It's been nice having some actual free time on my hands. I write 'actual' because usually my time is delegated out to projects far in advance: directing projects, school projects, work projects...so my art projects get wedged in between, wherever they can fit. As a result, I start a lot of projects...but don't finish many of them!
I'm making an effort to change that, as part of my philosophy of living a loving, beautiful, adventurous life. I think many folks listen to the yawing and jawing of society and relegate art to the "unnecessary" and are afraid to venture out into it. I've been thinking a lot lately about what Paul McCartney said about his own painting; he said, in Barry Miles' Many Years From Now, that the only person holding him back from a canvas was himself. He thought, for a long time, that one must come from an art school background in order to set brush to paint. When he threw that false idea away, he started creating work for himself--and enjoying it.
I think the lesson there applies to anything in life; Paulo Coehlo's excellent The Alchemist is a testament to that. (Okay, in the larger sense--if one wishes to pursue one's life passion, one should. The baker wanted to travel but decided he needed to save up for a long time first, in order to visit Africa once before his death. He could have left at any time, and spent a whole life traveling, versus saving everything for the one-time only event.)
Well. All that said...I threw out my negative thoughts and got busy.
I started with a painted address pot first, inspired by a post on Pinterest (the original site is here.).
This was a fun, relaxing project and fairly simple to do. I had an extra flowerpot that I thought I'd repurpose into an address label for our apartment since you can't see our apartment number when the screen door is shut. I looked up fonts (on my iPad, it makes it easier to work with than a laptop) that I liked and using them as a guide, freehanded the letters onto the pot using pencil. Having done that, I went back and inspected the computer font and looked for details my hand missed and tweaked it. Next, I painted the letters in white, using a brown-black mix I made to shadow the letters. I painted three leaves in the top right and bottom left corners with little squiggles for fun.
I let it dry for a bit and then used Mod Podge Clear Acrylic Sealer to seal and finish it (the pot is going to sit by the sprinklers so I didn't want to risk having my hard work undone!). I inserted a smaller potted flower and voila! the project was no longer a UFO in my mind but a real, finished one at last.
After that, I repurposed my old CPK manager's apron as a painting apron. This is amusing because it was hanging on a nail in the kitchen in Planet Hulk and Patrick, a director friend of ours, spied it and begged to use it in a current stage play. He had just returned it, freshly washed, and now I was going to destroy it with paint. Better paint than pizza, eh?
The monster was inspired by a cute figurine on Etsy that I admire (but has been sold), so I thought it would be fun to paint my own monster. The mason jar with flowers was inspired by our wedding, in which we used mason jars...well...for everything--as vases, drinking glasses, take-home gifts. I had yellow sunflowers in my bouquet as well as in the floral arrangements and the verse is from Song of Songs 3:4.
Again, I Googled fun fonts and wrote in pencil, before inking it in. I used Faber-Castell pens to do the lettering instead of paint; I felt that the impreciseness of the flowers and vase were balanced out by the stark cleanliness of the black ink.
The last one was inspired by a pin on Pinterest (original artist's site here). I added some text, based on another font I found, and added a girl. I used acrylics, watercolor, and pencil--ordinary school pencil.
My sister told me that the text is from a song; I had no idea. I was looking for a good quote to go with it, so I literally Googled "sky and star quotes" and I saw "If you'll be my star, I'll be your sky" on someone's Tumblr. I'm really pleased with how the last one came out. The original is beautiful and wonderful, but mine is very personal: using the watercolors, I made the boy Kevin and the girl myself (complete with ever-present braids!) and...well, you can infer from there. :)
I also just finished a project I've been working on for several weeks, if not longer...This is the third scarf I've made of this pattern and the first one I get to keep. (The pattern is here.) I made the first one out of really great teal yarn (Super Saver teal from Wal-Mart...probably the best color and sturdiest yarn I've gotten from there so far. They have Super Savers in other colors, but they don't compare to the teal.) and gifted it. My sister happened to stop by during that time and asked if I would make her an infinity scarf. Using the same pattern, I did.
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| My sister, wearing her infinity scarf |
I liked it so much, I made one for myself, out of Malabrigo Indigo yarn:
Malabrigo yarn is my newest yarn obsession. I picked some up in a tiny yarn store in Missoula, Montana and just fell in love with it. The colors are vibrant and the yarn is so soft and flexible. I've made only hats out of Malabrigo because I love the stretch it has, so this is my first scarf...and I think I will make some more!
Here's one more, I finished this last night:
This one is a popular pin on Pinterest. It's straightforward enough: aluminum wire, yarn, scissors. You twist the aluminum into the 'love' shape--THEN reshape until you are satisfied BEFORE you cut. (They don't give you much aluminum in a roll, so it's best to be careful!) Don't worry about connecting the letters to themselves--you'll tie them together with yarn. I used Malabrigo again, in the color Archangel (like rainbow sherbet) in the fluffy style of yarn they call Rasta. The wrapping was the trickiest part; there's no special way to do it other than slowly and carefully because it gets tangled really fast. Other than that, know your beginning and knot your end, trim, and done! Instant gratification projects rule. :)
Oh, I love having this time to finish these UFOs...I also finished unpacking and putting together my craft table, so there will be more fun to come!
The next project I would like to tackle is not an UFO, but just one I've wanted to do for a while but just haven't had the time to:
It's from a new blog I've stumbled upon called Misters and Misses. Considering the fact that I turned in two Teacher Performance Assessments two days early in order to see Mumford & Sons, I think I need to do this project!
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| With my friend Kim...and Marcus Mumford! Hollywood Bowl 2012 |
Stay classy, stay cool...stay crafty!
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| Best, Lissa |
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