Archive for the ‘creativity’ Category

About seven years ago I had a chance to work at Quilt Market in Houston, as I wanted to explore whether or not I wanted to offer our marbled fabric at wholesale shows. I knew within three hours that it would be too much work for very little money – nothing to account for the work that goes into each piece of fabric. What I loved, however, was shopping at all the booths and seeing all the amazing quilts! I have not been able to go back to Festival, so here is a chance to see the “tour!”

This piece just returned from a four-month stay in a juried show at the Historical Museum in Cordova, Alaska, Fish Follies. Ocean’s Bounty took five years from conception to completion. The background fabric is a poly-satin white that has been marbled in a traditional stone pattern. I originally wanted to weave strips together, but I wasn’t happy with the result. So I cut a “wave” from one end, liked the effect, and cut two more. I knew then it would be a free-hanging fiber piece, with lots of embellishments.

The quilting is all free-motion, with Sulky variegated threads, backed with hand-dyes custom for me from DownEast Dyes. I serged the edges, and then the pieces sat for another two years. In the meantime I collected threads, beads, and some stones, with the idea to embellish. There are hand-blown glass fish from Hawaii, two kinds of yarns for waves and foam, and some smaller stones. I used one of the yarns, which seemed like kelp, as hangers for the piece. I used a plexiglass rod for hanging, with a series of cup hooks to balance the weight of the piece.

Each of the waves is connected to the other through a series of glass beads of different colors. Believe me, it was difficult getting the pieces even and hiding threads from the beads. It is heavy, but it is a stunning piece, if I say so myself! The piece is available for sale, so email me!!

And join the fun – just click the pic to the top right of this post!!

Yes, it’s true what the kids say – I can turn anything into math, including cool YouTube videos….Every now and then I try to inject something “feel good” into math class, just because it’s cool – it makes me nuts that we’ve lost the idea of learning for the pure enjoyment of learning. Hence this video, which I saw as a link last night on Facebook (and I immediately sent it along!).

Sorry – I just can’t seem to embed it in the blog….
Where the hell is Matt?

This is such a nice, “feel good” video. Dancing is a universal language, and it fits in with what I am reading, The World in Six Songs by Daniel Levitin, “How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature.” Music, song and dance have been with us as evolutionary elements, and we are now coming to realize that with research.

The World in Six Songs explains, at least in part, the evolution of music and brains over tens of thousands of years and across the six inhabited continents. Music, I argue, is not simply a distraction or a pastime, but a core element of our identity as a species, an activity that paced the way for more complex behaviors such as language, large-scale cooperative undertakings, and the passing down of important information from one generation to the next.” (p. 3)

So imagine how disappointed I was to discover that the video is a complete fake….but still valuable nevertheless to math class. Mathematics underlies all of the computer-related, graphics/video game design careers. You may not be able to DO the math, but you should understand how it makes everything else work. If you want the really big bucks in a career, develop the programs that will allow others to develop video games and more. Think of the skills you need to alter photographs and create videos….

All part of trying to get my at-risk students to realize that there is value to mathematics…..

The World in Six Songs – from Amazon

Slower week, but I am still being productive. I love getting caught up with the blogs I follow, as I don’t always have time for my morning ritual before leaving for school. So I thought I would share some of the great stuff I have been viewing.

If you are not following El Milagro Studio, you need to pop over there. Anne does the most amazing collage. I know I never understood the appeal of collage until I started following Anne’s art work. Collage to me was very poorly done school projects. So NOT the case with Anne – the textures and colors are pretty spectacular! By the way, Anne, I have a few more textured items – and do you want an old pure wool sweater for felting? I have finally decided to give up my high school sweater – after I take off my letter for band.

I’ve started following Seth Apter and The Altered Page. More amazing collage, but today’s post had a review of a Maya Lin exhibit, she of Vietnam Memorial fame. The texture and movement in her architectural pieces is phenomenal. Here’s a sample:

I have been following Jane Dunnewold of Complex Cloth fame on her daily journal to photograph her surroundings. I have become very attuned to the juxtaposition of red and green around us from her work this year. The photography is both provocative and evocative. Here’s a sample:
I LOVE Purple Missus. What she is doing with and to fabric constantly blows my mind. Rusting, dyeing, paints, glue – you name it and nothing is safe. I HAVE to buy her book – Stitching the Textured Surface – it is on my MUST-HAVE list. This is one of my absolute favorite pics:

I’m hooked on Twitter, even though I’ve been absent for the last month. I try to always check the daily Historical Tweets – way too much fun!

