Trusting the process.

 G'day Stuffers! (Is it bold of me to give my readers a nickname? Does anyone else read this blog?)

I've just taken a break from the studio to make myself a coffee, wash a few dishes that I left soaking in the sink and take some pain medication to try and get rid of the headache that is forming.

The very messy studio before it had a major clean up last month.

I'm not sure if the headache is a symptom of my erratic period (hello perimenopause) or if it's from too much computer work/end of financial year stressors.  I finished what work I had to do at around lunchtime today, then headed in to the studio for some creative time.  I've had so many ideas forming in my head lately, but I just haven't had the time to get stuck in to it. I actually have to write myself a list to remind myself to make time for crafting. It's so easy to be distracted by Pinterest or Instagram (although I'm trying to wean myself off the latter, now that Meta has decided to implement AI scraping), and I've often said that I sometimes spend so much time developing an idea that by the time I get around to creating it, the urge has gone.

Improv patchwork made from decorator remnants.

                                          

I've spent the past few months thinking about making things to add to my Madeit store. I was so excited when the site was refreshed and relaunched last year. The new owner, Leina Broughton, has a wealth of knowledge about selling online, and she was happy to give us all pointers on how to market ourselves and our products, how to take better photos and write better headings to make SEO work for us. But the more videos I watched and the more things I read from other sellers on the Facebook page, I began to wonder if it was the right platform for me. The push to constantly post on Instagram, and to create reels and videos of me in the studio, didn't sit well with me. I don't want to be a content creator. I want to make weird little things from the many piles of fabrics I've collected over the years. I don't have a consistent look to my work. It's something that has bothered me my whole creative life. But I've accepted the fact. I make what I make because I enjoy teaching myself new skills. I like to use the things that I've collected. I'm not about mass producing products. And I'm not in it for the money. (Although it's always nice to make a sale and then donate 10% of that sale to a deserving cause.)

So, I keep coming up with ideas and I keep trying to bring them to fruition. But I just don't have the drive like I did when I was making bags to sell at markets. I think it's a combination of an oversaturated market for anything anyone could possibly want, coupled with a feeling of not being good enough, or not having the skills to market myself. 

Improv patchwork piece with added stitching, that I started in May. It's sat idle for the last few weeks.

I'll keep plugging away. I like the fact that when I'm in the studio sorting through fabrics and playing around with ideas, it helps me to destress from 'real' work. It also means that I get some time to myself, as the family tend to leave me to my own devices when I'm in there with the music turned up loud. (I can't tell you how many times they've startled me when they open the door.)
And hopefully soon, I'll have some new items to add to my shop and feel like I've accomplished something. 

Everyday Art Practice

 Hello there!

As usual, the months have started to zoom by, and here we are in April. Daylight Savings ended last weekend, which signals cooler evenings, earlier dinners and more time for creative pursuits, since I'm not outside until all hours, pottering in the garden.

January/February passed by in a blur.

The youngest child turned 21 at the end of January, so now I feel old. Both of my babies are officially adults now.😭 We had a lovely, low key barbeque lunch with close friends and family.

I managed a trip up to Tolmie mid-February. My remaining pine trees needed to be planted as we had a run of hot weather that really dried out the pots. Unbeknownst to me, some of the pots had blown over in a storm and were laying on their sides, not getting any rain. I got most of them in the ground and fenced them off using mesh panels that we had acquired at an auction. It was a very labour intensive 4 days, but I'm so pleased that I got them in the ground. I haven't had a chance to check on them since, but hope to get up there over the Easter break.

In my previous post, I mentioned that I was revisiting an embroidered panel that I had started quite a few years ago.  Unfortunately, I lost interest in that when I had an idea to add some black lace details to it, but couldn't find the materials to continue. I did buy a black lace dress at the Op-Shop and began to pull it apart, but the desire to continue had already left me. It's back on the WIP board until I get the urge to pick it up again. I played around with a few beaded pieces that I'd started, but nothing was holding my interest for very long. It may have been a combination of warm weather and an arm injury that was holding me back.

I'd often thought about buying one of those books that gives you an idea to create every day, such as this book by Lorna Scobie. I held off buying it whenever I saw it in the bookshop, because I knew my past record with finishing projects wasn't great and figured I'd do one or two pages then add it to the pile of neglected creative projects. Then one day, whilst mindlessly scrolling on Twitter or Facebook, I saw that someone had bought a Day to a Page diary and was drawing in it everyday. I decided that this was something that I could definitely handle.  When I was next at the shops, I purchased an A5 spiral bound diary with as little text on the pages as possible. I started on January 27th. I originally had the intention of going back and completing the January days that I had missed, but realised later on that this was probably not going to happen.

The goal was not to overthink things, but to just get something onto the page, using the tools and materials I have around me. (As an art supply addict, I have quite a few different mediums to choose from.) I would use images from books and magazines, online inspiration and my own photographs as a jumping off point. Quite often I would see a painting that I loved, or a great print on some fabric and think to myself, "I need to create something in that colour scheme or with that modern feel." Now was my chance to give it a go.

