Archive for the ‘creativity’ Category

Free Motion Quilting – detail

Lots of free motion quilting in my future. Finished another fmq sample for classes, and I have a cheater cloth I want to experiment with. It is good to be so busy! There is a list of projects, and it’s not too detailed. I think I am done with the long-term lists. I want things that are do-able, along with increasing the commissions. Hubby is busy marbling – this quick tray will be silk flowers and leaves for upcoming gift baskets. End of the week will be more fats and new sampler sizes – will be introducing the new sampler in February’s newsletter.

The days are broken up with reading, writing, hand-stitching, machine-stitching, designing, web work, yoga, and taking a couple of new classes from Coursera – on the Middle East (fascinating, will be good for research) and Big History -even more fascinating. I am also contemplating how I can do more writing to get people thinking about this coming election and preparing to vote.

Plus there is marketing, and we both have been busy. The reception to our art since we returned to New England has been amazing. We were at the Essex Art League meeting last Thursday, and folks couldn’t believe the marbling. I still have leads from an earlier meeting to follow up on. That said, we made a list of what will go into the three-month show at an attorney’s office starting in April. We need to know what needs sleeves and hanging rods. The second list is for the digital marbling display in August. There are a number of pieces that need work digitally, as well as planning for framing, so a data base is on my list for this week. There are updates coming for the website, in progress as we speak. The blog needs pages tweaked and updated – that will take a bit longer. I plan to join the Surface Design Association this week, so I can begin to analyze upcoming gallery shows and see where fiber might fit. I have two gift shops to visit, one of which will take our things, given that hubby’s family settled the area. The other, who knows. We are budgeting for better frames for the digital work, as everything needs to be prepared for wire hanging. And I need to go through the smaller marbling pieces to see what can be finished for April.

It’s good to be so productive! Reminder – need to check on industrial felt for some of the larger works in my mind, as we need to plan for hanging as these unusual ones are created. Hopefully pics will be coming of some of our newest completions.

I received two “adult” coloring books for Christmas and have been enjoying myself immensely. Once I got past the old bugaboo about what this would be, I realized I could learn a lot about color theory from these pieces. And learn I did….

First, I discovered why I thought coloring was boring when I was younger. Sheesh, crayons and a picture. No challenge there. Just like I found Barbies incredibly boring. Plus I didn’t have great crayons – I lusted after big boxes – and I do have many colors of sharp pointed crayons now.

Second, I love symmetry and working with color within the symmetry. These pics have been perfect for that. I’m using markers – very unforgiving as a medium, but then so much of my earler work was pen and ink – even more unforgiving.

Third, I learned a lot about color. I like color. I like bright color. I need me my white space – a challenge on some of these designs. I need a variety of color items. Marker – yes, bought a bunch more. Also, love me my Pigma pens from my zentangle work.

Here are my discoveries – love being self-taught! The odd-numbered ones are from a book on zen coloring. The even-numbered ones from a book called Mendhi – very different in approach. I do them alternately – learning from each type and applying lessons learned from the one before it.

Coloring Book 1

The amount of white space really through me. The colors are very saturated and I opted to leave nothing blank…but the two paths going through the design were way too white and off balance. So I took a few ideas from my zentangle work – aura and echoing, along with dots. Really like how it came out.

Coloring Book 2

I opted to keep some spaces white for balance. I happened to see samples of the designs in the front of the book but didn’t use any of the examples. I’m enjoying making my own decisions, which in most cases work out for the end result. You’ll notice the same color families appearing in the designs. Added the dots to frame the design.

Coloring Book 3

Left a lot of white space on this one. I have some solid sections separating the main designs, and this kind of threw me. I used a brown that was much darker than the surrounding colors, and it drew my eye immediately to it. Did not like that, and part could be my bias as the designer. So I attempted to spread out the brown throughout the whole design. Much happier with the overall effect.

Coloring Book 4

Love this one! There were a lot of very skinny outlines throughout this, so I went for my black Pigma pen, which I discovered made everything very crisp. Yellow, purple, green, but I think the orange works well on the outside. Really like how this one developed.

Coloring Book 5

Blues and oranges – shades of them. Have never really worked in this color family before and I like it. Depending on color placement, some of the oranges look red – interesting to me, although it shouldn’t be because we deal with that all the time in marbling. Some of the blues looked green. Overall, I am planning on doing a mandala quilt using some of these designs, as I really like how it all worked out. Great balance, and I LOVE the geometry of it all.

