Going around in circles

Sometimes my work includes working at a respite day where I'm in charge of the craft activity.  I need to find something fairly simple but interesting as we don't have oodles of time.  This month I've chosen circular weaving.  All you need is a paper plate (or 2 together if they're feeble and flimsy like mine were!), acrylic yarn in different colours, scissors and maybe a plastic needle if you find it difficult to weave using your fingers.

Of course I had to have a go myself :)

I found a really good resource too.  Mr E is my new art hero :)  I did have some idea of what to do, but when I started off on my own, things didn't look quite right!  This blog helped me realize I hadn't made the right numbers of spokes on my wheel - odd numbers are what you need - doh!  Then you'll get that beautiful 'under, over, under, over' pattern.  I'll leave Mr E to give you the instructions as he does it so well.  (Follow link above).

Lovely.  I'm wondering now what else I can create with my circles, I'm also thinking they could be quite addictive ...

Memories - making a 'Book of Days'

Provoking memories - hydrangeas remind me of my mum - they're her favourite flower.  Somehow she doesn't feel so far away ...

Wow - funny how you put something out there and connections start turning up like magic :)  I'd spoken yesterday about my intentions to work on exploring and expressing my 'roots'.  Well, today through one of my Facebook groups I found out about a year long project that encourages you to make an art journal of memories - Effy Wild sends out regular emails and short videos to get your creativity going (a passion close to my heart as you know).  It looks wonderful, I'm really excited about it even though I don't fully understand what I'm supposed to do yet - though some of the words being bandied about including journalling and altered books are getting the imagination up and running!  If you're even getting the slightest feeling of curiosity, go look at Effy's website here to register - you can only get the newsletters with info if you do this.  And don't panic about having to catch up or keep up - Effy's advice is to embrace 'your inner turtle'.  Don't you just love it already?  :)

Shopping at Guildford Pottery

In the recent holidays Little Man was lucky enough to do a pottery workshop and today I was able to pick up the lovely dragon he made (and 2 little dishes he made on the wheel - very impressive!).  The classes are held at Guildford Pottery, phone up for details.

I also had time to look round the shop and did leave with a few treasures :)  The beautiful blue sugar bowl and the little gumnuts were made by one of the teachers at the children's class, that's what I love about buying from the galleries - you get to meet the people who made the objects you love, it all makes it so much more special.

 

Check out the gallery if you're passing through Guildford!

You know when you have an idea you've been playing around with, you get all excited, then you tell your friends, then they don't react in the way you expected and you start to doubt your idea?  Well, that happened to me this weekend.  So now I'm doubting my idea, which I really liked before chatting with my friends - I just wish sometimes I could make a decision and stick to it!  Do you think sometimes it's better not to share?

Now I need to get my vision clear in my head again, and find a balance between anxiety about moving forward with the desire for something better as seen in my vision.  OK - self-coaching session over!  Always follow your dreams folks, and if it's your intuition calling the shots - it's probably right!

Choice Collage

This quote came to my attention today, and I love it so much I'm going to use it in conjunction with my choice collage that I made the other day as one of a series.  Hope you enjoy it too. xx

"Every person, all the events of your life, are there because you have drawn them there.  What you choose to do with them is up to you." - Richard Bach

It's all about balance

Today amongst all the domestic chores I found some time to make a collage (a few small pages actually).  Here is one of my favourites - it's all about finding balance which I'm having a bit of trouble with recently!  I suppose overwhelment is common to us all, wearing all the different hats we have to don during the course of a day.  If anyone finds the way to fit extra time in the day to squeeze in everything we have to do, could they please tell me?  :)

Lessons from a Dragonfly

I've not been writing in my blog as much as I've been wanting to - I always leave it until the evening, by which time I'm too tired to string a thought together (I've been warned this is what happens after hitting 40!).   So, I'm going to try and make time for blogging earlier in the day, it would be a shame to stop as I enjoy it so much.

What do you think of my delicate dragonfly?  I attended a teleclass this weekend with a friend I made on SARK's Dream Boogie last year - Mikell Worley.  She's a very talented artist and is presently finishing up an ARTbundance coaching course at Artella, and this teleclass was part of her prac.  We learned all about the characteristics of the dragonfly and what we could learn from them in our own creative life journeys.  I learned that a dragonfly can't walk, it can only fly - how awesome to be able to view life from above!  I often fly within my dreams so it's a part of the dragonfly that I really resonated with.  Mikell also used the word 'luminous' to describe them and I just love that word!  Both the sound and the meaning - I think it's going on my favourite word list right next to onomatopoeia!!  To be a creative light in this world would be wonderful ...

