I don’t think anyone can tell YOU how to be creative, but Melody Johnson talks about what she does to be creative, which is a great start at figuring how you can be creative. It is good to hear what other people have to say. One way to be creative is, as Friend Julie said, just to show up. Deirdre is encouraging us to make one thing a day for every day in February, which goes far towards encouraging creativity. I am tempted to sign up, but I am sure it would be another recipe for feeling guilty.
Tag: Creativity
Sharing with Like Minded Creative People
Today was the CQFA meeting. There are six meetings per year and they are held in Santa Clara, which is about an hour from my house. It is always a big effort (I usually stay up too late the previous night and am tired from the week of racing around) for me to get the to the meetings and I have missed a number of them this year. I was richly rewarded by attending today as the show and tell was fantastic. Also, nobody was being an attention hog or annoying me. Everyone was wonderfully supportive of one woman who is experiencing a series of losses in her life. Not only was the work wonderful, but inspirational as well. Check the website for the meeting and I am sure the photos will be posted soon.
The workshop was put on by Virginia Schnalle, who is a wonderfully creative quiltmaker. I admire her work, her fearlessness in art and her quiet manner. She has taught a couple of workshops for the group and they always yield wonderful results for me. It was in her class that I made the Eye of God. That quilt is now in the collection of another quiltmaker, but I consider it to be one of my most successful quilts.
Today we worked on getting started when your muse has gone on vacation or your well has run dry. First VS gave out a basket of words, from which we each chose three. We weren’t able to tell what the words were before we chose them. From these words we had to draw simple drawings that came to mind when we saw the words. My words were:
wisdom
release
freedom
I thought the words were good choices for me at this point in time and space. The drawings I made were not very satisfactory, but I think if I were stuck, I would be able to use them to get the muse.
The good thing about this exercise (and my lack of organization) is that, in looking for supplies on the supply list, I found two wonderful pencils. They are very smooth and easy to use. They are called Berol Karismacolor. I have no memory of buying them, but must have sometime in the distant past of my art days. I am putting them in the pile of possible supplies for my visual journal.
After discussing different kinds of balance: symmetrical/formal, assymetrical/informal, horizontal, circular or radial balance and crystallographic balance and the Rule of Thirds, we went to work on our own pieces. My first one is above. It is made out of cut up magazine pictures. I didn’t pay attention to the subject of the pictures…much, but concentrated mostly on the color and the pattern. The first one wasn’t terribly successful IMO.
I didn’t pay attention to the Rule of Thirds direction and just made the one above because I was inspired to do so. Very symmetrical.
Same as above. I didn’t have any red to start out with, but scrounged some from the garbage pile and made this piece. Again, very symmetrical. I can see working with this design to make other pieces.
And TA DA! Here is the piece d’resistance. I think this one came out the best. I added the words (see first exercise) at the end on a whim as well as the #1. I like to mix characters and imagery. I am not sure what I would do with this, but I can see tracing the main lines and going on from there with it.
During show and tell and the announcements, I also worked on this piece from the Laura Wasilowski class. I worked on the handwork using Laura’s hand-dyed thread. Adding the thread is similar to Pamela’s techniques. I like the process, but I also like making progress. I have a few too many handwork projects in the pipeline right at the moment and would like to move a couple of them out. Goals are good!
Red Shoe Rambling Rambles on About Creativity
DebR over at RSR didn’t really ramble when she talked about creativity today. She really put together a classic post that should go into the BLOG OF CLASSIC POSTS. She explains her modus operandi in the creativity department and shows a great way of looking at creativity, which makes creativity accessible. Be creative and the art will come. RSR makes a good point about observing patterns and having them come together at some point through work on your own or by chance so that you have enough information to create. I think her discussion also shows that you can’t just sit down and create something. You have to gather the materials in one way or another. They may be ideas in your head, they may be mag pics in a folder or images in a folder on your desktop. At some point there is enough so you can get to work. I like this process as well, because it means that genius takes work and what I am doing is right.
Nice work, RSR!
Creative Effort of the Week
The shower on Sunday was, by all accounts, a big success. The shower ended at 5pm and everyone was gone by 5:10, however, including the guest of honor, so I am not so sure.
The delight to the left is my creative effort of the week. I saw an article in the SF Chronicle a few weeks ago and knew it was the perfect thing for the party. Apparently, cupcake cakes are all the rage these days. I read that people are even using them instead of wedding cakes. The theory is that they inject a dose of fun into the event, are easy to eat and bring people’s senses back to when they were children. Very interesting!
The quilt squares were also a big success. More on those when I can post the photos. I am pleased to say that nobody complained about not be able to draw and some lovely squares were produced.
Otherwise, I have been buying, receiving and washing fabric. St. JCN is coming for a visit. Saint, I say, because she offered (I did ask!) to iron about 3 million yards of fabric that I have bought and never washed. Talk about a true friend!!! In preparation for this miracle, I have started to wash it. This was the first load. As you can see, there is plethora of dots and icky green.