Coloring Book 6

A lot of red Pigma pen outlining – nicely enhances the design. Greens and oranges, and even with the red, doesn’t look too holiday for me.

Coloring Book 7

Again very saturated, primarily reds, yellows, and oranges. I didn’t want to leave the white space of the outlining – wasn’t sure I would like it. So I opted to go with a mosaic look, using black. I completed the center first and really thought I had made a mistake with that amount of black, but I am learning to make decisions as I go along and not worry about it partially done. I am very pleased with how it all came together.

Coloring Book 8

Purples, yellows, and greens. Glad I had a variety of markers. I originally put an orange around the yellow center, and my eye kept getting drawn to it. Didn’t like that, so I thought I would see if I could add green over it – turned brown, and I wasn’t happy. However, the brown fades into the background and throws the eye outward in the design. Interesting lesson learned there.

Lots of new skills,lessons learned, and enjoyable hours – there are more coloring books in my future!

Marbled Satin

Most of my work on line these days seems to be research for book 2 of my Secession Wars series (website coming soon….). So the suggestions today might be a little more somber, but thought-provoking none-the-less.

An interesting look at the battle with Hasbro and Mattel over Disney princesses. I always found Barbie incredibly boring – she didn’t do anything – I’d rather read the Hardy Boys (Nancy Drew was too predictable and safe). But I gather marketing in this day and age is all about the brand. Interesting look at Princesses and young girls.

Bloomberg Business

I am a huge fan of the Zinn Education Project – all those stories and facts we never learned in US history, especially appropo in today’s world. Today is yet another anniversary – of Wounded Knee – not one of the U.S.’ finest moments. More resources here.

Zinn Education

Wounded Knee

More on Wounded Knee from the Smithsonian….

Wounded Knee

A friend of a friend of a friend…don’t ya just love those connections? When we visited Northern California, we stayed at a gorgeous cabin above Monterrey Bay and had a fabulous time with the guys overseeing the digs. Met Greg’s sister Randi  in a round-about way, and she’s just published a novel. The Story: Deviation.  As I look into self-publishing myself, it’s great to hear someone else’s story. Check her out!

Randi Janelle

Is it a fad or not? There’s much to-do about gluten. I’ve discovered that I am sensitive to gluten, so I try to keep it out of my diet, not always successfully. Here’s a take on famous paintings if the gluten were removed…….

With gluten

Without gluten….

Five Questions to Ask before Partnering with a Service Dog – interested in any readers who have had experience with service dogs for visually impaired.

Service dogs

Wonderful rant on Facebook today about making art. Seeing as I have just begun with my “adult” coloring book, I was interested in her thoughts about “correct” ways of making art, and how the various art police seem to rush in and take over. From Elizabeth Metz, via Tristan Robin Blakeman. LOVE her thoughts.

Elizabeth Metz

Yet another item I am checking out on the road to self-publishing – Smashwords. Anyone with experience with this?

 Beautiful Earth Porn – how can anyone object to the title? Gorgeous eye candy…..

Earth Porn

Have a great week!

Asian Fantasy

I’m unearthing a lot of unfinished projects and pieces of fabrics that can be turned into small art quilts for Etsy, and I also came across a couple of digital pieces (like the above) that need reworking for an upcoming show. It is just amazing to me how productive I have been at getting new – and old – projects completed since we set up the new studio. Here’s pics of the new studio – taken right after we unpacked and stored, so things are cleaner than they are now after three weeks of solid work. Good north light, and lots of surface area.

Large marbling tray

Stored behind the door, along with mats and combs…..

Cutting table and storage

This can be closed up for an air mattress on the floor for company.

Extra storage

Filled with fabrics and patterns and lots of other goodies….no longer used for clothes!

Bernina 1008 and sewing table

Sewing table for the last 15 years, lots of room to the left to support larger quilts….almost impossible to keep clean……

Additional sewing area

For the serger and decorative stitches on the Brother machine….

Storage cubbies

Happy as a clam, and now to the piece in progress….which is some leftover from another completed piece.

WIP – Storm A’Brewin’

Thread choices –

Thread choices – Storm A’Brewin ‘

Didn’t use the blue – too much contrast, and not what I liked – ended up pulling out all the threads…one advantage of not checking the tension – easier to pull out.

Thread work

 Finished project, available in Etsy. I needed to simplify the design – got caught up in following the patterns, so I ended up leaving the bottom corner free of stitching, so it looks like everything is approaching from the northwest.

Storm A’Brewin’

Serged edges, mounted on wrapped canvas, 12 x 16 inches. Moving right along!!

