Knowing Your Worth

If you have been following along my creative journey, you will know how much I love creating.  The exciting part for me is not only the end result but the entire process, which begins with a sketch.  Wracking my brain how each piece will be made, what materials best represent each line for the overall story of the piece excites me.  Yet, the most wondrous part of all is seeing the finished piece that works aesthetically and practically.  There are some times where my ideas don't quite come together in this way when taking the design and transposing it into something tangible and so trying to keep within the same theme, I correct my mistakes.  And so the story evolves.

As this entire process for me comes when it's ready, the completion of each piece has no timeframe.  Components are sketched, made, rested, painted in multiple layers with resting in-between, sealed, rested and each part is pieced together with intention as the sketch becomes alive.  And once the piece is complete, it sits and waits.  I pause and observe making sure each piece is just right and I smile to myself with that internal warmth of joy.

Then I begin the online process - taking numerous photographs trying to capture the piece in such a detailed way so the intended market can virtually feel the essence and intention the piece has.  I do this as my life is such where I'm still unable to attend markets.  And so inlays my problem.  My dream of being a successful jewellery designer is still that - just a dream.  I'm so grateful to have a few pieces bought online as well as in person but for some reason, online selling continues not to be for me and I'm unsure as to why my pieces are lost in translation as the feedback I've received has been wonderful.  So yesterday I decided to close my Facebook page and let it go.  

Today I finally knew my worth.  This is something I've been working on for many, many years.  Being and feeling confident and aligned in my own skin.  Today, I realised I'm more than just likes, comments and shares.  I'm someone who expresses themselves emotionally, meaningfully and mindfully through art.  I love what I do.  I love what I make.  And that's all I need to be.

On that note, I finished a piece that's been in progress since mid-March.  I shared the intended pendant dangles in my last blog post and now, its story was complete.  Intended for my "Findings of Nature" series, this one features a found piece of driftwood, recycled sari silk and handmade polymer clay components inspired by my love for nature.  It's certainly a statement piece, bold and armouresque representing my love for the forest - the strength and wiseness of the old trees, the whispers amongst the leaves, the life that lives deep beneath the earth amongst the roots or on the branches of the trees, finding comfort in the stillness, new life protected in tiny cups bursting free into the wind and the smell of deeply rich earth laying in wait for the cycle of life.

Here is a close up of the pendant:

And a full view:

Enjoy your week :)

Gardening, Beadmaking and Painting

It's been a little while since I last stopped by my blog, mostly as my time has been spent in the garden tending the patch when not working.  We had such an abundance over Summer which was quite surprising as we started late in the season getting ourselves sorted and secondly, as we were just seeing what would thrive or fail not knowing what the summer temperatures and the amount of rainfall would be like impacting production.  Ummm .... all I can say is we haven't needed to shop for fresh fruit and veggies since early January.  We've only needed to purchase the staples - onions, garlic and avocado - but that is it, which is massive as three-quarters of all our meals use fresh vegetables.  Am remedying the onions and the garlic with seedlings growing already for next season and will attempt a test run on avocados by building a suitable environment, so keeping fingers crossed for next year.

Since early March, I've only had a chance to work on two projects.  I recently completed the design and made the dangles for my next "Findings of Nature" necklace:

And over the last few weeks, I finally plucked up the courage to paint a painting in colour.  Now I've painted before in my dot-like style, however, I've never actually painted something 100% with a brush.  So dealing with serious handshakes, constant confidence questioning and concerns of stuffing it all up was uncomfortable, but fulfilling as I finished it by pushing my boundaries way out.  It is a bang of colour ... perhaps too bright for some, but I wanted something seriously vibrant and weirdly interesting to adorn our plain, stark walls with dark brick in places.  I've named this piece "Woodland Faerie", acrylic on canvas, 40x30cm.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend ahead :)

New Wall Art Piece - 2

My favourite colour palette acts as a safety net when it comes to my creations as my designs come freely and I know the finished piece is going to be as I imagined.  So, excited to create another wall hanging in a similar style to the one I made for myself, I decided to use a colour palette I wouldn't normally choose.  I had used it once when creating my handpainted bookmarks (middle bookmark in the below pic) and I loved the outcome.  Wondering how it would look on a much larger scale was what piqued my muse:

One good thing about painting the discs is as each piece consists of multiple layers which require dry time in-between each layer, I can work on them in short bursts which suits my schedule wonderfully!

I finished painting the discs earlier this week and pondered on what selection of beads to use and how it was going to hang:

And this morning, I finished linking it altogether using an array of Indian glass, semiprecious gemstones, Mykonos ceramics and Czech glass:

And it's all complete!

Have a wonderful week ahead :)

New Wall Art Piece

Today has been an awesome day!  You know those days where everything works out and there's sunshine and rainbows? Hehe. Yep, today is THAT day for me.

