Tag: creativity

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Another Daily Challenge

No, this doesn’t directly involve art quilting or any stitching, but it is all about my ongoing attempts at art journaling.  I am, for the third year, trying to complete the 60 day Index Card a Day (ICAD) challenge.  Check out the link, the artist that puts on the challenge has a great website full of ideas and tips for mixed media art journaling.  While I struggle to journal on a regular basis, I do believe it is a great way for artists and those who want to be creative to work on skills, habits and ideas.

Getting back to the ICAD event, the challenge creator posts lists of themes or prompts for each day of the challenge.  Sometimes, the daily prompt just doesn’t do anything for me.  That’s when I tend to go astray in keep up with the challenge.  When the prompt is something like “meerkat” or “cassette tape,” my mind wanders to things I much rather do, stitching, making a cake, taking a walk.  The first year I attempted the ICAD challenge, it did not go well.  I completed only 11 cards, and half of those were done six months after the challenge ended.

Last year, I fared better; thirty-three cards completed.  These are not intended to be great works of art, and I try to keep the time put into them to 15 minutes per card.  Of course, some take a bit longer, and I still want to fill in the gaps of the cards I didn’t attempt.

Today, I am six days into the challenge, and I have six cards:

Will I keep up the early momentum?  Now that I’ve blogged about it, I hope that I will.  The challenge started last Saturday, so I will post my weekly progress on Tuesdays.

 

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Three Strikes

Today’s post is a tough lesson in the reality of learning a new creative skill.  A lot of what gets made is not very good.  It is very difficult to admit that something (or in this case, three things) that I’ve spent a lot of time and materials on, is rubbish.  But there are a few positive things to take from this week’s work.  One, I finished three 8 X  10″ pieces.  Two, I tried some techniques that have potential.  Take a look:

I love the hand stitching that I did on these, and I am pleased with the effects created by the machine couching of the funky yarns.

What keeps tripping me up is the final assembly and quilting.  These three pieces were pillowcase bound and then lightly quilted to secure the layers.  I ended up with some lumpy areas and wavy edges.  The last one was especially troublesome:

These are just not up to my creative vision, and certainly showing my lack of technical skill.  Even though they are three strikes, I refuse to be called “out,” the only way I can get better with my quilting skills is to make more.  The really bad thing is that the color combination is making me crave Neapolitan ice cream!

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Random Little Things

This week has been one of weed pulling in my gardens and very little stitching.  Mundane chores can be turned into lessons in creative inspiration and observation.  It is all about training your mind to notice details and how to capture those details that delight you and share them with others through your chosen way of expression, be it visual art, writing or music.  I find inspiration all the time.  Right now there are tiny spring flowers blooming in my yard and I want to capture them forever in stitches.

Bluets

While doing my outdoor chores, I discovered these robin eggs in the grass along my driveway.  I now want to come up with some dye color combinations starting with this lovely shade of turquoise.

Robin eggs

I’m also wondering about the eggs themselves.  Did they fall out of a nest in a wind gust?  Or where they picked out of the nest by blue jays looking for a meal?  Thinking creatively also includes asking questions, and wondering the story behind a place or object.

Art and design weaves through just about every aspect of our lives.  Sometime ago, I remember reading somewhere that, “going to the gas station should be an aesthetic experience.”  Unfortunately, I do not recall the source of that statement, but there are places, buildings and signs that command our attention.  What is is about the things that turn your head?  Are there common design elements?  Identify them and use them in your art.