So I have unearthed a bunch of UFOs in going through one of the containers in the studio. One is up on Facebook, free to a good home for the cost of postage. A couple of them, I need suggestions for what I can do for the quilting. Plus, if you recognize that you made the item, please let me know so I can credit you – it’s been a long time since they were sent to us.

Here’s the first.

Log Cabin Sampler

This was done for us as a way to use marbled fabric in a traditional block. Now I need suggestions on the quilting. I want to use it as a sampler in my fmq classes. I was thinking of outlining the blue marbling for the waves and then doing something with partial circles around the sunrise/sunset….Ideas?

Here’s number two.

Reverse Applique

This is reverse applique, and I can treat it as a Hawaiian block with outlining, but I’m wondering if there is something else. All suggestions welcome!!

So after looking at the last table runner, I decided last minute to do a small table-topper for the son of a good friend – the one who is getting the table runner. Since he is in a doctoral program in marine biology, I decided to finally use the small lighthouse batik squares I had gotten maybe 10 years ago. First thing I discovered – Keepsake Quilting, not your finest cutting…..all the “squares were different rectangular sizes, which made squaring them off a bit difficult (especially since I didn’t do that first step – only the second step). And only a few of the nine lighthouses actually were straight……

I kept wondering how I would quilt this, since the focus would be the lighthouses. I chose a border fabric that reminded me of Cape Cod cottages, so them the focal point was the lighthouse and the “sea-side-y” shingles. All I did was quilt in the ditch – anything else would have detracted from the design. Three hours later I was done – from layout to quilting to binding. Part of me was feeling guilty for the lack of fancy quilting, but hey, the piece didn’t need it, and I’m not sure the recipient would have appreciated the extra work. I like it and that’s what matters – it can go on the wall in an office or across a desk or small table. So lesson here – not everything needs to be complex to look good (and…..check the “squares” before starting)…..

For the Marine Biologist

Yoga Susan’s Quilt

This last quilt commission (which Susan is no doubt getting plenty of use in chilly Tucson, and we have our quilt off the bed, as it’s too warm here in Vermont….) was a challenge for me to fill space with quilting design. I LOVED how it came out, and as usual I learned a few things on it. So when I started this new table runner for a friend for Christmas (left-over pieces from a Judy Niemeyer pattern) I wanted to do an overall quilting pattern that was very organic and would unite all the blocks.

Big lesson – just because you can quilt it, doesn’t mean you should….which harkens back to Road to California in 2012. First time at a big quilt show, and hubby and I kept commenting on the amount of free motion quilting showing up. Some quilts didn’t seem to need that much quilting, and on some the quilting really enhanced the work. This was also when I began taking free  motion seriously, and in the last three years I am now teaching basic machine quilting.

But with this table runner, I realized to late (to   rip out half the runner) that I had too much quilting. Here’s my table runner that was on the table when our friends came to dinner.

The block pattern is obvious, and at this point I was stumped as to how to quilt it – I ended up using invisible thread with wide circles. Ehh. So I wanted to do something different with this one.

You can see the meandering quilting – I really just played with curved line to offset the sharpness of the design.

You can see here that the quilting design when up close takes over and dominates the pattern. This is where hubby quoted Tim Gunn (yes, too much Project Runway in our house,……): Edit, edit, edit. Yup – bigger curved lines and no leaves or stones.

Like I said before, way too late to take all those stitches out. However……when looked at from certain angles, all you see is the pattern. At other angles the quilting is predominant. And, ultimately I like them both.

Before I actually started the quilting, I was subbing one day and had time on my hands, so I was watching one of my Craftsy classes on machine quilting big projects on a small machine (and my Bernina 108 doesn’t get much smaller….). Spray-basting the WHOLE quilt. Nothing will move. I’m trying this, and lo and behold it worked WONDERFULLY.

The spacing could be better, but NO TUCKS! Well, three little ones that actually ironed out. That’s the way I’m going from now on. My fingers will appreciate no more safety pins – this time a year ago it took hubby and me four hours to pin-baste a queen quilt…..

So more lessons learned, and another commission in the works for March. I am having SO MUCH FUN!!!

About two years ago I asked for some volunteers to make traditional blocks using marbled fabrics, as I wanted to show what can be done with traditional quilts besides the art quilts I do. Now that I am improving my machine quilting skills, I turned one of the blocks into a new teaching sample for both quilting marbled fabrics as well as using marbled fabric in traditional quilts. First up is the back of the block – a list of all the threads and needle sizes used, as well as any (and all) tension issues, so they could be discussed (and I wouldn’t forget what I used where).

