool graphic image of the tape on the table, though:

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

#44

Challenge 44: Make something that lights up.  Work with an existing lampshade or put a small electric light or candle inside of something you make.

So I looked around at my boring lampshades.


Not so bad to have something plain when you have one or more (mismatched) patterns in a room - but I decided to jazz up this shade anyway.  With a few buttons and some glue:




I like the result!  Using various colors of buttons in a specific pattern made this look great.  Now I might want to change the color of the base of the lamp with a little spray paint, something in a brown tone, I think.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Falling off

My month of ceramics studio time expired at the end of September, followed immediately by a craft sale with pals the first day of October.  It was unseasonably cold again this year (as in, high of 50 degrees!), but the sun peeked out in the afternoon and thawed us enough to gain some feeling in our extremities.  Here are a couple pictures of some of the pottery I made:



I sold a few pieces, kept a few for gifts, and am still looking for happy homes for a last couple pieces.  I had a great time throwing pots and would do it all the time if I could!  I spent a lot of my free time at the studio during my membership to maximize my time, which is why I didn't get around to post too much.  I'm done with craft sales for the year, except for a couple sales that friends and family members have offered to sell my stuff at.

Running craft sales with friends is a great time!  We chat, usually crochet or knit at the same time when it's not too hot or cold outside, support other local craftspeople when we make enough money ourselves to give back, and always end up with great stories of people we met or strange/wonderful things that happened.


Fall is in full force in Michigan these days, and I love it!  I hope to get back into the 365 projects soon, now that I have a little more time on my hands.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Challenge 43

I did a lot of creative things this weekend!  I stayed inside with my sister and the kitties and tried out some new projects, just kinda seeing what's possible with the materials that I have right now rather than going out and purchasing anything new.  This tied very well into the next challenge, number 43: Learn something new.  Ask a friend to help you do something using a technique or skill they're good at.

I didn't so do much of the "ask a friend" part, but here are a couple new things I made:


A hair band that combines a felt piece with crocheted ties.



A scarf!  I've made plenty of hats before, but scarves are new to me.

For both of these items, I applied skill that I already have to come up with something new - with a few trials and errors, but mostly careful planning.  I plan on making more hair bands and scarves and selling them at the next craft fair I'm doing with some pals on October 1st.  

Exciting news: my fabulous fiance bought me a membership to a local pottery studio!  I have a full month to make clay works again, starting on Tuesday.  I can't wait to get my hands dirty!  It is my dream to have a pottery studio of my own someday.  I haven't worked with clay in over 4 years, so I cannot wait to get back into the swing of things.  

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Challenge 42

Today's challenge: Turn today's junk mail into something much more appealing.

My initial thought was something papier-mache with ads that come in the mail, but I didn't have time for that!  So I decided to try my hand at a blackout poem, in the style of Austin Kleon.  Here's the result:



It's a letter to time!  It says (with some added punctuation):

Dear time, you're terrific.  You love to get e-mail and photos, time.  Also, space.  Take advantage of the benefits of waiting.  Sincerely,

This task was more challenging than I thought it would be.  I bet this kind of thing takes a bit of practice and is more fun with newspaper/magazine articles and book pages than some crummy letter announcing terrific internet and cable deals.  It would be fun to get friends together to make these sometime and see what happens.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

50!

This is my 50th post!  Awesome!

I've been back from vacation for nearly a week and have been getting back into the swing of things.  I drew a colored pencil picture while on the beach of Lake Superior:


I had a great relaxing time, and am looking into the possibility of renting studio time at a local pottery gallery/studio.  It's been a while since I've thrown any pottery!

I haven't completed a 365 challenge in a while, but I hope to get back into more of the challenges soon.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Craft sale bonanza

This week has escaped me, recovering from the sunburn I got at Sidewalk Sales last weekend and preparing for my upcoming vacation.  Here are some pictures from the sale:

Our setup for Friday.

Please buy my products!  Little stuffed birds, necklaces, decorative plates and felt flowers, some of Erica's knitted masterpieces.

Our hanging scarves display - very fun to walk through!

More knitted wares.
My crocheted hats!  And a few knitted baby sweaters, so cute!

Our setup on Saturday.  Notice the cool papier-mache animal heads out front - very cool pieces!

