Honoring Your Creativity

Why is it that when you have multiple deadlines, projects due, blogs screaming for attention, your family screaming for attention, the cat just screaming – that you can’t focus on any of that?

All you want to do is that project that you can’t get off your mind…you know which one I’m talking about, right?

The one that you sketch out in your journal.

It invades your very sleep, trying to stir you from those warm covers.

Everything you do reminds you of it.

I recently had a project like that – wouldn’t leave me alone so I finally gave in and started working on it. I spent about three weeks perfecting the screen printing images, practicing with different paints and doing a ton of hand stitching.

 

I’m that way about every project that I do.

I spend a few days working in my sketchbook – drawing images, writing out different ideas.

Then days at the studio table evaluating paints, glues, gels and such.

I get very particular about making sure that I’m using the best product for the project.

Take this last project I had going. I was making reverse applique tee shirts with screen printed images.

I created four samples, each one with a different fabric paint (or paint with fabric medium in it).  I followed the instructions from the manufacture to the letter.

Then I started throwing the samples into the washing machine to see if the paints did what they were supposed to do. I literally spent over a week investigating the supplies before I ever went to the creating phase!

But I know the best paint for that particular job.

I’m that way about most everything that I do. I like to know my materials inside and out.

Good and bad.

And I love learning from people that know their supplies that way too. We can give you solid answers because we have spent a lot of time at the work table.

The book making class that I am teaching at Art Camp this June?

I spent about two years working with different gels and mediums until I found the few that I like working with.

I painted a ton of different paper until I settled on the one that I like to put in this type of book.

When we paint the pages for our book, we use a lot of different painting techniques to create depth and the layered look that so many people love.

I’ll bring some of my favorite Thermofax screens for everyone to use in class. You will love using screen printing to embellish your pages.

I’ll also bring plenty to sell. I have a stash of them that I only sell in class…you have to be there to get these special screens!

I’ll also bring some of my stash of vintage linens, laces and things to share with everyone. I love adding these worn artifacts to my books.

I often add pieces of clothing that belonged to loved ones or that I have found in antique/junk shops. It really adds so much personality to each book.

 

 

 

 

I have always loved books. I loved to read as a kid (still do actually), loved spending hours at the library.

There is just something so appealing about the construction of a book.

Something mysterious about opening up a book – the promise of what is there maybe.

Romance, mystery, action or spiritual affirmation.

I always wanted to make books. I made simple ones when I was younger- nothing too elaborate or fancy.

But the more I made, the more I wanted to make. I like to add my personality to each one.

I love turning people onto book making. It is a very rewarding past time.

People often ask me what I do with the books after I make them (apart from selling them).

I tell them that there are times that the book itself is the work of art.

I admire it for what it is.

I thumb through it, drinking in the beauty of each page.

Reading the words that the color delivers to me.

Other times I use them as journals, recording the deep dark secrets that haunt my soul. (no wait – I’d have to burn them if I did that…)

I use them as sketchbooks – drawing the world around me with urban sketching or as work books to record incoming ideas.

No matter how I use them they are always receptacles of some ideal, some vision.

They become the home of a moment in my creativity.
They allow me to honor that creativity within myself.