Adventures in Living!

I (sorta) wish I was going to Pennsic...

This is mostly for my readers and friends who are familiar with the SCA...

There will be an auction held on August 7th, in the Atlantian Royal encampment at Pennsic. This is a private auction to benefit Duke Valharic and assist with the many medical expenses from Duchess Arielle's long struggle with breast cancer. There will be many beautiful items on auction, all from an amazingly talented HUGE group of people all around the world. I have donated two sets of lampworked beads to the auction to honor Arielle's memory and help Duke Valharic.

This set is a cobalt blue, Roman period in style and construction. Twelve beads with 3/32" bead holes.

And, because Arielle LOVED pink so much, and was also known in the SCA as Arielle the Golden, I am donating this smaller set of beads, "Pink Duchess":

They are so much more sparkly in person. This photo just doesn't do them justice. I think Arielle would have liked them. They also were made on 3/32" mandrels.

I hope that people who are going to Pennsic will attend the auction and maybe even bid on something wonderful. I know we all want to help out in some way. Hopefully, these beads will find a good home.

Aaarghh!

I haven't posted in a while, mostly because every time I thought of something good to write about, I would forget about writing it by the time I sat down at the computer.  I hate when that happens.

It's been an interesting few weeks, creatively speaking. I have been getting all kinds of fantastic ideas for new work, both glass stuff and other stuff, but I have been having a hard time making the visions become reality. I keep running up against a number of factors that are limiting my art-making. To begin with, I can't draw. Well, that's not entirely true. My drawing skills are...unrefined. It's not a simple task for me to sketch out an idea and have it look like something I can turn into a piece of art later. I can rarely make my sketches match my visions and that frustrates me.  I always see other artists' sketchbooks, where they work out ideas and plan projects, and I can never seem to do that. I know I shouldn't judge myself too harshly...I'm self-taught in everything I do, pretty much, so any drawing I can do that even remotely looks like what it's supposed to is a good thing.

Anyway....so.....what I really think my artistic issue is, is that I am having a hard time finding my 'voice'....making art that has depth and reflects my inspiration or thought process for the piece. Some of the work seems random and disconnected. I guess I shouldn't judge here, either, because art is truly individual and I know I spend too much time comparing myself with other artists. I just have such a hard time getting a project going and keeping it going and seeing it through to the end. I'm working on it though. I think it all just takes time to develop.

I have to say that I am also kind of sad about missing out on a glass class with someone I kind of idolize a little. Brad Pearson is a local glass artist who teaches fairly regular beginner classes at the Visual Arts Center (used to be the Hand Workshop, which I liked better...). I have been totally struggling with my glasswork lately, so I searched for and found his class....hooray, it starts in August!....and I registered and paid for it. Then later I got a phone call from the center that the class was actually full, so I'd need to call back and get a refund. I was upset, more than I thought I would be, actually. The likelihood that he will teach another class in the fall is pretty high, I think,  but I am feeling more than a bit desperate for some technical and creative help and inspiration and a chance to try out a dual-fuel torch. NOW. I have been burning and breaking glass and destroying colors and copper foil like a crazy person...everything I touch lately has turned to crap. Blah.

Hopefully when I call the art center, they can tell me if he will have classes in the fall. I hope so.

It's taken me about twelve actual tried to get this entry down, and although I am not sure if I have completely emptied my brain of all the junk flopping around in there, I need to be done. Noah has been in here at least six times, dragging me off the chair, and we need to get to the store for some things, too.

Picking up Kira for the weekend tonight! Hooray! I miss my girl.

MeMe from Kitty

My friend Kitty posted this meme a few days ago, and it's cool, so I thought I'd participate.  She gave me five words that remind her of me and now I have to explain what they mean to me...

creativity  --  This is a HUGE part of my life, and the act of being creative is a necessary thing, like water or air, for me. It's interesting to me how the definition of 'creative' has changed and shifted over the years. At first, it applied to my ability to dance, but since then, it encompasses everything from baking to art glass to sketching to sewing to daily life with my children. I try to find some time in every day to make something, even if it's just something small. Without that, I truly feel aimless and agitated.

I think everyone is creative, and I know there are SO MANY people out there that think they are not, but it's a basic human instinct to create. Most people have learned somehow that 'being creative' only applies to what you can do with art materials, and that's So. Not. It.