Revelations in a circle of women - and my wish for you ...

It's been a busy, busy, past few days!  I've completed my second reiki course this weekend - two days spent in the company of amazing, compassionate women.  Bliss.  I realized I've overcome a major hurdle too - when I was at school I had a terrible time, bullied everyday by people who couldn't and didn't want to understand why I was so quiet and shy.  It was a girls' school, so I've spent most of my adult life being very wary of being involved in a group of women.  This weekend I came to see that I was enjoying my time being with a group of women, accepted for who I am and celebrated for my uniqueness.  It meant so much and ended many years' anxiety of being disconnected from other women.  Huge.

Here's a little snippet from one of the creations for my ebook - just a peek - but it seems so relevant for a blog dedicated to creativity of all kinds, and it's a wish I have for everyone who visits here (and indeed the whole planet - let's dream big!)

Business cards and teddy bears - getting it right!

I found the cutest baby bear in Little Man's school bag.

When I told him how proud I was of his baby bear, he looked at me in disgust, saying 'it's not baby bear' and had another rummage in his school bag ...

And here they are, Daddy bear, Mummy bear and the real Baby bear.  Aren't they just so cute?

Later in the day when I looked in the mailbox, I found another little surprise.  My Moo Minicards - I'm going to put them in with pieces that I sell and hand them out to anyone who's interested in my work.  I think they look pretty good.  Yay - exciting!

Sneak peek ...

The beginning ...


A tiny part of my new banner - I may even print this pic off and stick it to my fridge as a reminder!

I was absolutely determined to finish off my banner for my new look blog before my 40th birthday and I managed it - yay! In between washing up and putting away the shopping! Due to time restraints I went with the creative flow rather than thinking too much about the end result, the result being that I was really pleased with the final creation. The time passed quickly too. Sometimes we think too much and muck things up - it is better to go with intuition and follow your heart at times.

It's my last day of being 39. Feeling quite peaceful about it all really; the past year has been quite hard at times, and I've had to face a few personal demons which is always scary, but I survived and do feel a lot better for tackling my 'midlife issues' (when what I really wanted to do was run screaming in the opposite direction!) Thank you to my support team of family and friends who helped me get this far, you're all superb and I love you heaps! The journey has been so much more fun with you for company. xxxxxxxxxxxx

Going back to my roots

I had fun tonight punching out butterflies and hearts from coloured card, cutting out butterflies from pretty wrapping paper and sticking them into my mandala. Usually my mandalas are more 'organic', i.e. no symmetry, so this time I decided to use punches, printed papers and a stencil to make the inside of my mandala more regular in shape and design. Of course I had to depart from this because I don't like them to be too perfect, hence the lines moving away from the mandala and the butterflies who have have broken free.

As I was making the mandala I was thinking about my 'roots', where I belong, where I have come from and where I am going. Essentially, what makes me, 'me'. Came to the conclusion it's love and transformation, learning to embrace change (which I'm not always that good at, but it happens anyway!). I finished with a feeling of moving forward with love in my heart. Fabulous - what more could I ask for! And this is why I love creating so much - it's like a map of your journey through life.

PS The inspiration from this came from watching 'Who Do You Think You Are', which at the moment features Australians trying to discover their ancestry. Last night it was John Butler going on the journey and he found some of his ancestors came from Australia and Bulgaria! He's a very talented musician and played music throughout the program on a guitar that belonged to his grandfather, it added to the mystique of the journey. He was very moved to discover he had relations in Europe and that ancestors on both sides were idealists and stood up for what they believed in - much like he does in the present day. I guess as our family moves around quite a lot, I like to feel I have a sense of having my roots somewhere. Maybe some of my ancestors were also travellers or artists. One day I'll find out! ...

A Day Creating in the Sun ...

Quite pleased with my sign letting everyone know what Creative Seeds was up to!

Our 'communal artwork' - we had great ideas for this, but kept forgetting to ask people to add to it as we were so busy having fun! Thank you to those people who did add to it - we love it!

Our table - a hive of creativity!

Some of the works by our fantastic creative teenagers.