Hopefully the school year will continue to be a great one. Two more weeks in this first quarter marking period – hard to believe this is week 8 of the school year. Stay healthy and busy – that’s my motto!

This is where I started about 6 weeks ago, with the desire to just do half-square triangles and then see what developed. The sewing was mindless at first, just following the lines on the paper, which is what I wanted – mindless – and I wanted to use my first hand-dyes. I lay out a beginning design on the wall, and it really started reading “heat.” Once the half-squares were together (and the lesson learned there is the press open, not to one side….) I decided to add a totally different batik to tone down the heat.

This weekend I got the last of the borders on, and now it is ready for quilting – and I have some ideas for some gold threads…once I get it sandwiched and basic line quilting done – just to see what a problem it’s going to be getting through a lot of the fabric corners. Here it is:

I am quite pleased, for something that was just a way to cure some boredom – looks great and learned a lot! I’m hoping to get more done this week on the new strips – ready for a lay-out, and a new bowl to wrap while watching TV. Have to do school work tonight, but then I should be ready for the week….for some fun!

Good week at school, and I was able to sew each night this week. That’s got to be a first!! I was ahead enough in planning and marking papers that I didn’t have to do anything – and what I did I bribed myself with treats to get it done. I do want to continue this weekend, but there is serious bribery ahead for me – quizzes to grade and papers to update. Plus an order of operations game to make….

In the meantime I decided to play with one of the shapes I have downloaded in my Photoshop. I’d used a couple earlier, and I enjoyed what I have been able to do with them This time it was more a lesson for myself in layering and shadows. What’s on the left is the original shape – a decent doodle, which by the time I was done gave me ideas for my own doodles….

This is my first attempt with the shadows and gradients. I save all my layers, and then I can turn them on and off at will, if I want to try something new.
Delicate, fragile, to my mind very Asian….the small pic really doesn’t do the vibrancy and justice. Here’s the second layer:
Lots of texture to this one, a totally different take on the same shape. There is a lot of manipulation of shadows in this one, just to see what they will do. Again, way more detail in the larger one than here.

I was staring at this for some time, intrigued with the center shape that is quite visible. So I went to my brushes, figuring I could add a tree….and then more brushes….and finally I have this year’s Christmas card……
Productive evening of learning, good week at school, great momentum, a weekend ahead with a trip to a fiber gathering in St. David, lunch at the Copper Queen in Bisbee, and more sewing….will try for pics!

Finally! At last! I have had a great couple of days! It’s so good to feel healthy again. Progress reports were due on Friday, so I was able to leave school with very little to do. I went to Stripper’s Club on Saturday morning at my local quilt shop. Stripper’s Club was a hoot – a new quilt each month made solely from 2 and 1/2 inch strips. This one is very forest-y – hence the name “Into the Woods.” I have never worked with a set of Bali Pops before, so it looks like even more fun.

I got home and had lunch and a nap – but still had the bulk of the day ahead of me. I knew I wanted to start on the new quilt, but I have a bunch of projects going on that I needed to work on. So I told myself, no new quilt until I get more done on my Desert Heat piece. Well, let me tell you….

…by Saturday bedtime I had taken apart my Sunrise piece and started taking the quilting out in order to incorporate some changes suggested by my arts group. I had wrapped a lot of clothesline to create a Christmas fabric bowl, I was ready to put final borders on the Heat piece, and I had almost 40 strips sewn into 2-strip sets.

I think I’ve stumbled on a new way of working – literally have a bunch of things that can be done at the same time, especially if I don’t have to change the color of thread! Momentum continued on Sunday. I did my lesson plans for Monday, opted to not score papers (and I’m here to tell you everything is already done for the week!), and continued to sew. All the borders are on Desert Heat, and it looks fabulous. All the strips are now in groups of two, and I have several groups of four together. But I also had to tell myself, no more sewing until I finally hemmed my new brown pants. Which I did (only took 6 weeks), AND ironed them, and continued sewing.