Back of traditional block

I quartered the block, and one section was left completely unquilted – because that is also an option. Here’s the front of the block:

Marbled quilting sample block

Far left – unquilted. The yellow pieces have three different designs. I’m partial to the one with pebbles quilted throughout the piece. I used Bottom Line in the bottom, size 80 Superior needle, and Bottom line in the top.

Each marbled piece is done in a different free-form design. Lower center uses a Superior Thread Brytes, heavier, so I used a #90 Superior needle. Upper right used Bottom Line on the top and followed most of the curves in the pattern. Right marbled fabric used a variegated Superior Rainbows thread and only did a few of the wide curves. Different looks in all three. One of my favorite stitches is just following basic curves, and you can see that in this quilt:

Free motion quilting

For the white – BIG lesson was don’t use a distinct variegated thread unless your fmq stitches are VERY even. Spent three hours taking it all out. The white was patterned with circles and small crosses. For the bottom right I used yellow Bottom Line in the top for a hint of color and gridded the triangle,  using the fabric pattern as a guide. Upper left, also with white Bottom Line, I followed the circles in the white fabric pattern.  Right triangle I followed both patterns, also white Bottom Line, and found it too busy.

After the New Year, I want to experiment with more like this. Let me know if you have done something like this to determine different quilting ideas.

SOLD!

We’ve been almost missing the holiday season this year, but we finally have enough of our lives together again to offer gift baskets of marbled goodies. The top is a basket from a year ago; the new pics will follow. These baskets contain:

• a hand-wrapped fabric bowl, good for all kinds of uses around the house (and perfect for regifting!);
• a fat quarter of marbled fabric;
• two 8 x 8  swatches of marbled fabric for piecing or applique;
• six 6 x 9 swatches  of marbled fabric for piecing or applique;
• five pieces of hand-marbled satin/nylon ribbon in two lengths;
• 4 note cards with digital marbled designs;
• a coupon for a FREE table-runner pattern for the fat quarter or other material (sent to you as a PDF);
• a coupon for 10% off any sampler package from the website;
• two notions of our choice; and
• hand-marbled leaves and flowers.

For your viewing pleasure –

Contents of the gift basket

The Stuffed Basket!

So you want one……email me. Baskets are $50.00 – a $75.oo retail value, shipping is USPS Priority, $16.00. We can custom, but our time is short…..If you want to order one beside this one (they are all one-of-a-kind)- and want it by Christmas, December 10th is the LATEST!! Domestic orders only. OR….plan now for birthdays and Mother’s Day!

It is SO GOOD to be back at the sewing machine! In order to get the groove back, I have been working on this really adorable baby quilt that my friend always coordinates for pregnant teachers at her former middle school. In this one, people completed blocks to represent a piece of children’s literature, and then for the baby shower, the folks bring the actual books to start the child’s library. Great idea!!

Here’s some pics of the finished quilt……learned a lot, as I always seem to do. Next time I am doing squares, I will back them with a stabilizer. The last quilt I did like this I was able to quilt in each of the squares to get them to lay flatter. Next time….but look at the textures in these squares!

Detail of the back of Gracie Mae’s quilt

Ya, dis ist goot….been a productive week and today started off fabulously with coffee with another artist in fiber who LOVED out work and will pass on a bunch of connections to galleries within the New England area. Joining Surface Design Association, as they seem to be making inroads in getting fiber shown in NE. Plus a new quilt shop in town, so I have already been by to show a sample of free-motion quilting to see about teaching some classes. And….lots to do this week.

Also, and probably most important, the studio is about ready…well, we’ve already started doing work, even though there are still a lot of loose ends and things to get put away. I am almost through ironing the rest of my fabric stash, which is each of our moves has always been our wrapping. But this time, after so long….I was caressing each piece and apologizing for it being in the dark for so long. NO MORE MOVES! They will carry us out of here! Now for this week I need to start a list of fiber projects, with a couple of deadlines coming up this year. Then I can prioritize and get started.

Thanks to Shutterfly I’m been getting prints of our digital work for great prices, and A.C. Moore (our Ben Franklin’s and alternative to Michaels) for frames. Plus, it occurred to us as we were sorting through artwork that we can reuse some of the frames for work we no longer hang on our walls.

