Week 59 in my sketchbook practice.
sketchbook : week 59
paper swans – new in the cake topper department
Paper swans are in the shop! (A kit is coming later this spring – i just got a big crate of supplies). I had such a good time photographing them. I think I made them mostly because I wanted to photograph them – I have lots of plans for more. I bought the blue velvet box above 20 years ago – my first year in NY and it’s been on my mind lately. I love that peacock blue, the patina and the little silver latch- it looks like it has a marvelous story. It’s one of those things I love so much just as it is I couldn’t make anything with it. It was perfect for this photo – the color combination surprised me and I love it. Lot’s more swan photos below and if you have questions please get in touch.
And P. S. – the cake toppers have their own instagram account now – you can find it here.
(spying on swans)
songbird work
I can never remember where I parked my car or what I had for lunch but I have an excellent fabric memory – sort of. I have clear and very distinct memories of the fabrics of my childhood – my whole life really. I think I could draw them all – maybe I’ll try. And now, even if a tiny scrap has bee tucked away for years, it’s cataloged in my head, just not very specifically……. I was absolutely positive that the fabulous little blue scrap in the photo below was here somewhere. Positive. And positive that that blue songbird had to have it. Had to. And it was – that one little piece – in the only place it could be – at the very bottom of the very last box I looked in.
I’ve been working on this group of Sri Threads songbirds for weeks and they are just about ready. I was hoping for this week but I’m still climbing out of a crappy spring cold and everything is in slow motion. Some of these and a few other things will be in the shop next week sometime (sign up here to be notified by email if you like).
You can find the sewing pattern to make this bird in the shop, there is a print and pdf version and there is a free tutorial on how to make a realistic bird foot right here.
And when you join the mailing list you get a coupon code for 20% off your pattern purchase.
get the songbird sewing pattern
sketchbook : week 58
color as a starting point : beginning with black
Did you know mica comes in black?! Well it does – blackish anyway and it’s lovely ( I got some here). I made a paper mache teacup and gave it a fancy, sparkly interior. The teacup reminds me of the black milk glass on my mother’s little shelf of treasures (P. S. – teacups make sweet Mother’s Day gifts).
Find the owl sewing pattern here.
Black is the color on my mind right now. I finished this scoundrel last week – he’s made of several antique bodices and a ancient moth eaten shawl – all in shades of black. I love the subtle variety in tones and the effect that limiting the palette has on my thinking and process. It made me wonder – what if I applied that same constraint to other ideas? I wandered around in my mind for a while and looked through my big note book of ideas – thinking about everything through a black lens. It was shockingly effective. That shift gave me lots of new ideas and curiosities and fresh eyes on so many that had stalled and gotten back-burnered. It was a great illustration of the massive creative power of constraint.
The simplest thing – the smallest shift can guide you to new paths, new ideas and new places in your mind – shine a light on something that has been just out of reach in the shadows….. I am on a life long mission to shine a light into each and every one of those shadows.
I think it could be interesting to do a series of color studies (maybe teal next). But here I am so I’ll begin with black. Right now I’m in the collecting, hunting, gathering, percolating phase.
For me percolating means – digging through treasures, making collections, experimenting, taking photos and generally messing around. I’m having an energetic and marvelous time. I’ll share what I come up with soon and if you would like to make your own study of black send me a link – I’d love to see.
sketchbook : week 57
suddenly a swan appeared
Swans. They’ve been on my mind and while I was working out the steps for the flamingo kit a swan turned up. And then another and another. I love them. LOVE them – so I took a ton of photos.
Of course there is a black swan and babies too- a whole family. My first thought was cake toppers and they will be in the shop very soon – ready made and probably kits I think too (sign up here to be notified when they are available).
But there is something else – probably most important of all – they bring me back around to the place I always end up. I think that everything I make has a foot in story but I have not very often explored that as fully or intentionally as I would like to and maybe paper swans are something to experiment with, a good place to play with the idea of illustrations – the setting of a tiny stage.
sketchbook : week 56
Week 56 in my sketchbook practice.
sketchbook : week 55
Week 55 in my sketchbook practice.
curating, focusing and finding your voice : practice every day
I consume tons of information – often via podcasts while stitching – a lot of it around creativity – and some around business and marketing – they often overlap and intertwine. There is a lot of discussion and advice, especially lately, around finding your voice, curating and focusing.
I have struggled with all three – especially the focus and curating. I’m all over the place and I think there is validity to the argument that it’s easier to make progress if you focus your efforts narrowly. For example – I know I could grow the sewing and craft pattern business – my newest venture – much faster if I focused solely on that. Maybe I should. I also know there is a lot more to explore and experiment with in my own stitch-work and I could sink into that exclusively. Or I could dive deeply into painting and drawing – It would be an adventure and I would love to spend a bunch of time working out exactly who I am and what I want to express in that. And there is the question of what to share publicly – is it smarter to only present one sort of work? I feel the conflict – the conflict of posting work that I can imagine seems out of place or for a different audience. I’ve considered and am considering possible changes and solutions – like having separate homes for the different kinds of work I do. A home devoted exclusively to the craftier end and another home for projects that are more experimental – I love both and don’t want to stop sharing either. It sounds reasonable and I’m not ruling it out but I can’t imagine running two sites – the time and expense and also I immediately see places where the two would overlap – for me it is all deeply connected. I remain puzzled and conflicted.
I hoped that the work and exploration I did last year ( My Big Creative Year series) would somehow work this out for me but it didn’t. Something did emerge though – maybe the beginning of some clarity through the daily sketchbook work. I recently passed the one year mark – 52 weeks – what I committed to – but it’s been so good for me I decided to keep going. It has not been at all convenient but it has been undeniably good for my creativity and imagination. If you can find and commit to a little space each day to play, to listen to yourself (on the good days and the bad days) and experiment interesting things will happen.
That relatively small daily practice of showing up began to reveal things to me after about 9 months – I began, or really am beginning to recognize my own voice in that medium, a voice that feels natural to me. Themes, imagery and a vocabulary are emerging as well as a sense of what I’m attracted to and what my strengths and weaknesses are.
When I went through my big stack of little squares (it weighs 3 and 1/2 pounds!) I saw that many of the ones I like best, the things that felt the best to me felt connected to the other work I do. I couldn’t quite articulate how though. And then – while packing and shipping paper flamingos I addressed a box to someone who lives on Fable Lane. I thought – what a charming address to have – I bet Fable Lane is lovely.
The word kept popping back into my mind and it occurred to me it’s a common thread in so much of what I have done – for the last ten years especially – the idea of fable – all the meaning and sensation that word conjures. I think it’s something to explore intentionally – I’m not sure exactly how yet but the idea of investigating that passes the first test – I’m having some ideas that make me happy and curious. More on this soon.
sketchbook : week 54
Week 54 in my sketchbook practice.
sailboats : a new sewing pattern and a sample sale
The Sailboat pattern is here! Charming boats to sew. They twirl in the breeze and cast lovely shadows. The boats are a great way to use fabrics that are special to you – make a little memory vessel – there is lots of opportunity to personalize and embellish and create an heirloom. I also love to make them from old quilt tops that I pick up at fleamarkets and sometimes on Ebay. The pattern is in the shop now.
I hope you make sailboats!
