Here it is, with the busy background, I thought I'd try. I started sewing some of the stripey bits together last night and got about 1/6 of the way. 

Then I took this photograph and and I SERIOUSLY dislike it. I really don't like the "exploding" effect. 

This is a dreadful stage of the creative process: you start out SO excited and inspired, work feverishly to manifest what is in your head. You lose track of time and have moments of Flow. It's such a high. Then you reach a stage when it just looks dreadful and you hate it. It's nothing like the amazing picture you had in your head. The risks you took with the direction it wanted to take, have failed. You've put all that work into it, and it's a flop. You've lost something you invested so much in. 

Often I put it away at this stage and just try to forget. Start something new to get back the high of the inspired feeling. Or numb out the disappointment on Facebook. 

This time, I knew what I didn't like and luckily most was still pinned and I'd only sewn a little. I sighed over the futile effort down the drain, and unpinned 2 evenings (roughly 8 hours) work. There was still too much I didn't like, so I unpicked about an hour's worth of the already sewn part. I'm much happier with it now. I may even unpick a bit more, but will wait until I've built up the empty parts.

The process resumes and it's amazing how your disappointment then vanishes into thin air, like a cloud on a sunny day: you've managed to Save it. All those hours, going in the wrong direction, are totally forgotten.  The possibilities are open again and you're back to riding the high once more.

I now have a pile of cut-up-in small-pieces "Precious Fabric I've Been Saving For One Day And Just Can't Bear Cutting Into". Quilters will know what I'm talking about!  Ahhhh well, it's only fabric and that "One Day" is TODAY, I remind myself. There will be another work in the future, they'll be just right for.

And there's a sunny Sunday afternoon ahead. Streaming Radio 702 from South Africa on my laptop.

, 

It's acquired some blobs and some writing. :)

I don't have much of an idea where it will go to next - a pieced background? Maybe that's an idea. A busy background, with a quieter foreground.

A brief update - not much to say...

There's an old Danish song, about Winter, that starts "It is cold outside" and which goes on to describe the snowy landscape and the birds that have stayed behind. I've "corrupted" it, and written "It is cold inside" - there's more, but this is what I have finished embroidering:

I lost my purse yesterday, so I'm feeling frantic, and that doesn't help my mood. It's -6C outside, I have no car and am soon going to walk the 2km into town to search in the streets.

I've added two more layers. 

I have an upcoming exam, so I'm procrastinating and finding other **very important** things that HAVE to be done right now.... 

It's a great pity that I'm at my most creative when find myself outside the "normal range" of the mood spectrum. Maybe because, whenever I diverge to the negative end, it's so imperative that I create, to halt the downward spiral, that I can't not do it. 

I relate to people who won't take medication because it makes them "normal" - even though I'm not one of them. Being well-functioning takes priority now, even at the cost of some creativity. My mood has been stable for the past several years, which you can see by the lack of posts in that period. It's not that I don't create, it's that what I make doesn't have soul, or meaning or message. Or depth. And that is the kind of work I mean by "I art therefore I am".

I used to have much more time, but I'm studying at the moment - to become self-supporting again - so the pace of the work is much slower. There will probably not be much finished work posted here, just work-in-progress, as and when there is time to progress.

1.       

I'm finally getting around to using the fabric I rusted a long time ago.. I don't know if it's the Nordic influence now, maybe the naked winter trees, but I've moved to a phase of subdued colours - brown and grey, which I used to think were dull; practically non-colours. But now I discover that there are many, many shades of those and it's very interesting to see what you can do, when they're so muted.

"If my life were important"

Work-in-progress

New work

The Blog Shop

... is a dream at this stage. But perhaps one day...

Advice from Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert is writing about creativity these days. I read something she had written and one thing leaped off the screen and grabbed me.

