When it gets harder to do what you KNOW you need to do it means you are on the right path.There are days when my purpose and path are really clear to me and I just know everything is moving into the right direction but then there are days when I am totally in the dark and it is just as if everything was erased from my mind. Erased and forgotten. What helps? Meditation, being creative and going out into the nature. Every. Single. Time. I return from the abyss with all this clarity, fresh ideas and willingness to just go and do it until Ego kicks back in. But you know what? I'm not giving up! I put Sia's awesome "Never Give Up" song on and I move forward. What do you do? What brings you back? Moving onto the creative log part. As I wrote last week I jumped into the training mode with making little works in My Pages book. As it happened I came across (thank you Universe! ♥ ) Rae Missigman's prompts for her Art Marks challenges. She posts words/prompts for a whole month in advance and then you work with them any way you like. There are a few hashtags to follow on IG and as always, it's really interesting to see how others interpret the same prompt. Here's a link to her page where you can read more about it - LINK The first prompt I tackled was "CREATE" and it it so visible how rigid I was. It's been a while since I did anything and it showed. The right page was done immediately after the left one and I just let go of all the expectations and just experimented with my new acrylic inks :) I also really liked the words that came to mind when I decided to add something into the spiral - "every day holds an opportunity of becoming the best day ever". "ATTENTION" brought down these clouds made entirely with my fingers. It was fun using my brand new chalk pastel I got because I really liked the colour. I also realized there are many attention seekers out there competing for my focus so this was a very interesting perspective on something that was eating me up at the time. Thank you Universe again! "INVEST" - I loooove how this one bloomed :) We must definitely invest in things that expand us in order to bloom. This was just a test spread for the inks but I must admit I am smitten with these colorful splotches. Thank you Rae for teaching me how to make them.
This week certainly flew by quite fast but I am working on something BIG in the background and can't just share yet what that is. All I can say is: it'll be inspiring! :) Thank you for being here. Take care please. With much love, ♥ nini
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It doesn't matter what exactly you create, it's the place you are creating from that matters.I'm noticing a pattern in my creative out pours and it has to do with "feeling free" to be able to do my work. Free as in having no tasks upon me that would kill my wish to even start. And this is bad because who has all the time in the world, right? I think the solution to this is rather simple - it's in creating MORE - in shorter periods of time across the day. Why? Because it will make me learn how to jump into the creative mode if I train myself to. So this is something I will try and do from now on. It is easier to take half an hour to be creative than 3 hours or so. Maybe even less, it's the "showing up" that matters and being able to connect to our higher selves to bring down what we need to and heal in the process. How do you deal with such a problem if you have it? I'd love to know and learn so please, comment away. Moving onto the Logging part of this blog now :) This week was mostly about watercolors. I finally went into the practicing mode and did two pieces inspired by Danielle Donaldson's "Be Still" on-line class. They are rather addictive to make and fun and I must admit I do love how they turned out. I did not do exactly what she teaches but I am contemplating about how to finish them off by adding some words to them. I was going to take out one of my washi tapes and seeing that full drawer again made me go into the DIY mode. Like the quick and furious DIY mode. Not pretty, not fancy, not even exact - it was all about an useful end result, that was really all I was going for. And you know what? I love it. Will have to make another drawer as there is less space in it now due to all the tidiness but it works perfectly. Here's a quick visual guide through the process if you need some inspiration: I also managed to finish up 3 ATC cards that I owed for quite a while. I sure hope their new owners like them. One in particular was very challenging (that's why I was putting it off for so long) and one I needed to do again as the first one got lost in transit. The best part in this ATC exchange thingie is packing up the cards to send away. This year I'm using my small stitched envelopes made from recycled craft paper which I just ADORE. Really. I think craft paper is one of the coolest papers out there! How do you feel about it? Oh and while I had my beloved colored pencils out I made two wooden brooches. I made these designs back in 2015 and they were really loved so I'm thinking about making some more to sell. What do you think? Do you prefer pins or pendants/necklaces? This was it for this snowed in week :) Thank you so much for reading, I hope you'll visit next week too.