It is so good to finally feel healthy again. Monday was a good day at school, I got everything done, didn’t bring anything home from school, got a few more four-strip sections together, and finished wrapping the bowl. Today I was incredibly productive, with lesson plans done for the week, ALL papers marked, quiz created for Friday, and ready to do a new set of progress reports.

I was so organized I left early for the bus…..big mistake. On days I take the bus, I need to take a later bus. Why is it teens feel they have to be loud and full of foul language when they’re on public transportation? The bus was pack and LOUD. Definitely a later bus – I am committed to trying to lower my carbon footprint this year.

New NCIS tonight, and in the meantime, I have some strip sets calling my name! Pics will follow….

This is a piece that sold on Ebay a number of months ago. As I recall it was a silk, and it reminded me of clouds. I do need to pull the photo out and try doing some manipulating with it. There are some intriguing lines in this piece.

As for marketing, probably not going to happen this week, except for putting some of the digital quilt designs up on Cafe Press. We had a great marketing group meeting last week, and I thought I’d include some of the work from our group of artists.

Brenda is a really wonderful weaver. She is working on what she calls saddle rugs, but I don’t have any pics. Her scarves are so soft, and they use some antique lace patterns as the design.

Yvonna continues to explore texture and form with her clay. She just comes up with the most amazing shapes.

School is back – great first day with the kids. I am trying to eke out time each day to at least sew, and save whatever marketing I can do for the weekends. I do want to explore Tara Reed’s site on art licensing…looks very interesting!

So I didn’t get to Photoshop on Friday – SORE from stairs at school, and generally tired after the first few days back, but boy, did I have fun today! The pineapple block on the left was my starting point for today, in designing a quilt. WAAAYYYY back in 1996, after we had been marbling about 2 years, I knew I wanted to design quilts with marbled fabric, and using Photoshop (obviously a very early version) I wanted to be able to put the designs on t-shirts. Try as I might for MANY years, I just couldn’t seem to get the hang of “pasting” fabrics, let alone creating a grid to work on. Those days are gone – I did it! I took the block on the left and did several iterations of it to change colors:

Here’s my first quilt design – I know there’s loads of room for improvement, but this is a good start.

Not content with that playing around, I went back to the photo from Thursday’s blog to see what I could do with that one. The first is the original, the second is “underpainting,” one of the filters. The third is totally different – the watercolor effect. It really changes the meaning of the image. I am quite partial to the second – reminds of the line from the sone “Evergreen” from “The Way We Were” – mysty water colored memories….

Now to finish up emails and get wardrobe set for the first week with kiddoes!

Another really cool piece from the past – a lot of these art pieces that went up on Ebay were left over from commissions. This piece always reminds me of a misty morning. I probably should try something else with it, so I will work on this one tomorrow, with Photoshop.

School started yesterday – just the teachers in for meetings. I spent today getting ready for ninth grade orientation tomorrow. And once I again I face the same conflict every year at this time – how can I maintain the momentum from all the summer art work? Yesterday I was so tired, I had no energy to sew after dinner. Now, rationally I know that’s to be expected the first week or so back, because I have to get re-energized with the school year and get the body attuned to the new schedule. But still, every year the momentum just fades……

I do enjoy blogging, and I want to maintain at least 5 entries a week. Blogging really helps me process what’s going on in my life, as well as the original purpose – to keep a record of my creativity. I had a blast at our arts meeting on Monday – we all seemed to mesh really well as a group of diverse artists – lots of dialogue about how we do what we do, and what we would like from the group – keeping us motivated. There’s momentum, again.

I am hoping the monthly meetings will help me work on projects for each time we get together. September has the gem show and a chance to look for new goodies, with some of the group. I want to work on the bamboo piece and look for more “dirt-ish” stone to embellish the base.

It all comes down to getting over the end-of-the-day slump and get busy during the evenings. I am surprised – and pleased – that so far I am not overwhelmed by preparation. I have so many things prepared from last year, that now I can actually work at presenting material in a much more interactive manner – which is a goal for this year.

