Break the Rules

by | Jul 14, 2010 | my creative journal

My sewing machine’s manual specifically warns against sewing leather, canvas and thick materials. I decided to break the rules and do it anyway. Sewing up some scraps of leather, sort of a reverse pieced applique thingy…

I would like to proclaim to the world with fisted-hand, “Oh yes I can sew leather – muhahahah!” Perhaps a bit dramatic, but it really got me thinking about breaking the rules. I don’t mean to put yourself in harm and if I break a needle and it flies into my arm I will be kicking myself, I’m sure (eek!) I mean for us to break the rules we’ve created artificially and to not follow the regulations just because it’s the norm. To go beyond expectations…that’s the only way we will grow and learn, right?

I want to thank everyone for commenting on my post yesterday – I was frustrated with a little drawing that didn’t go as planned and going along with today’s thought of breaking the rules, I realized that I created a random expectation for myself and going out of that regulated space made me feel uncomfortable. I like to draw little cute subjects and create a fantasy optimistic world of smiling little girls. Of course, that’s not the only subject that comes out of me and at times I can get angry and feel a bit down as well. There isn’t a rule or regulation about subject matter that should be directing my art…why did I insist on wanting to be the same? Break out of your own rules, I say! Funny how we box ourselves in at times…but thankfully we can also ponder ourselves out as well.

Not always cute…

by | Jul 13, 2010 | my creative journal

Sometimes a drawing takes on it’s own life. I didn’t like the pen I used, way too thick and it just started going downhill from there. My supposed cute girl turned into an evil little devil with messy watercoloring, as I was annoyed and just went at it violently! It’s okay, right? I had to remind myself – doesn’t always have to be cute or good or correct…just let it be.

Focus

by | Jul 12, 2010 | my creative journal

Happy Monday everyone! I know it’s not the first time I’ve talked about getting into focus and really concentrating on what I need to accomplish. However, this past week of working solely on important projects and getting through the deadlines really helped me to realize how all the effort pays off. Talk about realizing what’s normal for most people who get anything done in this world! You have to focus on your task, make a plan and go do it, duh! I suppose it’s easier said than done (another, duh!) but I think for artists it’s harder because we don’t feel that “forcing it” works. If you don’t have inspiration or your muse is asleep, how can you get your artwork done? Or can you?

Contrary to popular fantasy beliefs, professional artists do have deadlines and really work at it whether the muse shows up for work or not. Ask the professionals and they will surely admit to slower days and difficult times. However, they have to work through it – like anyone else who has a job. You just have to keep at it, otherwise nothing will get done in the end. It must be a natural human characteristic to procrastinate as well. I’ve realized that I have so many interests and plans for the future, but scrambling from one thing to the next really just chokes up the whole process. I’ll end up with a million in progress things and nothing finalized. Multi-tasking is NOT more productive! Although, I like to work on different things – there has to be a happy medium in my schedule. So I’m going to focus on project by project, giving myself deadlines. Even if I end up with a prototype version of something because of the deadline, I would have at least gotten that far. It’s better than saying, one day…I’ll get to it one day! When is that one day going to be? Focus…plan…succeed!

Character Development

by | Jul 2, 2010 | my creative journal

I’ve realized how much time it takes to edit a little video – it’s such a challenge and I’m reminded of college days, where a music video group assignment took weeks! What seems to be funny, endearing or cool at the moment, suddenly seems awkward or dorky upon review. Perhaps the constant review of your footage makes it even harder. You start to scrutinize all the details, even though it’s probably going to flash by anyone else who sees it. I’ve been wanting to somehow share my artwork, process and bits of my Italia life through video, but it’s taking forever to come up with anything half decent. To all of you guys out there who make videos and share them online, thank you and give yourself a pat on the back. It’s hard work!

Part of my process involves a bit of character development. See the little lady I’ve been trying to draw above? I suppose it’s a cute representation of myself, but it’s been challenging to draw the same character in different ways, but still retain the essence of whoever she is. The idea is so that you’ll realize it’s the same lady! But then again, when I watch cartoons they don’t really seem to change clothes, do they? Hmm. I’ve noticed that I lack control and consistency when drawing. It’s easy to make things look different, but what if I what to be able to duplicate something exactly? She seems a bit different each time…even if it’s a slight difference. I started thinking about development and realized maybe it’s okay that I’m not machine like, duplicating my drawings. Maybe that’s normal! I mean, even when we take pictures of ourselves we often look different or at some weird angle it might even seem like an imposter! The development part of the term character development, means ever changing and growth. So it’s okay to be a bit different, a bit inconsistent – and by that I mean my own life and my alter ego character drawings. Life is good…don’t sweat the small stuff and just go do something fun, right?! Yeah, that’s the way I’m going to think about it. Happy Friday!

Making A Journal With Sewing

by | Jun 30, 2010 | my creative journal

Happy Wednesday everyone! I just got a sewing machine recently and totally excited to learn how to use it and apply sewing into what I do. On my first attempt, I tried to sew paper! It certainly got a bit tricky and you have to test how many papers you really can go through – safely! My first attempts to sew the binding of a journal resulted in a really ugly looking result.