With much love, nini It was warm lemonade, hot tea and lots of honey during my week 4. Luckily I was able to watch my e-courses so not all of that bed time was lost ;) The "Book of Trees" was lovely and I watched all of it! I was eager to see the end result and didn't want to skip forward :) Lovely concept indeed. I see myself doing a book like that in summer time, when I can ride my bike and sit outside. Or at least when it's not cold ;) My next watch was "Inquire Within" and I was blown away. Oh my. I loved it. I always thought I disliked encaustic paintings but this one, the way it was done.. it was so different to me and the fact it made my heart sing made me very determined to have at least a try in this medium. As soon as I get better that was. And because I loved the teacher I watched "Hand Formed - Simple Sculpting" too. And I liked it very much as well.. made me all itchy to get back on my feet and all creative again. I really am a lot about hand made stuff. This is getting very clear to me. Very. I just HAD to go and try out what I've learned so I made myself 3 substrates to work on. One 30x30 cm wooden board and two tiny 10x10 cm chip boards. All I need now is wax and I cannot decide how to go about it. Sadly they don't sell the pre-made stuff in our art stores so I'll need to make my own wax medium. But I do need to make my paintings first :) I was also inspired to make tea stained handkerchiefs and press already dry Hydrangea flowers from our garden. I haven't checked on them since I put them in the book but I'm hoping they'll flatten nicely so that I'll be able to use them. Maybe on one of the tiny boards. Who knows. By Friday I felt pretty much ok so I made a ton of things. I got an idea about sketchbooks which I am not prepared to talk about (yet) but it's exciting and I hope I get to follow through. I seem to be unable to do so lately. I get overwhelmed with all the ideas, by all the things I promised to do and want to do but I lack creative time for them. Or I totally fall out of the mood. And I don't like it. Here's a note to self: Finish off your to-do list before taking on new projects. Unfinshed to-do lists weigh us down.Really. Do it. I also bought (totally on a whim) 2 meters of white jersey just because I was so happy I got 100% cotton one. I need long sleeved shirts. And I have a book with patterns all to be sewn by hand. Sigh. Did I mention I have a lot of things I'd like to make? Paint? Sew? No? :D Anyways, this fabric will end up hand colored and sewn into something wearable. And at least one of the garments will be sewn by hand, all of it. Just because I want to see if it really is so different to have it sewn like that, if it really moves differently. Will let you know of course ;) Saturday was hiking day time and Sunday I was fit for climbing. I was creative on both days but I really don't have anything to show. Hopefully I'll finish something during this week so that I can show it here on my next journaling date.
See you soon :) Week number three started very creatively. I baked on Monday, then on Tuesday my friend came around and I showed her how to make stamps. She made two and both came out so well, really cute and she plans to use them for thank you cards in her Etsy shop. You can see how she changed her stamp a bit after her first test. We used white paint pen to hide what was bothering us so that she knew what to cut away (right side stamp). I am really so proud of her, she only cut herself once :) I tested my newly bought watercolor pad called Aquafine by Daler Rowney - final verdict is yet to be acquired :D This rainbow colored page was done with my old Pelikan watercolors and I must admit I still like how they behave. I went on to try out a combination with watercolors from Ecoline*s brushpens and Inktense sticks. It's interesting that the sticks produce rather opaque color and are not behaving like watercolors at all. But this could prove useful if I don't forget about it (flower on the left). I proceeded with watching Danielle Donaldson's mini e-course titled "Be Still" and started practicing with leaf shapes and florals. I must admit, these are much harder than they appear to be or how easy they look when somebody is painting them. I have a lot to go through here but my wish was to paint what Danielle teaches and gift that as a birthday gift. The last thing I did, or better say started, were these two watercolored "flowers of life" which didn't turn out as they should have mainly, because my masking fluid was very much "out of the lines" :D I don't think I'll go and try to fix them but who knows, right? Sunday brought another cold to me :/ We went climbing anyway just to get out and be in the sun and warm and lovely surroundings but I knew week 4 will not be as productive :)
I really didn't expect time will still be flying as fast as it did in December because up until now Januaries were pretty slow, but nope, it's still flying! It also feels like I wasn't creative at all but luckily, I take photos daily so I have at least some proof that I was :) Taking photos daily has been my project since 2014 and I love going through photo books made with them in case you were wondering why I do that. WEEK 1 I continued watching the e-course titled "Scribblepedia" by Rae Missigman which led me to experiment with colours and splashes and being messier. Definitely fun stuff. Much fun! WEEK 2 I had to move away from splashing color around and concentrate on sewing. My warm up project was a small card holder for a friend and then my big project - long sleeved shirt for my mom (which came out just about so-so; wearable but.... ). Need to pay more attention to collar area next time as it is tricky. I also made a few sewn envelopes for my future ATC cards because I find them soooo cute :) And because I had Miss Red out (my sewing machine that is). I get lots of creative ideas when I meditate and one of them made me so excited that I just had to run into an art store and buy myself some fabric paints. I have a feeling I'll be going back soon as the glittery ones are FABULOUS! Saturday was testing time - here's how my first try looked (colours are still wet here): My second try at painting on fabric is drying as I write this but I gotta say I LOVED working with colours in spray bottles. Which reminds me I need to buy myself some Ranger inks in spray bottles or something similar to use on paper - any ideas anyone?. I'll definitely be experimenting with this stuff more, much more. Here's how my two fabric pieces looked like wet - I sincerely hope they dry out to be as beautiful as they are now but am not holding my breath for it :) I'll probably work on them some more too. I'm going back to my desk to play with my first fabrics a bit more to see how far I can take them.