So I guess it’s just a matter of time……

We have a guest blogger today – Darya Pino from Summer Tomato. We “met” last spring while taking an online blogging class, and I have been reading her faithfully ever since. Thanks to Darya, I have made changes in my eating and lifestyle, and I feel so much better because of it! I read “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” recommended by Darya, and it has literally been life-changing. For those of us with food issues, Darya is a breath of fresh air! And…there is NOTHING like food from the farmer’s market! Plus – since so much of this blog is about creativity, why not apply it to eating? So without further ado, here’s

“10 Creative Tips For Healthy Eating”

Darya Pino

(Bio: Darya is a scientist, San Francisco foodie and advocate of local, seasonal foods. Get more healthy eating tips at her blog, Summer Tomato . Follow her on Twitter @summertomato .)

Food is the key to health. Whether you want to lose weight or simply live a fulfilling, active lifestyle your diet is the most important factor in your success.

But I am not talking about trendy superfoods and gimmicky diets. These things make big promises, but are never a real solution. Research has shown over and over that the only true path to health is an overall pattern of healthy eating. Vegetables, fruits, legumes and other natural, unprocessed foods must be the foundation of your diet.

Since processed and industrial foods are so common in Western culture, I have found cooking at home to be the only realistic way to improve your healthstyle .

So where do we start?

To make home cooking and better health a reality, it is critically important to embrace variety. Every natural food contains a unique profile of nutrients that work together in a special way that cannot be mimicked by dietary supplements. To capitalize on this ingredient diversity it is vital to consume a wide variety of whole, natural foods.

And while variety is important to health, it is equally important for quality of life. No one can eat fish and steamed broccoli every night of the week, so food and flavor creativity is key to better nutrition and maintaining your healthy lifestyle.

Here are 10 tips for infusing creativity into your cooking to optimize health and happiness:

1. Avoid the temptation to fall back on the same dishes and flavors. Nothing is more boring than eating the same thing over and over again. Even if you only know how to cook one or two things, try adding new spices and ingredients whenever possible.

2. Learn to explore new recipes. If cooking is not your strong point you can start by expanding to dishes that are prepared similarly to ones you know. If you can’t cook at all, try making more exotic salads and other raw foods. Just start playing with flavors and you will become more comfortable in the kitchen.

3. Learn to explore new ingredients. Vegetables are rarely very expensive and can be a wonderful source of inspiration for your cooking. Fresh herbs and new spices are also a great way to discover new tastes and flavor combinations.

4. Let the farmers market and the season dictate food shopping, not your cookbooks. Few things are more inspiring than a bountiful haul of ripe, farm fresh vegetables from your local farmers market. Go to the market without an agenda—just find what looks good and figure out how to cook it later.

5. Learn to talk to the farmers and ask for serving suggestions. Even if you think you know how to cook a certain food, ask the farmer you are buying from for recipe suggestions and ideas. They will often share with you how they have been eating it, and sometimes discuss how it is being served at local restaurants. This is also a convenient starting point for a Google recipe search.

6. Find specific cooking recommendations on the internet. Once you’ve narrowed in on some flavors to explore, make use of the internet to find specific recipes. Google can be infinitely more useful than any number of cookbooks. Be sure to read through the recipes before choosing one. And don’t forget to read reviews if they are available!

7. Do not tie yourself to one recipe. I often find that different recipes for the same dish have different appeals to me. For example, one might have flavors I like better (or have on hand) and another might be a simpler technique. Learn to creatively combine different recipe sources to customize your dish to your taste. Once you’ve mastered your own version of the recipe you can post it as your own!

8. Search for recipe ideas that specifically combine foods you have purchased. You do not have to limit your recipe search to one ingredient or cooking method. Frequently you will find that different cultures use the same ingredients as a base to create very different flavors. Have tomato, lime, chili and cilantro? Explore dishes from Mexico, Southeast Asia, North Africa and Southern India.

9. Use restaurants for inspiration. If the idea of cooking Moroccan food is appealing in theory but you aren’t really sure how it should taste, try finding a local restaurant and ordering a few of their most traditional dishes. Restaurants are a fantastic source of flavor inspiration, and you will be surprised to find how easy it is to make ethnic cuisines that seem impossibly complicated.

10. Be creative. Creativity is absolutely essential for upgrading your healthstyle. Getting out of your rut and learning to love cooking and eating is the critical first step. It does not matter where you start, just find foods you enjoy and get creative!

I really love this piece. It was marbled on a white polysatin, and it so reminds me of a sunrise. I am working to try and do some more quilting on this piece, but I need a focal point – I’m open to suggestions for how to embellish this.

