Ispirato

Felicity at Happiness-Studio has invited me to join her “Homemade is Best” campaign.

At this time of year, we all just hit the shops looking for presents.

I do it automatically. Why not stop and think first - could I make a gift myself?

I know a set of blank greeting cards like these from a previous post would be appreciated by most women. Maybe even some men! I’d enjoy making more of these and can think of lots of people I could give them to.

I’ve never made any jewelry for my sister-in-law. Perhaps it is high-time I did.

Who on your gift list would appreciate something homemade by you?

If you don’t have time to make it yourself, then you could at least support an artist or maker by purchasing direct from them. It is fun to go shopping at holiday markets and see what stuff people are making.
Felicity created the green gift image shown here. She is waiving her copyright, and invites anyone who wants to add it to their blog and write a post about making gifts, to do so. Just right click on the image and save it to your computer, then upload it to your own blog or website.

I’ve been toying with this idea of taking on a personal art challenge. Initially , I thought, “I wonder if I could make 100 art dolls in a year?”

When the idea was fresh in my mind I saw these millefiore glass face beads for sale and snapped them up. Last Sunday I turned them into art doll earrings.

That was four art dolls in one day. Tiny to be sure, but art dolls nonetheless.

I could SURELY average two dolls a week. I think a lot would be paper dolls, but I also would make some from polymer clay, some from fabric and even some funky assemblage-altered object dolls.

It could be fun. What’s holding me back?

I don’t want to start something that becomes a drag. I want to make art for the enjoyment, not out of obligation.  Is it likely to become a drag, though? Hmmm, I will keep thinking on it.

There was a bead expo on in Melbourne last weekend, put on by The Bead Society.

I wanted to go, mainly because I like to support this group. Of course, I love buying beads, too, and have accumulated quite a collection over the years.

In the end I decided to spend the time I might have spent at the expo just staying at home making jewelry with the stuff I already have!

The bumpy glass beads in this necklace were purchased at the Bead Expo two years ago. I am always drawn to these beads when I see them. I know there is a bit of labor involved in making them!

I have not felt the need to learn to make glass beads myself, but I know people who do. It isn’t easy! Having seen demonstrations I can really appreciate good quality glass beads. I am happy to spend a little more to reward the maker of truly magnificent ones!

Click the “more” button below right and you can see the other necklace I made using wonderful ethnic beads, carved bone beads and semi-precious stones.

(There is more where this came from … )

The Melbourne Cup is Australia’s biggest horse race on the first Tuesday of November, and I backed the winner this year: Efficient.

 From my $5-each-way bet I won nearly $150! Woo-hoo!

I’m no big time punter. I pick racehorses by their names, or sometimes by what the jockey wears.

(cough, splutter) This is not usually a winning strategy!

But how could I not back Efficient? The name jumped out from the list of horses. Being efficient is always an aim of mine. Efficiency brings joy and success, by my book.

 A couple of days ago I was reading Aisling D’ Art’s blog entry dated 13 November. She recently undertook a major mental shift and has decided to focus on painting. Aisling writes that there is a freedom associated with narrowing one’s focus.

When you focus, you are efficient.

Your creativity blossoms, too.

This week I focused on my smaller websites - the ones that are  constantly ignored in favor of Go-Make-Art and Paperific. It was like taking a vacation! I gave myself permission to focus on something very specific. I paid strict attention to my Things to Do list. I crossed off so many tasks. Wow!

I might add that I have a category called “Fun” on my Things to Do list. I had “make jewelry” there, and I spent time doing that yesterday - I’ll show you the results in my next post.

The point I want to leave you with is this: we tend to associate the word efficiency with work and the word creativity with play. In fact, if we apply efficiency and creativity to both work and play, we’ll come out winners.

And winners are grinners.

Here in Melbourne we had a glorious sunny day so at lunchtime I went into the backyard and flopped on my son’s trampoline. I stared up into the branches of our big oak tree and reminisced about the trees I had climbed during my childhood. We had a wonderful maple tree in our front yard. Our neighbors had good climbing trees, too. I especially remember a tall pine I used to love to climb high into. I would sit up there swaying in the breeze and smell the pine needles.

When I was 13 or 14 I decided to become a writer. I had a journal that I’d take with me into the pine tree and I’d write up there - short stories and poems, mostly.