 "I didn’t expect to make a living from writing. I never demanded that my writing, my art, support me. Instead, I made a commitment to do everything I could to support my art. I worked whatever job I had to so I could keep writing. I made a promise to my art, that I would always support it, I would make the sacrifices so we could be together."
(Big Magic - Elizabeth Gilbert)

Having entertained notions of trying to make a living from my art and then seeing the futility of it and the loss of creativity it brought and with that the loss of the love of it, this speaks so clearly to me. I realised that this is a far better way to keep my art and my enjoyment of it, alive. 

I'll work whatever job I have to, so I can keep doing this, and keep loving doing it..... :)

Teesha Moore inspired bag

So glad I finally got to make it!

One side:

The other side:

Detail shots:

Bookmarks

Made yesterday

75 kr each plus postage

Hello again World...

... from a new country and a new life in Denmark. And plans, so many plans. :)

Gosh. So much time gone by. So much water under the bridge. So many changes, yet many things the same.

2013

I had forgotten about my blog. This time I am not going to make any resolutions about keeping it up and then falter again. I will just post as and when I get to it.

I have made a number of new things in the past two years, but they are in storage as I have moved into a much smaller flat. So here are just some pictures of what I am busy with at the moment.

It still needs to have a backing put on it and be quilted, but first it needs a few beads to give it a bit more texture.

BEFORE my creativity dried up.

I must admit that it has come as a surprise to me that despite the dysfunctionality (or rather, non-functionality) of this blog, people are still reading it. Wow. Hi *wave* People. :) (I am not in a blog ring anymore, how did you find me?)

Only FIVE posts in all of 2010. That's ... sad. Well, the only way from there is up; I'm now on TWO already. *rolling my eyes and grinning*

It's now been several months that I have had no impetus to create anything and yesterday I decided that I have to do *something* so I started fiddling with bits of fabric. Not inspired, just "moodling" as dedicated blogger Robyn of Art Propelled calls it. ( "So you see, the imagination needs moodling – long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling, and puttering." - Brenda Euland) Thanks for the advice, Robyn. :)

No I am not going to post photos of it. It is just "priming the pump" and doesn't look like anything. Instead I have a photo of a quilt I am making, well "making" is more like "occasionally working on", for my mom's bed.


I made the top before my creativity dried up. Rather crazily I decided to hand-quilt it. Why O why? There are SO many seams that I am quilting through 5 layers most of the time. It's been a long time since I last worked on something this big and it will be an even longer time till I do it again!

My creativity dried up.

My creativity has all dried up. After the exhibition - I don't know what happened but it all went out of me. :( Hopefully just a fallow period.

I had an exhibition

I have given myself a kick in the pants. Following another recent browse through Robyn's blog Art Propelled I was inspired to give my blog another go. Thank you, Robyn! :)

I had an exhibition of my work last month. It went very well. I was dreadfully nervous and the logistics were hairy (oh, for the money to have a manager/agent!) but I managed to get it together with some help from family and friends.

Here are some pictures from the opening. It really happened!

Wine and snacks, including sandwiches and sausage rolls made by my mom and I that afternoon, talk about panic.
I even sold some work!
That's me on the right in the black and white. I only slept one hour after the opening! The exhibition opening Friday 1 Oct and was open Sat/Sun after that. I didn't advertise it enough, but despite that there were quite a few people coming in over the weekend. Had an article in the local paper, to publicise it, so maybe that's where people knew from.

I now know an awful lot of things for next time. What? Next time?????? I'm still saying "never again"!

I don't post :(

I really have nothing to say but somehow I don't want this blog to die.

Cobwebs!

Did I have to fight my way through cobwebs to get back in here! {rolling my eyes} This place needs a good scrub. Or maybe a bulldozer? Nah, not a bulldozer. Bring in a herd of cows, let them graze and fertilise and then send them home again. Then a light plough and it should be ready for planting again. :)

Ack! SPAM!

I'm being spammed :( I'm going to try and find out how I can delete these stupid "comments" and probably set Moderation ON.

Annoying!