A little more spread out this time.


We all made a little money, but heard a lot of people mentioning that they couldn't even think about yarn wearables with the heat.  My friends and I talked about coming up with more seasonally appropriate stuff to sell next time.  All in all, I had a blast - I mean, what can be better than hanging around outside with your friends in the summer for 2 days straight?  I made enough money to cover my portion of the booth cost, plus food for the weekend and a little more on top. 

I am leaving tonight and won't be back home for 8 days!  I am heading to Michigan's beautiful upper peninsula for a few days, then off to Northern Wisconsin.  I hope to do some creative things while there, but also plan on doing a lot of relaxing and probably not very much blog posting.  I want to take lots of pictures while I'm away, documenting all the inspiration of the great north.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Inspiration: Andrew Wyeth

I visited the Flint Institute of Arts last week to check out the Andrew Wyeth show running through August 7th. The quality of his work really stops me in my tracks. I enjoy his color palette, the realistic yet sometimes grainy texture to his paintings, his technique with drybrush, and am glad to see that he doesn’t seem to paint right out of the tube too much (one of my biggest pet peeves). His paintings evoke a sense of calm country to me – very soothing and environmental. 

I was familiar with his painting Braids, and most of the other works in his Helga series, but was so wonderfully surprised to see his landscapes and a lot of letters written to friends on display. Here are a couple of the highlights for me:



Here are a few more works by Wyeth that I really enjoy:






To be honest, there aren’t many artists that I truly enjoy in the full scope of their work. It helps to know something personal about the artist that I identify with. Andrew Wyeth’s connection to the lands he loved and being one of five children, gives me a greater feeling of connection to his work. That’s how I am with artists, wanting to get a sense of knowing how they were feeling, some way to identify.

Also featured at the exhibition are works by Edmund Lewandowski, which I was lukewarm about but ended up really enjoying, especially the mosaic housed permanently at the FIA, The Industrialization of Flint.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised and had a fabulous time. A lot of the time anymore, I get easily bored in museums and galleries. It’s not that I don’t understand craftsmanship and the kind of skill and dedication it takes to make works of art, not to mention to historical importance of different movements, I just don’t often find myself too curious about works that don’t hold my interest off the get go. I find that people can get really snobby about art too, and I dislike the whole elitism that is often associated with the arts.

I’m glad I had the opportunity to see this show and would love to see more of Wyeth’s works at some of the museums in New England.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Craft sale goods

Most of my creative energy has been spent lately on projects for a craft sale that some friends and I are participating in next weekend.  I want to share pictures of my goods for sale.

Decorative wall plates:



Hanging wall vases:



Love birds!  Little stuffed bird toys, that can also be strung on ribbon as a hanging ornament:



Necklace pendants:





And, of course, crocheted hats!




Can't wait for the sale!  I did a craft sale with friends last year but it was on the coldest day I've ever experienced in October.  I'm hoping for a warm summer weekend with a light breeze.  I'm always curious to see what other booths have for sale and hope to gain some information from fellow craftspeople.  Wish me luck!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Always, sometimes, never

I like to inspire myself to think creatively with different exercises.  Also, I just enjoy taking a few minutes to think about myself, my habits and interests, and I found this "Always, sometimes, never" exercise on a blog I read, Dove Tree Design.  I thought it would be pretty fun to do for myself.  Here goes:

I always:

  • Dream.  Right now, mostly about a house, garden, studio space, and a simple life.
  • Drink water everyday.  
  • Spend a few hours a week thinking about better ways to organize and repurpose furniture and household items.
  • Enjoy looking at trees, I really like 'em.
  • Wish my curtains worked better than they do - pretty AND functional would be super:


I sometimes:
  • Like eating meringue.  It's a weird substance for me to consider.
  • Forget that I often talk and laugh loudly.  I think I have hearing damage from concerts and playing loud music in my car.
  • Stop to realize that my job is pretty great.
  • Hate cable television.  We have a small cable package and DVR, yet we don't get the channel with Gilmore Girls, Clean House, and right now there is a Harry Potter marathon I'm missing because we don't get that channel either.  We do, however, get two different channels that play Laverne and Shirley pretty often every week.  Still, I'm thinking of cancelling since it's pretty expensive and there are other options out there that are more customizable.
  • Think about moving to Canada.
  • Think about the best way to be a happy, mature, and capable grown up while remaining imaginative and keeping some of my childlike interests.
  • Don't know what color my hair is at any given moment.
  • Remember that we all have star dust in us and flip out because that is so cool (I love the song behind that link, check it out!)