Experimenting with a photo of the small canvasses Linda and I have painted on previous occasions. They all look stunning laid side by side. We have a vision for these paintings ...

Here are a few photos of our very creative day at the Zig Zag Festival yesterday. I think I'm still recovering - it was soooo hot, in the low thirties I think, which is really hot for me! We were in the youth area, right by the youth music stand, so at times I was reminded of my nightclubbing days when we had to shout in each other's ears to make ourselves heard! Try talking to people about the meaning of colours with loud rock music going on - "well, yes, you'll find that blue is a very peaceful colour ..." It did make us chuckle! Actually, the bands were excellent and we were blown away by one group called 'Convict X' who are all still in primary school, writing their own songs and music and sounding very much like rock stars of the future. Good on you!

Work and play on a Saturday

Doll number 13 of 100-art-dolls-challenge

Well, I thought I was going to be talking about something deep and meaningful today, but I'm tired after a hard day's work (and play!) so I won't. You'll just have to wait for that treat! Instead I'll share piccies with you of a spirit doll I made for the expo - it's my Sun, Moon and Stars doll. A break away from the colour wash effect, painting in flat colour instead and embellishing with twinkly sequins - ooh, I love them! You may be able to see the clear crystal on the front of the doll - I wrapped that in thin jewellery wire, so that I could sew it to the doll using beading thread.

My mum is coming to visit next week and we've been moving furniture around as we're also having a new floor fitted in the front room before she arrives - it's exhausting work. Luckily for me I had a break when I went to my Chakra workshop at the Creative Seeds studio. Today we learnt about the colours indigo and gold and how they respectively represent the mysteries and magic of life and our inner wisdom. I got to play by painting a canvas and drawing a picture of a wonderful golden warrior in soft pastels. Seems like I can still produce original art despite my doubts I've been having recently.

Here's a doodle drawing I made at the Expo in between talking to people! I decided I wanted to do a 'freeform' doodle, doodling without thinking, covering the sheet with shapes. I started with a treble clef squiggle and made shapes to fit round it - it soon became apparent that it would take days to fill the entire sheet of paper, so I drew my favourite shape and decided to fill that instead. It was purely to keep me amused during the quiet times, but people were quite interested in seeing me create something from doodles and would watch as I sat there in my own little world. It received lots of compliments from its start to the finished product. You never know how your creativity may touch others!

I signed up to an ezine called 'Creativity-Portal' which is edited by Chris Dunmire. It offers snippets of other articles about the creative journey. I found out about the inner wizard from Chris' ezine, there's much of interest to creative spirits so visit the site and sign up! Today there was a lovely quote which I felt fits with my 'just for the sake of creativity' doodle!

“Allow that creation to be a creation. It's not a measure of your talent. It has naught to do with your worth.” — Angi Sullins

Go on, have a look at the website, there's plenty of food for the creative soul!

Extraordinary Expo

Photos top to bottom: Linda at the stand; yours truly at the stand; a close up of some the canvasses we were painting at the expo - we were encouraging people to tell their story; a close up of more canvas art and my spirit dolls!

Oh my, where do I start? The four days at the Conscious Living Expo were totally amazing! We met so many people, stallholders and the general public who were really taken with our belief that art and colour do indeed have the power to heal. A startling amount of people said they either had no creativity or that they had a creative block and could we help them remove it! Well the answer to the first part is EVERYONE is creative, and we can help you discover that, and the answer to the second part is also a resounding yes - if you have a creative block, come to us at Creative Seeds and we'll help you work through it. We spent so much time talking that my throat is now sore!

I need to give a special mention to Billy from the Pure Spirit Personal Development booth - he kept us grounded when we were away with the fairies in our arty realm, and his cheerful smile and hearty laugh kept us cheerful during the slow times. Thank you Billy! Also, Brigitte, a gorgeous woman who kept us company at times throughout the four days and joined me on the journey in the yurt! (More of that later!) She had a communal art installation - people were invited to make a friendship bracelet out of yarn to tie to a huge net to remind us all of community spirit; that we are all connected. Take a look at their websites when you have the chance, they are awesome people.