Although I’m not totally against being free and messy, I know that the paper was just too thick. I decided to make a smaller journal with less pages and thinner paper. So let’s go through this little tutorial of creating a journal using a sewing machine to bind your pages. I apologize in advance for the wonky photo coloring – I didn’t have proper lighting! So first thing I did was test my sewing machine to find out how many papers I could comfortably sew. I cut my papers to size and simply sewed the folded papers into the center of the liner paper, just a bit larger in size. This is probably the easiest binding one can ever do! I did remember to sew in reverse on the top and bottom to make sure the thread doesn’t unravel. I also purposely left long endings so I could glue them into the lining. When sewing paper, you just have to do a lot of tests and get your stitch length longer, so you don’t just end up cutting your paper.

To add a bit of design, I decided to sew along all four corners of my liner paper as well. Of course, you have to do this before you sew your signature of paper in. Pretty simple, straight sewing that I can sort of do. Even though it’s a bit wobbly-lined, I’m okay with it .

Next step is to glue the piece to your cover material. I am using leather here, just gluing the ends of the sewing and the whole liner paper with PVA glue.

After it dries, I just cut it out by hand, leaving a flap on the right to wrap around for closure.

For my wraparound closure, I braided some ribbon and twine together, attaching a big button to the end. I really love the ribbons mixed with other string, giving a really rustic look.

I punched two holes into the flap and pulled my braided closure into it.

One side is knotted twice to keep it secure, then wrapping around twice, the button helps to hold it closed securely. Pretty nifty!

There you have it, another little journal for you thoughts, doodles and life experiences. How cool is that?!

Art Journal With Me – Just Hanging Around

by | Jun 29, 2010 | my creative journal

Just a bit of watercolor in one my journals for today. I wrote in just hanging around with a bit of doodling because seriously that’s what it feels like today. I also only did one side of the spread, which is odd for me. We often have the urge to cover up both pages, an entire spread. However, sometimes I like to let the page confine me…

I started thinking about how we need to give ourselves constraints, rules and structure…otherwise how does anything get done, right?

Help the Animal Victims of the Horizon Gulf Oil Spill

by | Jun 27, 2010 | my creative journal

Hi everyone! I just wanted to make a quick post about an opportunity to help out with the animal victims of the horizon gulf oil spill. If you would like to help out with a $10 donation to The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies or The International Bird Rescue Research Center, you can get a piece of art donated by an artist as well. I donated a watercolor turtle piece and also donated $10 myself to the The International Bird Rescue Research Center. It’s the least I can do and it’s great to contribute and take that little step forward to a better future together. Please check out the blog for more information on the right hand side http://ripplesketches.blogspot.com/

The initiative was started by Kelly Light and all of the donations go straight to the organizations. She is organizing everything from the goodness of her heart! I agree with what she wrote “We don’t have to feel helpless. We can help. Our small actions together will ripple outward.” Make a difference, folks!

The Brave Girls Club

by | Jun 25, 2010 | my creative journal

I’ve probably mentioned The Braves Girls Club before, but I had to post about their daily truths emails and share some of the emails with all of you. They are such wonderful words of wisdom to receive on a daily basis…just take a look at what you would receive…

Isn’t it just wonderful? They have a goal of getting 100,000 brave girls on their email list and I’m proud to be one of them! You should subscribe to their daily truths emails and take in their gracious support, encouragement and inspirational words. Here’s another email I wanted to share…

I can’t tell you enough how lovely it is to receive such happy emails on a daily basis. Try it out for yourself and I’m sure you’ll agree. Just take the first step and sign up! How timely that today’s email is about being brave and taking the first step…

I wish you all a lovely Friday and enjoyable weekend…ciao ciao!

Creative Workspace

by | Jun 24, 2010 | my creative journal

If you haven’t already checked it out, please visit my “Let’s Make A Journal” post where I go through my tutorial of how to make a journal and why I make them. Suffice to say, my creative workspace is full of papers, leather and bits and bobs from bookmaking. I would really appreciate your thoughts and feel free to ask questions about bookmaking as well. No surprise that I woke up today with the urge to make another journal. I immediately started working the grungy envelopes you saw at the end of yesterday’s post.

You might notice that this journal looks done, but it’s actually not sewn together yet! I’m still playing with the pages and how to stitch it together, but decided to prepare the rest of it. I really love the use of braided ribbons for the wraparound closure. I was tinkering a bit with snap closures, but have no idea how to use them…you know the extra buttons you get with clothing but never use? The ribbon gives it a softer look that I like though.

Anyway, the inspiration for this journal came from the idea of a mini travel notebook where you could write into, but also have a spot to collect stuff. The envelopes will allow you to keep little bits and pieces of your journey. Ticket stubs, pretty leaves, who knows! I’m making this as a gift and really excited to get it done and sent off.

Besides making journals left and right, I’ve also been doing my daily sketching and posting on Flickr. It’s really nice to have the routine, no matter how small it might be. Lots of little steps still get you moving forward, I say! Today I have a lot of digital work to be completed, so off I go into digital computer designer land. Until tomorrow my lovely readers. BTW, have I told you how much I appreciate your time in visiting and commenting on my blog? Grazie! I feel like such a lucky girl! 🙂