I never:
  • Go the speed limit.  Always over or under, mostly over.
  • Adapt right away to new technology trends.  I just can't jump on board with the newfangled stuff until it's been out a while and the bugs are all worked out.  Even then, I'm usually wary.  I don't like how distracted so many people are these days with their gadgets.
  • Go more than a few days without balancing my checkbook.
  • Write enough down.  I used to journal, but gave it up a while ago and would like to get into the habit again.  I'm always forgetting things and am glad to have awesome friends and family to job my memory.
  • Eat meat.  Anymore.  I've been vegetarian for over a year now with one small exception, a bite of venison salami over the holidays from a deer my brother shot last fall.
  • Read every book I have checked out from the library.

Honestly, I've started reading at least 5 of those books and will hopefully get through at least 4 from the whole pile - and that's stretching it!

What's on your always/sometimes/never list?

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

41

I've taken a bit of a break from blogging to think about other things.  I actually sat down and got organized last week, taking inventory of all the projects I wanted to accomplish, both creatively and otherwise.  I've been reading more, and working on enjoying life - and to be perfectly honest, sometimes that means NOT blogging.  I spend a lot of time at work in front of a computer, and some of these 365 projects have actually taken hours to create and blog about in the past, which is more time than I have to devote to any one thing on a consecutive daily basis.  So that's my story for what's happening these days.  It's so beautiful outside too, I just have to get out in it!  Being a happier person overall helps me work better creatively, too.

But I still enjoy doing the projects.  I completed project 41 last night: Think big.  Create a large version of something that would normally be much smaller.

I scanned my apartment, and considered making the a lot of different things giant.  I decided on a AA battery, since it seemed like a simple idea with few supplies.  I cut and attached two plastic bottles, saving the cap for the little bump on one end of a battery.  I covered the bottles in paper, wrote "battery" on the side, and covered one end with electrical tape.  Here is the result:



It was kind of fun to play with the whole idea of being much smaller.  I'd love to visit a place where everything was bigger than normal, but still proportional, and see if it made me feel like a little kid again.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Inspiration

Today, I want to share some blogs that I really enjoy reading.  I subscribe to several blogs, but am often deleting those that don't do much for me.  It has become a bit of effort to manage looking at so many blogs!  I've actually unsubscribed from several that update too many times in a day for me to keep up with, because I just get too behind on the action.  More and more, I feel like it's important to discard the non-essential (or just non-relevant!).

I look at a variety of blogs - crafty, funny, foodie, book blogs, friend's blogs, etc.  Since I view these on my blog reader, I focus on the content rather than blog design, which I usually just find too busy/distracting.  Here are a few favorites:



A Beautiful Mess, the blog of Elise Larson (previous Flannigan, she just got married!), a very inspiring independent business owner with great fashion sense and business suave.  Oh yeah, and she has some pretty great tattoos, too.



Awesome People Hanging Out Together.  Because who knows what celebrities were/are secretly friends?  Seen here are Robert Redford and Paul Newman.



Dooce, the blog of Heather Armstrong.  She's a mom, she's a professional blogger, she owns dogs, she is helping the world, and she is also HILARIOUS.  When I am having a bad day, her blog is almost always my first choice.



I New Idea, because inventions are cool.



Yes and Yes, a feel-good lifestyle blog with lots of variety.  Sarah Von makes readers feel like longtime pals. And finally...



Zen Habits, by Leo Babauta, a minimalist who focuses on living simply and without distraction.  I like to read Leo's blog when I'm feeling stressed and hectic and need to calm down.  He is a pretty incredible person who has made major life changes and really hits home the idea of living (and being happy) with only the essential.

These blogs get me thinking creatively, or help me chill out and laugh a little then get back to work.  Blogs are like magazines for me, I love to browse.

Feel free to share some of your favorite blogs, friends.