One of the highlights of the weekend for me personally was getting to meet Caiseal Mor in person. What an amazing man. I first read his first novel 'The Circle and the Cross' about 8 years ago and have always secretly wanted to meet him. Imagine how excited I was when I knew he would be at the expo. I was like a little kid when I bought his book and he signed it for me! His flute playing is out of this world, and at one point whilst I was watching him on stage I nearly fell into a faraway trance myself and had to shake myself awake. Absolutely spellbinding. Then I took part in his meditation workshop in his yurt with a small group of people. Caiseal was drumming whilst we all went on a meditative journey. I cannot tell you how absolutely amazing that experience was, but I am truly thankful for it. As I went back to our booth, Linda looked at me and said 'It looks as if you've had a healing' and she was absolutely right. I feel totally at peace with myself. Though we didn't need it, this weekend has been proof of our belief that we all have the power within ourselves to truly heal ourselves.

Caiseal Mor does a lot of work with parents and carers of autistic children as he is himself autistic. At one point a lovely lady walked past who told me she couldn't be creative because she is autistic. It was before I knew of Caiseal and his autism and I wish I had known because I would have told her to seek him out and see everything that he has created, despite the labels put on him throughout his life. Maybe she did find him, I do hope so. Caiseal Mor has written an autobiography on his life with autism if you would like to read it - 'A Blessing and a Curse' (see website for details).

I suppose I shouldn't leave out the news that we also won a prize for having the most creative stall at the Expo. Totally unexpected, but yes, we are very, very proud! We have been so stressed and anxious at times that we almost walked away and made excuses so that we wouldn't have to do it, but we hung on and finished the whole four days and enjoyed every moment of it. We had so much fun, laughing at the silly things we did each day, hugging people who wanted/needed a hug, sharing our passion for art, listening to people tell their stories. What a privilege indeed to share a moment in people's journey of life - thank you so much to everyone we came into contact with - you are all truly amazing!

Feeling blue?

I like this picture describing how I feel when I'm in the company of the black dog, otherwise known as depression. It was drawn in my art journal earlier this year, and is a good reminder that it's vital to keep making art, especially when it helps to express what I'm feeling. (That's why you can see parts of words down the edge, I was also making notes!) This has been a tough week when I've realized the black dog has grown larger, almost without me noticing, and I've had to reach out for help again. It might seem weird that I share my thoughts and journey of depression in a public blog, but the way I see it I can hardly espouse the healing power of art if I don't have anything to heal can I?

There's a fantastic book called "I had a black dog" by Matthew Johnstone and it's a recommended read if you or anyone you know suffers from depression. In my humble opinion it's one of the best books I've read that accurately describes how it feels to live with the illness of depression. It's short and succinct so you don't have to spend too much time reading, and it's a picture book too, which appeals to my visual mode of thinking!

A short blog today as it's been a busy, busy day and I need time to rest and recuperate ... have a fun Friday ...

Vive la difference! Celebrating diversity ...

My lovely new yarn gathered in my trusty jute bag

Rocking chair in the dappled sun at the entrance to the shed - bliss

My first attempt at scrumbling is in the bottom lefthand corner - I just had to make the tiny flowers and hearts because I liked the look of them, and the hexagon was just calling out to me. Don't actually know what I'm going to do with that. More pictures as my work of art progresses!

I spent a lot of yesterday scrumbling in my shed. What, you may ask, is scrumbling? Well, it is a fantastic freeform version of crochet and knitting, and to pardon the pun, I think I may be hooked. It all started because, to be honest, I've had a heavily emotional week and I woke up yesterday wanting to do something creative to soothe my soul and I knew immediately what I wanted to do - create a fabric out of lovely bright wools. Plus, buying some new yarn is a kind of (retail) therapy, giving one a double lift in the day! So, after dropping children off to school I called in at my local craft shop in the next village and bought some lovely yarns I was attracted to by colour. Then I raced home, gathered supplies and sat up in the shed at the top of our garden. I wanted to create something in the fibre arts that was akin to a painting, and knew I had to scrumble! My thought process was that fibres are comforting to work with, you can choose soft to the skin wools and use a hook or needles to make them go wherever you wish. I think it has something to do as well with these fibre arts being old and established - they give me a grounded feeling! Which I so need.

It was indeed like being in my own private paradise, sitting crocheting with no agenda and no pattern in mind, the only sounds being an occasional aircraft and the birds in the trees. And the air up in the Hills is so, so fresh - I'm really not making it up, it's so pure. Mmmm ....