Also this past week, two digital marbling pieces hanging in a local bookstore as part of Essex Art League outreach, framing photos for solo show next August, and attended Williston Craft Fair – small but extremely well-attended, and folks were buying. We’re interested in partnering with someone next year and putting in our fabric bowls filled with marbling fabrics and sewing notions. to that end, Hancock Fabrics had a dynamite sale on sewing notions, so we did an order in preparation for next season. Hubby stocked the Etsy store again, so take a look.

A good week all around. Now for this week:

list of projects for sewing, etc.;

finish organizing studio;

check deadlines for quilts for birthdays (Whip, Gavin);

review fiber art calls from Feedly;

start on quilting commissioned baby quilt; and

update the Facebook page, as well as other online sites.

Good to go this week.

Alison’s Quilt

This coming Friday it will be six months since we arrived in Vermont. We certainly didn’t expect that long to be staying with friends and traveling, but our living arrangements are worth the wait, esp. since the studio is LARGE! We can both easily work together in the space. Now it means getting all those ideas and projects down on paper and prioritized.

Interesting that I have put off lists for the six months – thinking about what I wanted to do and couldn’t would have made me even more nuts had I been writing everything down. Now I can list things by due dates and so on….lots of juices are flowing again.

One of the toughest things was missing a lot of marketing opportunities, starting with Open Studios the end of May. Lots of good connections and really no way to follow-through – all the art work and samples were packed, and once we found out we would be 5 months  before move-in, we didn’t want to commit to anything.
However, that doesn’t mean I haven’t gotten anything done for marketing just recently. This week:

• reconnected with an artist friend from 20 years ago who runs a small gallery and we exhibited with her in the past and hope to do so again;

• joined Essex Art League in September and have a solo show scheduled for August 2016 in one of the main libraries;

• reconnected with another friend and mother of students who also has a gallery and wants to chat;

• hanging work in the Phoenix Books independent bookstore here in Essex Center from November 5 through beginning of January – just in time for the holidays; going to do a couple of our digital pieces;

• ordered a bunch of “freebies” from Shutterfly (just paid postage) of some of our other photographic/digital work to see the job they do, and now we will see about getting them framed; and

• actually updated the FACEBOOK page for Marble-T Design – have nearly 500 followers after no activity this summer – go figure…..

There’s a lot I want to get done this coming week:

• finish organizing studio;

• get list of projects with deadlines;

• make list of “playing around” items;

• complete cards for artwork hanging this week; and

• newsletter to MTD customers – mentioning holiday shopping

I am retired, and these six months taught me it’s okay to relax, but oh, did I miss my art! I hugged my machine several times since it has been unpacked. * did accomplish handwork over the months – 7 long crocheted scarves plus3 complete sets of scarf/mittens/hat for a charity in the Ukraine. That felt very good – and I’m looking forward to doing more on the long winter nights to come.

My last finished project before packing the studio for the big move to Vermont. I made a modern quilt – it didn’t start out that way. I was going to do a log cabin, but then I decided I just wanted to sew half-square triangles using the paper triangles. After about 150 triangles, I realized there was no way I wanted to sew three times as many more for the whole quilt. So I made the center panel. (Needless to say, I have lots left over for another project….)

All of the colors were chosen as to whether they would play nice with the blue fleece I’d bought in November for the backing – this color is my great-niece’s favorite – forgetting the fact that I’ve never used fleece for a backing…..

Then I started playing around with borders to the center design, trying to get it into lap-quilt size. I had plenty of triangles left, so did borders with just a few on each end – I’ve seen something like that in a lot of the modern quilts I’ve looked at. At this point things became pretty freeing – I knew I wanted lots of space for free-motion quilting, and Maria from Quilter’s Market helped me pick out another fabric – she has an amazing eye.

The worst part of the whole quilt was sewing together all those triangles, lumpy intersections, and trying to quilt over them. But I LOVED how it came out. I was having serious rippling problems because of the stretch of the fleece, and Maria suggested using 505 to spray and corral it into place for the rest of the quilting – wonderful, with only a few ripples and they are not really noticeable. I ran out of my Silk Kimono blue I was using, which I loved….and if I hadn’t had several rippit sessions, I might have had enough to finish the quilt. But I had to go to the Big Local Fabric Store and once again I realized HOW MUCH I LOVE Superior Threads – the stuff I bought kept shredding constantly. I used Magnifico in the bobbin and LOVED it.

So here are some shots of the free-motion on the front:

And finally, the completed lap quilt for my great-niece Gracie-Mae on turning 13. (Seven more lap quilts for the other great-nieces and nephews over the next 10 years as they turn 13…….)