The dots are for the Thoughts on Dots piece that I have been fiddling with. As you can see I have cut more squares. Some of the fabrics I added are from the washing pile. I did press some of them on my own.
This picture is a great example of what I was talking about when I mentioned heavy and light. I have a theory that no fabric is set in stone until the quilt is quilted and the entire quilt has the binding on. I have been known to take apart a back in order to get a piece of fabric out of it. At the moment I am trying out these pieces. I want this piece to look like sherbet… light and fluffy, perhaps a bit foofy; happy. NOT rainy. NOT depressing. The Terri Mangat fabric in the middle is dots, but it might be too heavy. As well, the green dots on the left next to the light aqua Kaffe Fassett design. The fabrics with the white backgrounds are also an issue. I don’t want the viewer’s eye drawn to the white. I do love the fabrics, though, so I will play with placement quite a bit before I decide. I have a feeling that whether they stay or go depends on the amount of yellow I put into the piece. We’ll have to see as I cut more fabrics.
Since, after washing that first load of fabric, I seem to have nearly every dot known to quilters-kind, I have no business buying more. Too bad TDOTNB drove me to shop online. I received the first shipment a few days ago and as you can see: more dots. These are not washed yet, but hopefully will be this weekend.
I also got a squares pack of April Cornell’s Poetry Collection. I felt that my other attempt at sewing a whole collection of squares together was very successful. I loved the fabrics in the Poetry Collection, but didn’t feel that I wanted yardage. This was a good solution. I haven’t sewn them together yet, but will do it soon. Who knows? Perhaps another table runner is in my future!
It occurred to me that I am getting so many dot fabrics with white backgrounds that I may just have to make one of these 6.5″ squares quilts with all dot fabrics with white backgrounds. It is a thought. I don’t want to bore myself, though. Such a limited project may drive, even me, batty.
Go to your studio and make stuff!
Efforts at Creativity Successful???
George is DS’ much beloved “Lovey.” As a Beanie Baby, George wasn’t designed for the difficult life he has been allotted. George gets laid on, rubbed, tossed, swing by his tail, hidden, etc. In the last little while, I have convinced DS that George is getting old and needs to be coddled, so George mostly lives in bed with 37 other stuffed animals, a body pillow, 4 regular pillows, numerous books and magazine and is only subject to extreme love at night.
Periodcally George gets too much love and begins to leak as DS is preparing for sleep. This creates cries of abject horror as they did tonight. There is no putting off the repair of George or there will be no sleep for any of us for hours. The sleep, when it finally comes, will the sleep of exhaustion and tears — not restful sleep. I must immediately go up and repair him.
Creativity comes in mysterious ways and I guess this is preparing me for what is to come or continuing the brief spurts of creativity I am forcing on myself.
Sacchi Creativity
I received a Sacchi tri-fold portfolio with paper and colored pencils in it as a Christmas gift. The portfolio is turquoise. I love it. I have started to carry it with me in order to have art supplies available when I feel creative.
Last night, on the way home on the train, I took it out and doodled while I listened to Anita Shreve’s book A Wedding in December. First I doodled the designs that are stamped on the edge of the pencils, then I drew some blocks. I felt so out of practice. It was hard to doodle. I need practice.
I am glad I took the Liz Berg class, because hopefully, it will get me going. Not sure if I will be able to create an idea journal like Liz’s but I can do what I can do.
New Creativity Blog
While not on quiltmaking, Single Scrapbooker does talk about creativity and the generation of ideas from a single person’s point of view. Check it out!
Creation Day
Although I just finished the dishes, I spent most of the day being creative. After doing my Qi Gong exercises, I sewed all the Feelin’ Blue, Too blocks together.
Later this morning, my friend PG came over and we worked on our photo albums together. It is what we do together and I am glad that we do it. As a result most of my photos are in order. I have a backlog-from before W was born, mostly, but nothing out of control.
Having the photos in order means that W can look through his babyhood and enjoy the photos, laughing at himself.
Unfortunately, I don’t have enough time to spend really making the pages gorgeous, rich and supple. For me, it is most important to get the photos in order, documented and on the pages. The scrapbook magazines show layered pages with few photos. I find that I need to put many photos on a page and write the stories about the photos. I do some embellishments; I want my pages to look nice, but not like everyone else’s.
Still the album-making is not like quiltmaking. The feel of the fabric is much better than paper. I feel so relaxed when I touch fabric.
Sewing the fabric together and making something new feels wonderful to me.
Feelin’ Blue, Too is typical for me in some ways. There are many, many fabrics and the fabrics work together in a wonderful way. I like using many fabrics, because I never seem to have enough of one fabric to satisfy my need for yards of it. In a way, having many fabrics makes each one special.