Watercolour sketch

OK, again no great progress with the tast challenge. I’m somewhat uninspired at the moment, and quite busy with outdoor activities. But here is another little watercolour sketch. I’ve done more of them over the last weeks, but this is the one I like best. This is a sprig of a little azalea. Unfortunately I have forgotten what type that beauty is, I had it for years now.

Rules of being creative

In response to this at inaminutago, and this at gapevoid

The callenge was to pick ten of the rules of creativity there. I must say that I do disagree with some of those points, but I did find a few that resonate for me. The sequence does not necessariely reflect importance, because that was too hard to decide.

1. Sing in your own voice.
All else just isn’t worth the effort

2. Keep your day job
says me who doesn’t have one (but would like to)

3. put in the hours
even if you don’t feel like doing anything really. If nothing else it will keep your techical skills from getting rusty

4. Don’t worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually.
scroll down one posting for this one

5. The best way to get approval is not to need it.
says me, the failed inet attention whore

6. Whatever choice you make, The Devil gets his due eventually.
so true, and not only in creativity. Realizing this one a while ago made me fret and fuss over decisions a lot less

7. The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.
anything I do ends up getting creative eventually. Exept those little hobbies (like going to art class) I intended to use for venting my creativity in a harmless way. you can’t tame that kind of bug

8. The choice of media is irrelevant.
As long as you use something that speaks to your heart

9. Merit can be bought. Passion can’t.
Passion can’t be baught, can’t be ingested in pill or liquid form, but there are ways to kindle it

10. Dying young is overrated.
says me, who attempted the booze and party way and failed

Art or what?

OK, so where do I begin this post? a few days ago there was an interesting post at a movable feast about the meaning of buying equipment, learning mew techniques and such. Annica posted a link to the incomplete manifesto by Bruce Mau which might be a mental gold mine for any creative person. This sat in my draft folder for a while because it seemed too personal, but now there was another posting about creativity at inaminuteago .

Reading all this made me think, and formulate a few thoughts that were floating arround in my brain for a while. (A big thank you for that to all people in the previous discussion). So why did I enter this challenge? Because I wanted to do some embroidery and needed a reason to drag my ass away from the TV and get started.

Why embroidery? I’ve been trying to paint and draw for ages, but never got really good at it. But the longer I was at it, the more I expected from myself, and ended up totally blocking myself. I never really got beyond the stage of classroom drawing exercises because I never was content with my results. I wanted to do something “creative” and lacked ideas most of the time, or thought the ideas I had were not fit for public display.

Outside fiber art circles, embroidery is mostly considered a harmless hobby for bored women. (At least here, in rural Germany). I wanted to do it that way, although I had some contact with the German fiber art scene before. And that seemed the right thing for me: a way to keep my hands busy without worrying about anything. And then I found myself competing with people who have university degrees in fiber art. I tried to ignore that and just do my thing. But as I went, I realized that I put more and more of myself into the pieces I did. Probably that is not obvious to others, but to me. Suddenly there was this “creativity” I have always been looking for, or at least the beginnings of it. Why? No idea really. Maybe because I allowed myself to play and enjoy.

Now is this “art” ? Does the answer even matter? Probably these are questions I shouldn’t be asking. Seeking critique on technical matters is important, but questioning ones own or others creative impulses is rarely productive in my opinion.

I don’t even know why I’m posting all this in a public forum. Maybe as a little inspiration for other struggling with such issues, and a thanks to those who inspired me with similarly open postings.

Tenar

tast 18 whipped and woven wheels

One more tast sample.

I know and love whipped and woven wheels, but mainly in the forms of teneriffe lace and freestyle weaving. So I went a bit wild with these.

This wasn’t done on fabric but on a sheet of glued sisal fibre. this is sometimes used for crafting or decorating. I couldn’t resist trying it out for stitching, and love working with it very much.

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tast 16 Palestrina stitch

OK, 19th take a stitch tuesday challenge was palestrina stitch . Of course, I’m late again.

I knew this stitch before, but only in the variant that produces a solid line of knots, not the long-legged variant I have been trying out this time. So here are two little samples showing my toying arround with this one.