Or if you prefer this orientation….

I can now understand the freedom of modern quilts. I have a lot more ideas on how to use the marbled fabrics in some new smaller wall hangings, but that will need to wait until I set up my new studio in Vermont – maybe by July!

Pastel Gradient

Yes, I am anxiously awaiting spring – not so much here in the desert southwest, but as we travel back to New England in May, I’ll be seeing lots of what is “spring” to me. Color and lush greens – can’t wait!

In the meantime, I’ve been busy packing, doing photography of quilts, lots of loose ends, visiting the Saguaro National Monument to partake of cactus spring, working on some online classes about teaching online, and planning new art projects. As usual I’m finding lots of things on line for enjoyment or research.

The first is a glass artist, Jack Storms…..work is absolutely AMAZING!

Speaking of photography, because the work in that video is amazing, I peruse a lot of sites of phtographers. One I have enjoyed over the years and have come back to as a result of our trip to Yosemite, is that of Galen Rowell and Mountain Light. I bought a collection of postcards of his images during one visit to the Smithsonian and have loved his work. Enjoy!

Perusing photography sites gives me lots of ideas as I do more with my little camera. After the move, one of the items on my list is a new camera, a SLR so I can get really serious, but I will say my little point and shoot has given lots of material to play with digital manipulation. So when I see a site belonging to a photographer, I tend to check it out. On The Wright House Photography site,  www.thewrighthousephotography.com/, I love that she bought her childhood home and now uses it as a studio. I am amazed at how photography sessions have taken on a specialized feel: engagements, maternity…….I’m used to someone just snapping pictures, and now I love getting new ideas!

there’s another photography site I found with a “digital evangelist.” Interesting term……She’s with Adobe, so I’m guessing she’s quite skilled….

From The Millions comes a timely article for those of you who write fiction – sketching out plot lines and characters, which I had to  do with this first novel in the trilogy. I was glad to see that I intuited what had to be done.

I am a sucker when it comes to motivational education messages. Here’s one from a teacher who wants his students to hear what he has to say. Powerful.

Those of you who have been following this blog for a long time know I’m interested in licensing, and I read a lot about it, more so now that I can steer people in the right direction who are thinking about licensing. As with photography, I tend to surf a lot of sites dealing with licensing. Innovative Licensing and Promotion  (http://2innovative.net/) had some ideas I hadn’t thought of, and I like to think I go outside the box. This is a sample of what they offer. I’m intrigued and plan to study more.

I haven’t done any posting of great unusual pics in a while, so here are some from BrainJet.

Because a move is imminent, and we don’t know where we will be living, we are looking at places in the Burlington/Chittenden County are of Vermont. Hubby is hooked on Rehab Addict, and we’ve often thought if we were younger and had the money, we’d like to rehab a place. We’ve lived in a couple that would have been great for This Old House. But when we were young we didn’t have the money…now we’re older and still don’t have the money, but now the knees are bad! Still, it’s fun to consider rehabbing a place. He’s surfing one day and discovers a business that does renovations. I Love Renovations  (http://iloverenovations.ca/) has a whole slew of articles on what to look for if you are undertaking renovations on your own. Found a great article from their blog on getting your place ready for fall and winter…..which we may have to do again!

Lots of items bookmarked and ready to show you. I so love all the things you can learn online – and all the places you can go!

First up, The Trouble with Bright Girls – being one, as well as teaching many of them, I can relate to this article. We need to be so careful of the messages we send.

“Researchers have uncovered the reason for this difference in how difficulty is interpreted, and it is simply this: more often than not, bright girls believe that their abilities are innate and unchangeable, while bright boys believe that they can develop ability through effort and practice.”

Animals playing around – gotta watch!

The art of Jim Dingilian – filling a bottle with smoke and creating art!

I’m always looking at business sites and mentoring opportunities for my own marketing. Came across Gary’s site and am thinking about buying the book as gifts for two friends looking to start small businesses. Check out Gary Bizzo – www.garybizzo.com.

Also in marketing, a new site I found on line for printing – looks like quality work, and they’re in Canada, which is great when I move to Vermont! PrintingPeach at http://printingpeach.com.

Absolutely LOVE this close-up of the creation of a Dior bag – amazing!

This next poster is really cool, even if you don’t understand all of it! Science and art together!!

10 Mathematical Equations that Changed the World – fascinating, again even if you don’t understand all the math.

You know I love math – The Magic of Fibonacci!

Once again, science, art and math – Dance on the Circle.

Till next time, enjoy the web!!