Creative Cue : End ... and on to 2011

End of a Rope done with water color pencils.


Here's what my sketch looked like before I brushed it with water, and touched it up with a black pen. The water makes a big difference, doesn't it? I'd like to learn more/practice the brush strokes for desired effects. Maybe some watercolor books/classes are in order? I just keep hearing Bob Ross saying, "There's nothing you can do wrong that can't be fixed ... Pull down some happy trees ... happy clouds."

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So here it is! The END of 52 weekly Creative Cues from 3 Creative Studios in 2010. I have enjoyed the weekly challenge and surprised myself with the discipline to do something for all 52 words--and some of them were truly challenging cues!

Since endings often coincide with new beginnings, the next question is : What's in store for 2011? There are a number of possibilities ...

* Find a new Creative Prompt outlet
AQ Creative Prompts Inspiration Page

* The Sketch Book Challenge
I'm going to keep tabs on this one, but have not committed to it yet. It looks like a wonderful way to learn new techniques, and see how other artists develop their ideas.

2011 Journal Quilt Challenge with Vicki Welsh at 3 Creative Studios
Vicki is leaving the themes, size, and how often wide open to anyone who wants to participate. She's committing to a weekly journal quilt. I'm thinking of doing in 1 x month. That means 12 journal quilts for 2011. That sounds totally do-able! I have some ideas in mind already .... ;-) That and the fact that Vicki will be giving away some of her hand-dyed fabric to participants. That was too good a prize to pass up!

3CS is also hosting a postcard challenge, and continuing the Technique-of-the-Month for 2011, as well as a Color Pallette Challenge (details yet to be revealed). Lots of opportunities to makes stuff, learn new things, and share.

I am also considering Lisa Walton's Online Beading Embellishment Class from Dyed and Gone to Heaven.
Lisa does some amazing and beautiful work! I'm just wondering if I'll be able to dedicate sufficient time and effort to get the most from this class at this time. Let's just say I was not able to "fully commit" myself to the online classes I took in 2010--unfortunately. I have until Jan 6 to decide ... Beading would be a good thing to do next to the warmth of the fire in the coldest months ...

Of course, then there are my other creative goals for 2011 :
1) Make that quilt for Unca Ray
2) The Olokun Quilt
3) Reds
4) Dyeing Projects - Dye Notebook
5) Technique experiments
Screen printing / Thermofax
Image Transfer

I have a head full of ideas for 2011!

Creative Cue : Bell

Sketch of a bell pepper, done with water color pencils. I might go over it again to make the color deeper and richer.

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Creative Cue : Foot

With the New Year's thaw, the snow was perfect for footprints like this one. Just mushy enough to see the dark grass beneath. No--it's not a bear paw print. This is the insignia of my lovely Newfie, Maggie. Her actual foot is about 3 inches across. This print came out more like 4 inches. She's a big dog, but not as big as a bear!



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Creative Cue : Shiny

Bet 'cha can't guess what this is ... Scroll down to find out.



















Yes, Terri. It's another food picture! It's smoked salmon, vacuum-packed. My Unca Ray brought it over as his contribution to the Christmas Day Feast. It disappeared in about 20 minutes!

My guilty pleasure : I like the sparkle and shine of fish skin. In Lake Wobegone, Garrison Keillor talk about a venerable trout-skin parka at the Sons-of-Knut Lodge that they drag out on special occasions? I always wondered what that parka would look like, and how they managed to tan a trout skin into a wearable commodity. It's such a fine, thin skin.

This salmon skin came out pretty well in the photo. I've tried taking pictures of fresh-caught rainbow trout, but the pictures never turn out. There's too much shine, maybe. The light bounces back and makes for poor pictures.


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Creative Cues : Snowflake and Stamp

Read about the making of this embossed velvet snowflake and the foam stamp here. This is something I did in 2007.

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Creative Cue : Sponge

I played with the effects settings in Paint.net to "develop" this image. I think this was the Outline effect. I like the way it makes it look flattened, as if it's on a microscope slide. And the colors look more like watercolors. I never thought a sponge could be so interesting!


Here's the everyday sponge photo I started with.


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Creative Cues : Fan / Ornament

The Fan : On the first day of school in the mid-1950s, Little Holly (my mom) made a paper-folded fan. She gave it to another girl in class named Sally. Holly said, "I'll give you this fan if you'll be my friend." That was the start of a lifelong friendship.

Sally's mother (Gramma B.) made a similar folded fan into a Christmas tree ornament and shared the story many years later. The story has entered our family lore. I had to wait until I got to my mom's house at Christmas to get a picture of the fan ornament.

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Creative Cue : Sharp

The sharp points on a mariner's compass block.

Other ideas : sharp eagle eyes, sharp eagle talons, sharp fish hook

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Creative Cue : Eye

This the eye from the Bubble Boy portrait.

I have to share the following close encounters, too:


Earlier this summer, I contacted Donna Schaffer, the artist who painted this scene, and purchased a giclee print of "Humpback Whale Looking at You." I love it! She and her family have vacationed where they could actually swim with whales. She takes pictures, then goes home and paints them. She has another one (which I also purchased) :


Reflection of a Humpback Pectoral Fin by Donna Schaffer.
I even bothered to get these two prints professionally framed. It was expensive, but worth it in my world.

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Creative Cue : Peel

At first glance, this might look like more texture. Well, it is that, too!
It also fits the Everyday inspiration category.

Any guesses as to what this is, or how it fits the definition of Peel?
Scroll down when you're ready to see the answer ...





