I have a 14 year old son and he is very creative but unlike me he composes all his short stories using a computer. He makes wonderful short films with our digital video camera and edits them - again, on his computer. So much of the creative stuff he does involves technology. Times have changed. (It would be difficult to get a computer into a tree, though I suppose one could take a laptop . . .)
This lovely oak tree in our backyard might have been climbed by children years before we took ownership of the house, but in the 15 years we’ve lived here, the lowest branches have been way above our reach. So my son has never climbed it. Sadly.
As I lay on the trampoline looking up at the leaves I really yearned to be up there in the branches, soaking in the creative tree juices.
Are trees muses?

Do trees have magical powers? I think they do. I felt wonderfully rejuvenated after 20 minutes of staring up into the branches. In the end, I didn’t even have to touch it.

This pendant reliquary (a relic container) and matching earrings were designed by Violette for her Shrines eClass offered through Go-Make-Art.com.

I love the transparent wings on the painted tin!

Violette drew these delightful little tutorials for her class. One tutorial is a one-page illustrated guide to drawing faces. She has a happy, colorful style. I love it.

Each of the four lessons of Violette’s class offers a different project to make. It is fantastic value for an eClass.

I invited six girlfriends to my place this afternoon for a tea party. Each was instructed to bring a homemade treat and supply the recipe, to be emailed out to everyone afterwards.

I used my embroidered tablecloth from Egypt - it belonged to my parents before they moved to the retirement community. I had some cute napkins on hand. I set a glittery star ornament at each place as a take home gift for my guests. Is it too early to hint about Christmas next month? Nah.

We had a very pleasant afternoon, eating way too many sweets. And everyone agreed we must do it more often.

I made Glazed Pecans for the occasion. Here is my recipe:
16 ounces (500 grams) pecans
1 egg white
1 teaspoon water
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Farenheit (180 degrees Celsius). Beat egg white and water till frothy. Combine this with pecans in a large bowl and mix to wet the nuts thoroughly. In a smaller bowl, combine sugar, salt and cinnamon, then mix this into the nuts.

Place baking parchment on two baking sheets. Spread the nuts in a single layer onto the sheets and bake 15 minutes. Remove and turn the nuts, then bake 5 minutes longer. Allow to cool.

These sugary nuts are always a hit, and they are so easy to make. I usually make a double recipe at Christmas time and give out parcels of these as gifts.

I don’t enjoy working in the kitchen like some creative types. I figure, why spend your time making something that doesn’t last? Plus, the things I most like cooking are bad - very bad - for the figure!

Aisling D’Art is an artist AND an expert in Feng Shui. She wrote a great article for Issue 4 of Astarte’s Mega-Zine about applying Feng Shui principles to your studio layout.

I think the main message of Feng Shui is “lose the clutter”. For starters, Aisling says to keep the space behind your door clutter-free. Ai-yi-yi, I can’t open the door to my studio fully because there is so much junk there - blank canvases, old calendars, a mini-ironing board, picture frames . . . hmmm, not good. There should be nothing here. (Where in the heck will I move this stuff to?)

If you divide a room into a nine square grid, each area should be devoted to a different quality you wish to attract or enhance.

The corner to your immediate left as you pass through the door represents knowledge. This is one thing that is working in my studio, since my bookshelf is there.

The right corner nearest the door represents travel. My bulletin board is here - maybe I should tack up a few pictures of interesting places I’d like to visit.

Diagonally opposite in the far left corner - well, this is the money corner. You wanna make money from your art? Display some money here - even play money. Bills in large denominations are best! Okay, I say this is worth a shot.

I have a bit of work to do, getting this studio into Feng Shui working order. But baby steps first. It doesn’t have to all change overnight.

Issue 4 of Astarte’s Mega-Zine is themed “Eye of the Soul”. It relates to the Joseph Joubert quote, “Imagination is the eye of the soul.”

The eye is such a powerful image and a strong symbol that can be interpreted in many interesting ways.

Visual symbols absolutely fascinate me - I know I’ve said it many times before.

Contributors are invited to write something specific to the issue’s theme or not. It is always fascinating to see what response a person might have to a theme. Rachel Greig wrote about taking self-portrait photographs. Laurie Mika designed an amulet called “Interior Vision”. Susan Sorrell wrote about the eye shape frequently appearing in her artwork. Doris Arndt designed a lovely little journal project that has some great quotes relevant to art and sight and inspiration.

There are 20 articles altogether by members of the Go-Make-Art panel of experts and other artists and writers.

Astarte’s Mega-Zine, Issue 4 is available from Go-Make-Art.

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