On Crafting, Creating, and Marriage

I've been spreading my wings and trying different crafts, non-jewelry things. One thing I really like to do is put together digital designs. I don't really like to create the files, so much. (That's really weird for me. I'm the baker who wants to grow her own grains, pummel the dough to death by hand, and recreate the recipe every single time.) Oh, sorry. Where was I? I like to make digital pictures. This week I put these two together:


 

 Please don't download them, but  you can purchase them here or here. Thank you!


I've also been making wreaths, not such an exciting thing since everybody makes them. But I never have! I found out I *really* like making them:


 

The yellow one is actually hanging on my front door at this very moment. Here's another. Can you tell I love color?

So what is the problem with trying all these things? For one, I don't have enough time for a zillion projects. Nor do I have the room, especially since I don't know how to clean up after myself. Another problem is that hubby thinks I should stick to one thing. Probably because....I don't clean up my little piles of beads, snips of scrap paper, and umm.

There's paint on our new footstool.

And you know, you can say "no man is gonna tell me what to do " or whatever but the fact is he lives in the house too. And he has an itty bit of say in what goes on.

I could just tell him that "CRAFTS" is one great big category. It encompasses everything.

Here's the biggie. I would really love to have a signature style, or product, or SOMETHING. Right now I am a dabbler. I dabble here and there and never actually become "she makes awesome art dolls" (or paintings, or doodles).

I guess it takes all this dabbling to find the thing you love.

One thing I love is oil painting, and another is playing the piano. So I'm trying to put more of those into my life. And I am trying to listen to myself before/during/after I create: Is it deeply satisfying? Did I get to exercise my "creativity muscle" enough?

I think I create for the sake of the process, not really for the end result. I do it because I love the doing. And I feel almost embarrassed when people gasp and say how did you ever make that. I do it because it's inside of me.

So I'm wondering, fellow crafters --is that how it is for you too?

And how did you find your "style"? Was it by constantly practicing it? Did you know it when you found it? Did you develop it, consciously and on purpose? Readers, let me know! And if you'd like to guest blog about it tell me that too, cuz I bet I'm not the only one wondering.

Lovin' Me Some Bead Soup (Tutorial)

Making Bead Soup

I love the term bead soup, because it just exactly describes what we beaders do. We throw in different sizes, shapes, and colors of beads until they become the right mixture for the project at hand. 

It’s not simple, though; you have to have “highlights” and “shadows” just as if you were painting a picture. That goes double if you have an item in mind you want to bead around.

Here’s mine

You generally want about 3 colors in your soup, and then several variations of each color. Here's what I had to start with. The light green beads are size 11 matte seed beads. The darker ones are also 11s, and the aqua beads with the clear around them are called color-lined, so they'd be something like "aqua-lined crystal size 8".

Below are some other beads (they are in the box, but I pulled them out so you could see). These are all larger than seed beads, maybe 6 mm for the sandstone and 8 for the unakite. The shiny polished stones are aventurine, and I don't know what the others are!

Below are more seed beads that went into the mix. I thought that a burnt umber or rootbeer shade would match the "tree" in the center of my focal bead. (Doesn't it look like a tree?)

All 3 of the beads to the left are called rootbeer color, but the styles are different so I wanted you to see them. The leftmost box is size 6 "transparent rainbow matte rootbeer." The next box is called glass transparent rootbeer. They're straight-up brown, no rainbow coating. The 3rd box is silver-lined and they're size 8. The box on the right is size 15, teeny tiny beads. They have a metallic coating. 

As you can tell, Root Beer is a color I use a lot! It goes easily with greens, coral/orange, or pretty much anything on the warm side of the color  wheel.

 I chose dark green, brown/red, and lighter green as my main colors. Sometimes you need to add the color that's across the color wheel from the main color; that will help create the right soup.

And here’s the bead soup as I made it:

Think of your main color as the medium shade. You want some lighter ones for highlights, and some darker shadow colors. You'll also like it better with different textures, shapes, etc.

I'm feeling a little limited because I made a resolution this year to use what I already have. 