I discovered artists such as Sarah Schroeder , Julie Hamilton, Rachel Urquahart & Alisa Burke, and wanted to capture the loose, colourful style like theirs. I'd played around with collage here and there and really enjoyed it. It is a medium best suited to a large workspace where you can spread out all of the little bits and pieces of paper so that you can see the possibilities of the shapes and colours. My desk isn't that big and it's currently sharing space with beading supplies, books and various pens, glues and scissors. I have a drawer under my desk stuffed to the brim with scrapbook paper, old album covers, paper bags and various bits of wrapping paper. Collage is the perfect way to get ideas down fast, and it has become my go to when I've left my art practice until late in the day.

Some materials are not great on the thin paper that the diary pages are made from. Connector marker pens (left over from when my kids were at school) seep through the paper.

I had to create a cut out on the back of this page in order to cover up the colour seepage.

I bought some new Crayola markers and although I don't have a large colour selection to choose from, they work much better on this paper. They don't blend well and can have a tendency to look a bit messy, but I'm trying to lean into that.

My favourite medium would have to be paint sticks. Originally made for children, these non-toxic, waterbased sticks are like soft, fat crayons that glide on smoothly and can be blended like paint. I have a set of Little Brian and Boyle Chubbies. They're not suitable for fine, detailed colouring, but great for slapping down colour and then adding detail with pens and markers.

The only downside to these are the fact that they are a plastic barrel like a glue stick, so once the stick of paint is used, the barrel will end up in landfill (I can't see a recycling symbol anywhere.) It would be great if the barrels were either made from recycled plastic content, were recyclable or refillable, or the barrel was made of cardboard. It would also be great if you could buy the tubes individually, as there will definitely be colours that run out quicker than the others.

I'm learning so much about my own creative process. I've always liked drawing and sketching to get ideas down, but I've never been able to sit for hours and work on a realistic drawing. I can do an abstract that's full of lots of different textures and patterns, but they always look very 2 dimensional.

I just can't seem to draw what's in my head or what's right in front of me. It's like the hand-eye-brain signal gets crossed along the way. Or I start to draw and then a different style of drawing pops in to my head and I change my idea half way through. Here are some examples of drawing from my mind or using props. You can see how badly they turned out.

I want to practice doing more 3 dimensional drawing as well as learning about perspective, shading etc.

I found a cool picture of a a sculpture on Pinterest (sculpted by Paulie van der Heijden, I believe) and decided to have a go at drawing it. I was quite pleased with the results. I'd also like to draw something similar but instead of copying an object that has been created, try to draw something that I'd like to create myself.

I find that if I use a picture as a jumping off point, it's a great way of learning new techniques. When I saw this vintage fabric print by John Piper,

I knew I wanted to find a way to create the dry brush stroke look, without using a brush. I ended up cutting up some cardboard, painting them and then printing onto the paper.

They will become great colour references later on when I want to make a textile piece and need a starting point. Even though a lot of my stitched and beaded pieces evolve quite organically, it's always good to have an idea to start with, as it makes choosing fabrics so much easier.

I'm hoping to see patterns and a style develop, but all I'm seeing so far is that I really like bright colours and that I'm hesitant to have overlapping or intersecting lines in my drawings, because I'm worried that I'll stuff it up and ruin the picture. I'm only 2 months in, so there is still many pages ahead of me that are open to experimentation.

Anyway, here's a few of my favourites so far.

If you want to follow my progress, you can check out my Instagram stories @joystuffmakes . They're in the highlights section under March art, April art etc.

Inspiration from books.

Let me just start this post by saying, the internet is a wonderful thing.  I love being able to look up something at the click of a mouse.  Sometimes my ideas come in rapid succession and I love the quick fix that a search engine browse can supply.  But it can also be a time suck, where looking at one thing leads to another, and before you know it, it's 3.00pm and time to do the school run. Not only that, but the brilliant idea that you had at 9.00am has been pushed to the back of your mind as a myriad of new images jostle for space and competition in your creative recesses.
I am lucky enough to have an extensive craft book library.  I spent many a paycheck on glossy coffee table books  prior to having children.  They would often be about art, bag design or gardening.  Over time, I added to my new book collection with books sourced from Op-Shops.  I delighted in finding  decommissioned library books, many on jewellery making, student art ideas and Encyclopeadia of crafts.  Often I would find a book that I remembered borrowing as a young girl.  I have one book that I covet, entitled Art In Craftmaking by Carolyn S. Howlett.  I remember borrowing this book from Glen Waverley Library when I was doing an Art and Craft Certificate in 1988.  I still have the sketchbbok with the ideas inspired by this book.
Imagine my delight years later, when I unknowingly purchased this book for $2.50 at my local Op-Shop.

 

As my book collection grew, I became more selective in what I purchased.  I also had to restrict my visits to places like the NGV bookshop at Federation Square, as a trip into the city would often end in me lugging home one or two large books.  Also, when I purchased the same book twice (different covers), I knew that things had begun to get out of hand.  I'm currently trying to catalogue them on an Ipad app, but get distracted quite easily and am only about halfway through. 

Today's burst of inspiration lead me to three books in my collection.

The first two are books I never tire of browsing through.  I LOVE Jonathan Adler's work and his books are always, fun, cheeky and full of pattern and texture.

The last book, Crafting Modernism, is filled to the brim with inspiring designers like Art Smith, Ruth Asawa,  Alexander Girard and a plethora of lesser known but equally talented artists and crafts men and women.

Do you have a favourite craft book that you regularly turn to?
Do you have a book that you can recommend based on the ones above?
I'd love to hear your thoughts.