Maybe my second career will deal with helping people recognize and learn to embrace their own personal creativity.

yoga -- I'm finding out these days that moving is another necessary thing for me in my daily life. I love the way a daily practice of yoga makes me feel. I eat less, I feel stronger, calmer, and more beautiful. My joints don't hurt, my back is painless, my various tendinitises (is that even a word?) don't bother me. So why don't I currently have a daily practice? Because I think I am inherently lazy sometimes. I fall off the wagon, and lie there on the ground bitching about how old and crappy I feel, and the memory of the peace and lightness of yoga seems so distant. Ugh. I get trapped by the misperception that I don't have time. I do have the time. Ineed to get back to it.

Misconceptions abound with respect to yoga....it IS a great total-body AND cardio workout, if you practice a certain way. You don't have to embrace the spiritual aspects of it to reap it's benefits, but if you choose to, you find even greater reward. It doesn't matter at all if you are not especially flexible or if you can't fully express each pose...yoga is accessible to everyone, all the time, and a skilled teacher can always help you.

green -- Well, my favorite color. So restful and reminiscent of the natural world. It's also the color of my eyes, and one of the colors of our SCA household.

I don't consider myself as particularly ascribed to the current vogue meaning of the word, as in 'environmentally conscious', but I do try to incorporate some sense of stewardship for the environment into daily life around here. Plus, 'being green' even a little can be a money-saver. Right now, we are growing a lot of our own vegetables, composting the leftovers, and using and re-using whatever we can. I adore the lush landscape we are creating in our backyard, and the sight of our garden just absolutely bursting with growth is awe-inspiring. Being able to eat something yummy that I grew is just blissful.

competitive -- Yep, that's me. For better or worse, I am a competitive person. Most of the time, I wish I wasn't, but sometimes it serves me. I push myself because I want to be better. Better than you? Maybe, but it's rarely that personal anymore. When I was a dancer, it was definitely personal. It was that way for all of us, all the time. It was important to be thinner, stronger, have better extensions, be able to do more multiple pirouettes...you get the idea.It's hard, after so many years of that type of conditioning, to let it go and relax about stuff, but I try. And I think for the most part, lately, I am succeeding.

Comfort -- For me, comfort embodies a number of different concepts. Comfort food is a biggie...yummy goodies that are delicious, remind me of home and family, and make me feel good. I love to cook and eat, and I love to feed the people I love. I also consider comfort in the context of being comfortable in one's own skin. Mentally, spiritually, emotionally, I am usually pretty comfortable....but physically, I can't say that I am, always. 

Drop everything and DRAW!!

Tomorrow! Saturday, June 6th 2009

 

What are YOU going to draw?

Progress on The Skirt Project

Here are some pictures of the progress on The Skirt. I haven't decided what to name this project yet. If you've got any ideas, definitely let me know!

Here is the bleach treatment on the front of the skirt....
I actually love the way the letters came out....it's my handwriting, but it just looks so, I don't know...iconic, and crisp...I am really pleased with it. The bleach wasn't too difficult to handle, either, since I am using the Clorox Bleach Gel Pen, and there is a wide tip and a fine point tip on it. There was a bit of a learning curve to getting the right amount of consistent pressure on the body of the pen to make a clean line without bubbles or blobs. Here is a picture of the back, with the remaining text:
One of my discoveries about working with the bleach pen is that the thicker the line (i.e., the more bleach on the fabric), the whiter the "stain" will be.  You can see that "hope" is whiter than "play", and I know it's because the lines were thinner with less volume of bleach gel when I wrote "play". It's ok, I can always go back over it if I want it whiter, but I don't think I will.

I also got some of the imagery drawn in for the panels, too. Here is the front:

My favorite has to be the tree on the "create" panel. That image and text is what inspired the whole project, actually. The spirally tree and branches just speak to me.
I worked on the back as well, but I am not totally sold on the images I have there. It's hard to come up with solid images for concepts like "hope" and "play" and "laugh" that are not related to Barack Obama, board games, and clowns. I'll think of something, though. Just have to let it percolate in my brain a bit longer.

