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.  

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.

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.

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.

Inspiration: Andrew Wyeth

I visited the Flint Institute of Arts last week to check out the Andrew Wyeth show running through August 7^th. 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.