And then there are exercises from a course called "Fancy Lassies" with Kate Thompson. I watched some of it in December and am itching to try out the warm up lessons - her faces seem to be so etheric which makes me wonder how mine will come out :) Sooo, see ya next week or in 14 days :) Do tell what you think it's better - to have a weekly update or bi-weekly one and if I'm writing way too much :D Much love and creative vibes from me. ♥ nini Hello and welcome to my new blog pages.
It all has to do with my intentions for 2018. Back in November I was thinking about how I would like to find my own artistic style, my signature style if you wish, and I decided to just start drawing/painting/crafting more. Use up all the things I already have and just do, make, do, make MORE. I figured if I stay away from all the eye candy one gets exposed to on-line I would be able to pull stuff out of myself, I still think this is a valid plan BUT.... Looks like our loving big Universe had other plans for me :) On December 2nd, 2017, when I logged into my FB account and checked my messages one caught my attention immediately. Like - BIG TIME. It was from Jeanne Oliver letting me know I won their huge mega giveaway they held with a launch of their beautiful new web site - jeanneoliver.com/ I was awestruck! Of course I wanted to win when I shared their posts but never did I think I actually would. But I did. I was smiling for a week I think (still do when I think about it). I was like a kid in a candy store only with a huge difference, I CAN have ALL the candy! Not just one or two, ALL of them. Meaning - I got access to ALL of the courses offered on their site at that day and I'm talking about 80+ of them! I already bought a few and loved them and was also eyeing a few more but you know how these things go. One just can't have everything, right? Well, I am still over the moon about this gift and when Jeanne started her new free project called Series 52 I started thinking how to join in. I know a bit about these things and how they go. I have already hosted two 12 months projects (back in 2015 and 2016) and one 52 project last year, in a group on FB and I ended up with 3 full sketchbooks. Last year's one being really big, versatile and very challenging. What was common with all three of them was the time frame I ended up making them in. They were all pretty much completed (more than half of the pages that is) at the end of the year instead through out the whole year. And I didn't like that. So I have decided to still go and DO more but also to start watching my e-courses and do the practices taught in them. And do it very freely in a sketchbook - no pressure for master pieces, fear of expensive papers and blank sheets of paper. Just me and my home made sketchbook. If I run out of pages I make another one. If I really like making something in my book take it further and go on loose paper. Make art for myself because I want to learn as much as I can to see what works best for me, what makes my heart happy and see how my style comes forward. And I want to share my progress here because I would like to document my progress, my struggles and a-ha moments and because I secretly would like to inspire you to start too. With whatever you always wanted to make/do or whatever got left behind. I have also set up a new group for this occasion called Creative Journey - you can find it here - www.facebook.com/groups/ongoingCJ/. It is not a big group and I am hoping it'll be a good place for sharing what we make or do. Because sharing is crucial for our growth just as much as doing stuff in solitude is so consider yourself invited :) I sincerely hope I will be able to keep up with this as I have a feeling it's something I need to do. And I hope you'll join me either here, IG or FB so that we can all have a really lovely creative year together. Thank you for reading and being here. I hope you'll be returning and that we shall get to know each other better. With much love and gratitude, ♥ nini |
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