Our arts support group meets for the first time tonight. This is mainly getting to know each other, with a healthy dose of show and tell. Every time one of us gets together with another, we always feel so good talking about a art. It just makes sense to have a way to stay in touch regularly, and expand our group a little bit. We need a way to keep each other motivated and share information. I know that once the school year starts, I will need to have some deadlines, and bring something new each month will be good for me. I’m looking forward to this, since last month I spent the evening in the ER.

I’m on a waiting list for a “Craft show” in November. We attended this last November and were impressed with the organization, and we felt some of our marbled products would go well. The waiting list is evidently long, but the organizers are trying to not duplicate vendors, so if someone drops out, we may move to the top faster. Either way, we need to start planning for the show.

I marbled more paper this weekend – went well, and I am working on trying to get the moire pattern down – cool pattern with lots of movement – can’t be done on fabric because of the fast absorption rate of the fabric and liquid. Hubby is at work making new combs to try out, and we had visitors at our marbling session a week ago – we should probably pull together class information again.

I went through our drawer of “we will never sell these pieces, they are too gorgeous” to find I actually have couple of new ideas for some of them. One piece is a full three-quarter yard of waves – and it deserves to be framed by itself – this would make a great restul, peaceful piece in a therapist’s office!

For some reason, I can’t get the Vista Print emails any longer, despite three phone calls to them. I need to look for another source for quality, reasonable, online printing. Anyone have any suggestions? Anyone used Moo? Thanks for any help!

PS – TOMORROW – special guest post from Darya at Summer Tomato!!!

I was hoping, when I started a regular pattern of blog writings, that I could do some marketing on Saturdays – hence the “Saturday Special.” This has not been my most successful day because I can’t keep up with changing images, especially since Cafe Press isn’t as “intuitive” as I would like it. I did set up a friend’s store – The Edge of the Sea of Cortez – and you will see some really cool sea creatures, many of whom are endangered. Betty Hupp is the co-author of “The Edge of the Sea of Cortez,” a book about the sea creatures you will find tide-walking. Check out the store for an indication of some of her products, with more to come.

I really like this image, created a few months ago, and part of the “Indigenous Images” series I am working on. I put this on a t-shirt for this week – limited time only! I also have this image on a small ornament – looks really cool.

Digital Marbling (TN) is unique – I take a piece of marbled fabric – or two – and manipulate it to other intriguing images. Loads of fun to do. I am learning a lot about photo manipulation – what an amazing field. Were I younger, I think graphic design would have been my career field.

About a year ago I created a great background, and my digital partner Suzan used a shot she had taken of the Grand Canyon – makes for a very dramatic image. You can find this on notecards this week. The image is also available on a small magnet.

Also over a year ago I started my “Fossil” series, again from a traditional marbled stone pattern on fabric. The background has loads of possibilities! It’s available as a small poster this week and as a small mug.

Have fun exploring! If you are interested in Betty’s book on the Sea of Cortez, here’s the Amazon link.

I worked with Photoshop for a while this afternoon, and NOTHING clicked – no tutorials, no playing with filters, nothing. The photo at the left is one from a while ago – I was working with blending modes, and added a background of marbled fabric for an interestng sunset effect. Rather than push it and get more frustrated, I put the work away (saved, of course – ya never know…), and started getting caught up with some favorites on Twitter. What an amazing source of great articles and ideas!!

Katydid Designs is offering an e-course starting September 7: Multiple Streams of Income. I’ve taken a couple of Photoshop classes on line and had a great time. I took a blogging class on line (31 Days through Problogger)) and learned a huge amount – so much so, that I have spent the summer really working on some marketing ideas, getting a support groups together, and of course creating some new art (marbling tomorrow and doing more paper – yay!).

My art is my stress-reliever, since I am still teaching full time, but this year, with Arizona ranking 50th in the nation for support of education, everything about the job, paycheck, hours, and class sizes is up in the air. After being able to spend the summer creating art, I am really concerned with the lack of time come next week Wednesday. I still have a number of years before I can retire and work at my art all the time. So I am looking for other opportunities, and I learn really well on line!