See the strand of light (almost lime) green beads off to the right? They, and the bigger beads the same color that are already in the soup, are too light.

Above: I tried adding more dark beads to offset the light color, but it still wasn't working.

You wouldn't think gray could work, but it looks like a neutral against the darker beaded cabochon. I put those in.  Finally I removed the bigger green ones, must've been after the photo shoot.

Here’s the final outcome of the soup:

Those unakite beads are just right with this mix! So glad I had them!

And I’ll post the finished project….errr…..soon! Sometimes I make up the mix but it takes me ages to get the whole thing completed. 
Enjoy making your own bead soup. 

The TN Beader is now happily ensconced in Florida, but somehow the FL Beader just doesn't have the same ring. 

Not Jewelry but more Art

OK I admit it. I haven't been showing you jewelry because, umm, there isn't anything to show. I actually believe it's a vision issue; it seems like if I do small beading and then school work, my eyes are way fatigued. Also I find myself looking UNDER my glasses a lot! And they're bifocals!

So those are my excuses. In the meantime, I doodled another pic, this time for The Bright Owl's challenge #20. Warning: If you start doing these, they are very addictive.

It desperately needs some shading. I may update with changes later.

Wednesday's Photos: Chalk Art

OK so I'm a day late posting :) This is chalk (sidewalk) art. I found the first few when I looked for Tampa, FL and their annual chalk art festival. Then I did a search for more. There's some r-e-a-l-l-y amazing chalk art out there. Take a look:

Artists, in order of pictures: Julian Beever (Muses and Coke), John Akers (heron), Ellen Reilley Marshall (cow), Mic Knight, and I believe the final close-up is also Mic Knight's. If you like those, you might also enjoy these spectacular 3-D works: http://www.tracyleestum.com/portfolio/3d-street-art

Scribbling, Doodling, Zentangling

I have always doodled. I used to get in trouble at school; I'd finish my work, then illustrate it or doodle in the margins. So it was a surprise to me when I discovered that my doodling, or as my husband calls it Scribbling, is now a copyrighted art form. It's called Zentangle and you have to take a class in order to doodle exactly what I did in the 2nd or 3rd grade. Hah.

However, it's a lot of fun so I've tried to follow their rules. *My rule #1 is, learn the rules and then break them. That's what creativity is about!

So. Here are some of my first attempts at zentangle:

I'm not sure why I'm so into letters. I have others I'll share soon.....anyway I found an ATC (Artist Trading Card) group at Swap-bot.com that is currently trading alphabet zentangles. Aha! Perfect! So I drew the "E" above a little smaller and made a Trading card from it. I've been assigned a partner and I'm mailing it out tonight. I'm so excited! Here it is:

Tomorrow I'm going to show you how to make some cool Halloween jewelry. ;)

Creativity - where does it come from?

Someday I'll do a lot of research on creativity, and share with you the results. For now, this post is just about me and my musings.

I doubt seriously that creativity is in our genes, because I'm the only creative person in my family. They used to say "we don't know where she came from." In other families, it's considered a gift. In mine – I was just weird.I have creativity in droves.

Anyway, one thing I've come to realize lately is that I'm especially creative when I'm happy. If everything is good and well balanced, you can bet I'm painting, making jewelry, writing, making music, or trying to do all of them at once.

You can also get creative by listening to good music, like Bach, Beethoven or Mozart. For some reason these composers wrote music that has the effect of making you really think. You think deeply, as you must any time you're going to create something. Plus, by actually listening to the music you're calming your mind and probably your body as well. The added relaxation is another good benefit for inducing creativity.

I keep a notebook with me all the time, and jot down ideas or make sketches, no matter where I am. you never know when you might see or hear something you want to save for later.

If I'm feeling stuck, I might pull up Google images and glance at some pictures of flowers or something else that I like. Or sometimes I just read through other blogs that I follow, most of which are craft, jewelry or writing related. Usually by the time I've done, I've got an idea of what I want to make next – even though it might have nothing to do with what I was looking at. It's like my brain simmers an idea on one side while I'm reading with the other.

So that's how I draw in my creativity; how do you do it?