You can see my attempts in the pictures above, I started by making shapes that I fancied and began to put them together today. Although I have said I had no particular pattern I was following, the actual motivation was to create something totally unique, from bits and pieces that came together as a glorious, perfect whole. My visualization of celebrating difference and diversity. Down with conforming to other people's opinions - be yourself and be proud! You see it's been that kind of a week, and the only way I could express it was through art - I am so thankful for creativity!!

To see a real expert on 'scrumbling' take a look at Prudence Mapstone's webpage - her work is amazing and may inspire you to let go of rigid patterns and freely follow a path that may be unseen but is more in keeping with your spirit!

ps - another blogging milestone - I've reached 200 posts! Yay!

Spirit Dolls with a story

Today I held my Spirit Doll workshop - there were 5 of us altogether, and you can see from the photos above what an awesome time we all had! Spirit dolls are a really calming activity, we were all quiet for ages just enjoying the painting and each other's company. This time I had the participants write their story of their dolls on a luggage label, to remind them of their creative process and any message they may have for themselves. For example, I called my doll 'loving kindness' and on the reverse of the label I wrote "stop beating yourself up", as I am often being told this by my support groups of family and friends! A good instance of that would be when I wrote 'that' blogpost just over a week ago questioning why I was writing at all. Thankfully I got over it and am still enjoying journalling my creative thoughts and anything else that happens in my life!

To warm the heart ...

It's cold and raining outside, so it's very nice to be inside and toasty warm - the fire is burning merrily away.

I'm running a workshop this coming week - showing how to embellish a doll to make beautiful spirit dolls like the ones in the above picture. I've discovered the remarkable healing powers with doll-making, and this particular activity is very calming and meditative. In the workshop you'll be working with a variety of different materials and decorating the doll in a way that is meaningful for you. Included is a drink and snack at 'half-time' and great company with like-minded people.

Spirit Doll Workshop

When: Thursday, 23rd July - 9.30 am - 12 noon

Where: Creative Seeds Healing Arts Studio, 5/264 Kalamunda Road, Maida Vale

Cost: $30

To book and for further info, please call Linda or myself on 9454 5000, or e-mail me on the address on my profile page.

It would be great to see you there!

Right I'm off to put my feet up in front of the fire and drink my cup of tea! We were planning to walk into town tomorrow to visit the Farmer's Market again, but it's forecast to rain, so we will see if we are fairweather walkers when we get up tomorrow. I'll let you know ...

Messing about with colour

Felt the urge to draw today (yay!) so got out ALL of my oil pastels, even the ones mum sent me a Christmas ago and still had their wrapper on, and just drew. I love oil pastels because they feel so delightfully squidgy as you pull them across the page, and they bring back fond memories of colouring in with wax crayons when I was little. The 'art heals' doodling has been in the back of my mind for a while (told you my brain had been working on the theme) and I needed to get the message out to myself and everyone else on the planet so put it down on paper. I just put the pastels on the paper and drew. Symbols of growth, love and resources needed for growth kept appearing - note my tree, seeds, water and (hopefully) egg shaped dots under the tree. My creativity is so much a part of who I am that not to honour it would be life-threatening I think. It really is enmeshed in my very being, and I kind of lost focus on that for a while as I got wrapped up in the stresses of life and started comparing myself to others - then the whole circle of self-doubt began and I got sucked into the vortex! Took some time to extract myself, with some help from family, friends and people who I don't know but who could relate to what I was saying and here I am again. Thanks in armfuls go out to all of you. xx

Another reason I love oil pastels is because of the intensity of the colours. The second picture is made by a simple technique most of us learn in primary school - simply scribble some lovely thick patches of coloured pastels, then fill in over the top with a layer of thick black pastel. Then scrape and scratch away with something pointy (I used a cable knitting needle). I'd forgotten how sharp and brilliant the colours looked and how effective this method is, so I had to take a photo to show you. I'd only drawn it on a scrap of paper to see if it worked too.

Anyway, I think the Brits are sometimes judged unfairly for being dull (we've even been described as 'grey'! The cheek of it.) and not liking colour. It's simply not true. I've mentioned a blog here before that is abundant with colour, and indirectly referred to it a few blogposts ago (going very red-faced here, but Lucy of Attic 24 is a very gracious and lovely lady) but I have to mention it again because you just have to visit it. It's like potted sunshine on the web, so if you missed my reference to it a couple of month's ago, here it is again. Long live colour, where would the world be without it?