Here's the original picture on the kitchen counter.

These are leftover corn husk, hot tamale peels ('Tis the season for yum! We get them at Lara's Tortilla Flats this time of year). The wrappers are destined for the compost bin.

Here are the basic steps in manipulating this very domestic photo into the image above ...
1) Start with a suitable photo.
2) Crop it down.
3) Turn it into black & white.
4) Use the ink sketch effect.
Viola!

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Creative Cue : Texture

I have a "thing" for texture. Bark is one of my favorites to photograph, study, and examine. Enjoy some of my favorite specimens from this summer. ;-)

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Creative Cue : Wet

Doesn't this beautiful grapefruit make your mouth water?

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Creative Cue : Home

Nothing says "HOME" like one of Gramma Pickles' grilled cheese sandwiches, made with Mrs. Karl's white bread, real butter at room temperature (which was 80 degrees at their house), and government surplus cheese (or Kraft Singles), grilled over a gas flame.

That is one of her famous refrigerator pickles on the plate.

And because I had to play with the image in Paint.net :


This is the Twisted effect. You can move the vortex around.
It's a fun effect.


This is the Dented effect. It kind of makes it look like marbled paper, or like you're looking through rippling water ...

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Creative Cue : Treasure

It's all in the eye of the beholder. ;-) Wanna see what I did with it?

Last weekend, I took my husband on a "cheap date" to the junkyard. I was in search of an old brake rotor to use for rust dyeing. I found one. ;-) I needed DH to come along to make sure I didn't come home with a car full of old rusty stuff that I didn't really need.

There was so much there at the junkyard to choose from! When I told them what I was looking for and what I planned to do with it, they guys who worked there seemed amused, and told me where I'd find the pile of old brake rotors. Their advice, "Pick one that's not too greasy." Yeah--I didn't even think of that, but it was good advice!

I wish I would have brought my camera ... Maybe I'll go back someday just to take pictures of the mountains of junk and rust.

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Creative Cue : Pair

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Creative Cue : Stack

This probably looks really strange ... It's a sketch of a lone chimney standing among brushy bushes. When I was a kid, an old hermit lived in the house across the road from us. He had no plumbing or electricity there. The house had weathered to black, like an old unpainted barn. Well, one summer, he died there and the house was condemned. The County officials did a "controlled burn" to take down the house. The wooden parts of the house came down first, leaving a brick chimney which stood like a tower for several more days before it finally fell. Herder had died sitting next to that chimney. Perhaps it was his spirit and energy that worked so hard to keep it standing for a few days more.

Read the full story about the old hermit.

Other Ideas :

4-Patch Stacked Posey Quilt

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Creative Cue : Light

This is a fabric postcard I made a while back, depicting Northern Lights.

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Creative Cue : Wreck

My Grappa Eddie drove a school bus for many years. He had a pipe dream about turning an old school bus into a camper that he could take up to Canada on fishing trips. This is his bus ... the machine shed fell on it along about 1980 when a tornado went through their property. And there it sat for 30 years ... a perfect wreck.


Here's another choice image from my Grappa's estate auction last summer. Can you believe someone actually purchased and hauled away both wrecks?

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Creative Cue : Book

Front - Flash and no flash


Back - Flash and no flash



Here's a new journal recently completed. The cover is made from a sop cloth in my dye studio. It's a Viva paper towel, if you can believe that! I loved the feel of it, but was concerned about it wearing away with friction and use, so I experimented with finishes as a top coat. I finally decided on PVA glue and ModgePodge Matte. It definitely gives it a durable finish; unfortunaely, it's so far from the soft fabric-like texture I started with that I have my regrets ... The search continues for the perfect finish!

Test Fabric for Finishes
1 - Modge Podge Matte
2 - Modge Podge Gloss
3 - Norbond PVA Glue
4 - Self-Leveling Gel GLoss
5 - Liquitex Clear Gesso
6 - Crystal Clear GLaze
7 - Aleen's Instant Decoupage
8 - Control - no finish

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Creative Cue : Dream

Tornado Dancer

Years ago, in my early 20s, I was plagued by recurring nightmares about tornadoes bearing down on my family's house. I couldn't find them, couldn't call out to them to warn them or call them to safety. The sense of terror and frustration and helplessness really got to me ... Living in the midwest, Tonadoes in May and June are a fact of life. You just hope you don't run into one ...

Finally, I shared these dreams with one of my coop housemates, a wise woman named Sinden. She suggested that the Tornado was probably trying to tell me something. Since I kept running away from it and shutting it out, it kept pursuing me ...

So, one day, I planned a meditation where I would meet this Tornado and find out what it wanted to tell me. It came, laughed a bit and said, : "It's about time, kid." His name was Morrison, a small whirlwind--but effective. It took me up into it's whirl so I could see the view from the upper rim It was not spinning wildly up there--it was more like I was in the eye, so it was calm. After a while, the Tornado set me back down on the deck, under the birch trees. He "stepped" back and presented me with two gifts :

1) a four-pointed blue white star
2) a rose just beginning to bloom

I never had another tornado nightmare. I'm not sure I can say much about these two gifts in terms of the symbolism and what they mean to me ... They speak to a place where words don't go easily.

At about the same time, my friend Terra Gold (a budding Shamin) who lead drum circles made a drum. She put it in front of an open oven to dry, but the heat was too intense and it warped. She brought this sad bent drum to a drum circle and I fell in love with it. It sat perfectly on my knees. At some point, I decided to paint these images on the drum. Here it is ...

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This story was published previously at Hidden Passages in May 2008.