If you answer “yes” to any of the following, you might want to consider checking out this course.
* Are you struggling to make a living doing what you love?
* Do you feel like you are working all the time and getting nowhere?
* Do you feel overwhelmed and confused about all the ways artists and crafters can make money?
* Are you always jumping from one idea to the next without following through on anything?

Laura Bray, an artist with an M.B.A., will teach you how to create income by doing what you love. Specifically designed for the creative personality, this online course will teach you how to develop a successful business and how to have fun while you do it.

* Learn that creating multiple streams of income is the fastest way to reach your financial goals while making a living a doing what you love.
That has been my goal all along, but I just can’t seem to get it together. I am interested in hearing from those of you who are having good luck with this.

* Learn how to leverage your artwork and projects to make money for you over and over.
I have an idea about this, and that’s how I got into digital marbling (TN), as a way of getting more mileage out of a great piece of fabric.

* Learn how to create passive income. You can be independently employed, go on vacation, and still make money!
I am so intrigued by this idea….

* Find out the many ways an artist or crafter can make money from their art. You probably haven’t even thought of some of them!
I know eBay has been okay for us – would love to increase weekly sales. Etsy seems stagnant… what else is there?

* Learn from experts in creative income areas such as; online selling, art licensing, children’s book illustration and craft shows.
I want ideas!

* Create a personal business plan, outlining your income choices and the steps you need to take to make your plan a reality.
There’s got to be more to what I am attempting – and not having any successes!

So think about it…and keep making your art!

This shot from Oak Creek Canyon in Sedona is now my screen saver. Every time I look at this I feel my blood pressure go down. This is just amazing country, with rock the best red-orange you can find. One thing about this summer is recognizing “me” as a work in progress. I am learning to stop and smell the roses – and look at the red rock – a lot more often. I’m realizing I have nothing to prove to anyone, I’m happy that I’m a teacher and have a great job – and believe me, it took a while to get to that point! The start of school is approaching, and while I am looking forward to it – I love all the planning leading up to the kids arriving – it does mean an abrupt end to a summer of art and marketing. My goal is going to be to maintain the momentum started last April. I have lots of things coming up art-wise to prepare for, and I do work well with deadlines – all those years of student theater got me to work under pressure very well.

I started out last week wanting to do some sewing to keep me occupied so I wouldn’t want to snack. Took the doctor very seriously after the scare this summer about losing weight – just finished trying on some “old” tops in the closet…you know the ones – for when we “lose” weight and they will fit again….and I have several new ones for the start of school. Yay me! I went through my stash, starting with two dyed fabrics I did. They’re the ones on the lower left and middle right. I pulled lots of batiks and the pile kept getting warmer and warmer – hey, it’s summer in the desert!

So I sewed half-square triangles for a day. Sunday hubby and I started playing around with a potential pattern. The more triangles I put up on the wall, the hotter the piece got – and it gave itself a name – “Desert Heat.” Coincidentally it was 108 that day. Here’s a shot of the design center.
I have done some more, but no pics yet. I also have out my “bamboo” strips to continue working on a marbled piece that will be three-dimensional.

As I was looking for fabrics, I happened across a “finished” piece of marbled fabric I call “Sunrise.” I love the fabric, but when I was done, it didn’t do a thing for me on the wall. So I want some ideas – I am more than willing to take the cloth framing off and the quilting out to improve it. The piece just has me stumped. It’s not a great pic – I’ll try and do better. Any and all ideas welcome!!

Our art group will have its first meeting next Monday – I am excited about that. And my friend Suzan hopefully is coming down from Sedona so we can play before and after the meeting – nice way to ease into the start of school.

Stay tuned to the blog – Darya from Summer Tomato is working on a post for us on food and creativity. More to come…

This is the original fabric for today’s experiment. I managed to clean out the computer, back up all the files (first time in 3 years) and sort/file the digitals. I put a folder together of interesting fabric to use for backgrounds. Hence, this first one.

This is the first playing around with lighting. Then I got fancy!

You know I love gradients, and when I applied this one, all I could think of was coral beds. It has sat this way for at least two years. So I pulled it up today to see what I could do with some shapes.

I started adding turtles, one at a time, picking up color from within the background, and trying to use “Rule of Thirds” for a pleasing composition.

Here’s the final – I’m pleased – I didn’t continue with manipulation because I pretty much had the effects I wanted. This would make a good print!