I'm searching for good quotations for each panel related to the theme, and so far I think I have most of them. Paint and embellishment will go down first, then finish with the quotes written in my handwriting in black fine-point pen. I used to write a small message in all of the baby clothes I made for Kira using a black .05 point pen. Wish I had those clothes now. I think they are boxed up in my ex-husband's barn, hopefully not ruined.

I think I am going to thrift-shop for a classic-style denim jacket. That will be my next project. I've got two hours before the kids get home from preschool...I can make a run to Goodwill in that time.

creative overdrive

I love to sew.

My name is Christine, and I am a fabric addict.

I own three machines, all Bernina brand, and tons of notions, equipment, and fabric. I love taking a flat piece of fabric and shaping it into something three-dimensional that I can wear, or use, or display. I don't quilt (not really), but sometimes I incorporate quilting techniques into apparel or other items.

My sewing space, when we moved into this house, was the largest bedroom upstairs. I had a HUGE cutting table on sawhorses, space to set up all three machines, and a walk-in closet for fabric and supply storage, and our SCA garb and equipment. Gradually, we added children to the family, and dogs, and cats, and my sewing room moved to the smallest bedroom, then back to the largest bedroom to share with the baby Noah, and then finally in January, it came to it's permanent home in a corner of the office. Hooray! It's been a bit of an adjustment, but the space is working well so far, even though I haven't had much opportunity to spend much time working there yet.

Except for Sunday. I don't know if it was the weather, or the fact that last week was so hard or that I finally felt relaxed because I got a few hours out of the house on Saturday, but all of a sudden, my sewing muse hauled off and kicked me in the head.

I had gone thrift store shopping Saturday and picked up a couple of skirts with the intention of altering them. At two bucks a pop, it was worth the effort to remake them, and if I screwed it up, well, it was a total of six dollars. No biggie.

Well, I got started on the first skirt, a black, long, skinny, knit thing with an elastic waistband. I cut that sucker right off at the top, made a casing, and put in some 5/8" elastic. It was done, but plain. I wanted to try my hand at embellishing my clothes, but I had always been too chicken, in case I screwed up. But, how can you really get upset about screwing up a $2 thrift store purchase?

So I got out some bleach.

I found a Celtic knot stencil, and my bleach pen, and this is the result:

Pay no attention to the cat hair and assorted other crud that may be on it, I was so excited that I wore it all day! It's comfortable, and different. I was so inspired, that I went after the $2 denim skirt I got also. That one is inspiring a larger, more elaborate design, though. Here is a sketch I made of the concept:
I adore words, and I love inspirational words used in a creative way. The skirt has eight panels that go all the way around, patch pockets on the sides, and a button and zip fly waistband. I didn't sketch the back, but the words going around the back are: hope, play, breathe, laugh. Each panel will have a design motif that will reflect the word at the bottom. I am using bleach to write the words in, and maybe also to lay down the framework of the design, but then plan to incorporate permanent marker, fabric paint, and maybe some embroidery to round out the design and add a little color.

I'm tired of my clothes being boring, and I don't always have the cash to buy a boatload of new fabric to make new clothes. Restyling is hot right now (OMG, I am actually on-trend for a change!), but it also makes good economic sense AND is a fantastic outlet for creativity.

I have reached the stage in my life where I want to wear what fits, looks nice on me, and is something I enjoy wearing. I don't care about style. I can't even wear most of the current styles (skinny jeans!?, empire-waist tops!?).

Emboldened by my success this far, I also started on a small wall-hanging. I had taken a piece of denim and written "create" on it to try out the bleach pen and see the effect on the denim before I dove into the skirt project. After I saw how cool the denim sample looked, well, I went a bit nuts after that...
It's not even done. I want to add more embroidery and more beads to it. I love mixing quotations in with things, too, so I chose the Picasso quote for this one. See my eye bead at the top left? Do you get the message?

This was the project that nearly had me up all night on Sunday. I didn't want to put it down, and I knew I wouldn't be able to work on it on Monday at all. It's going to have one or more of my tassels on the bottom, too, and some wirework in there as well. I want it to be as over-the-top full of my art as I can make it.

I also have an idea for other words and other designs. So cool. I love it when my creative mojo comes back. Thank God the kids are all back in school today, I'm practically hyperventilating to get into the office and get to work!

The bleaching has started on the denim skirt....I'll post the progress of the project as I go.