I started the day waking from a wonderful sleep-in with no alarm!  And I spent most of my morning having such a soul-filled conversation with a dear friend of mine which left me in such a great space.  I had planned to spend the whole day creating but it was such fantastic weather that I did some garden tending until lunch and spent the afternoon finishing off a piece of wall art which makes me tingle all over :)

See, I continue on the bandwagon of finishing my unfinished projects.  As each one gets completed in its due time, I'm buzzing to see ideas from recently or from years ago form afore my eyes.  Sometimes these materialisations are stonewalled as I get stuck not knowing how to continue and for some ideas, they just wait patiently.  So is the case for this one.  I designed this on 21 August 2003 carefully cutting out photocopies of my drawing to create the bigger picture:

So over our recent Christmas short break, I brought out my wooden discs again, painting each one.  Then I started the construction:

And last night, I finished the construction:

Then today was the fun part of figuring out how to hang it.  I wanted it to sit flat on the wall so after fiddling about for sometime, I ended up by dressing one of my canvases with Dupioni silk in the most magical sage green and affixed the piece to the canvas.  It is marvellous.  Well I think so anyway hahahha. So introducing "Sun of Yang":

Enjoy your weekend ahead :)

 

Working Through The Pile of Unfinished Projects - 5

Following on from my last post, I've continued to work on part 2 of my "Spirit Beings" paintings and finished this one yesterday.  Wahoo!!!  As mentioned before, it's taken me 16 years to finish these and all I need to do now is work out how to hang them.  I'm thinking of using some handmade hooks where the paintings will sit in the hooks.

And here are the two of them together:

Enjoy the rest of your weekend :)

Working Through The Pile of Unfinished Projects - 4

So am back to finishing up half-done pieces after recently completing my new wall hanging.  I can't believe I have finished 12 pieces since July!  It's so satisfying as I really enjoy finishing things (despite how long it takes), but more importantly, I've been having so much fun!

I don't think I should include the below piece in the count.  Why?  Well I have a confession.....  this piece has been a long time in the making <eek>.  Sixteen years to be exact! 

So in 2000, when I worked in chambers, both of my bosses were taking a long lunch break and I didn't have much to do.  I'd been doing some personal research on alternative therapies and the night before, I had envisaged what I call my "spirit beings".  So I sketched out two designs for some soon to be drawings.

Two years later, I completed those drawings in my black and white bubble style with the hope of transferring them into a painting.

Thirteen years later, in August 2015, I was working through my pile of unfinished projects (as I seem to do haha) and decided to continue on this project and off I went.  The background of the canvas board came up beautifully and the depiction of the spirit beings was exactly was I was hoping.  And then I became stumped.  I didn't know how to finish it.  So I commenced the second in the series (still yet to be completed) whilst I contemplated how to finish them.  Then at the same point as the first, I hit the brick wall.  And so they sat. Until now.

This painting comes up rather ordinary and muted in its vibrancy in the pic as the many dots seem to distort the lens.  However, these paintings are the most meaningful to me out of all of my work I've completed since that day in chambers. And there is quite a collection hahaha!!!  Their meaning is deeply personal and to see the first one finally completed brings me heart-warming joy. I'm hoping to work on the second soon so will post a pic once it's done.

Enjoy your weekend!

For My Studio

For quite some time I've wanted to make a wall hanging for my studio.  We've lived in rental properties for quite awhile, and as you're only allowed to use already existing picture hooks, I've held off making something for me as writing letters to real estate agents for permission to knock a hole in a wall is a bit of a headache.  So in the process of brightening my studio, and now being able to do whatever we like, I thought why not!

Earlier this week, I shared on Instagram the main components for the wall hanging using acrylic on wood:

By midnight last night/this morning, it was done and I couldn't be happier!!  I'm unsure if it requires a fifth strand - what do you think?

Using a selection of wood, Irish waxed linen, gemstones, recycled glass, bone and natural seed pods, it's exactly what I had envisaged.  

Hope you have a marvellous weekend!

Working Through The Pile of Unfinished Projects

Everyone I know who loves to create art always comment that their list of "wants" to create outweigh available time (is there ever enough time? hahaha).  I definitely experience this so whenever I have an idea and zilch time, I sketch, make notes and scribble.  This is so the image in my head or idea doesn't disappear as, more often than not, the best ones pop up at the wrong time!  When I do make time to create, having all these ideas to hand is awesome as, when the creative juice is low, I get to rediscover ideas from years/months back and it reignites the flame.

So last weekend, I sat down and drew up a list (yup, I'm a lists type of gal) of all the unfinished projects and ideas I wanted to trial to give myself little projects to work on when time is stretched.  If I don't keep my hand in my art, I get a little snarly 'apparently' (according to my husband, Heath).  My explanation is:

I purchased these balsa wood bookmarks a while back with the intention to test them out before listing them in my online store (currently on holidays).  So after about um ..... 12 months .... they finally got pulled out.  I always trial every product I buy before listing as I like to know what I'm selling isn't rubbish.

This week, I thought I'd pull out some of my sketches and trial these bookmarks out.  They're a good size [12cms x 3cms] with a smooth flat surface and a slight grain.  I used a range of colours from Tim Holtz's Distress Paint series, as it leaves a beautiful matte finish on the wood when dry and the paint is very fluid and easy to use.  This finish creates a wonderful platform to doodle on when applied thinly. 

So ... I bungled a couple initially.  First, I had too much water on the brush and the paint bled into the grain.  This was remedied by adding extra layers of paint which then caused it to be too thick that when I went to draw on it in pen, it gouged and left crumbly edges.   So annoying when I was so happy with the background! hahaha

So trying again with thinner coats and much longer drying time, here are a few examples:

I love the vibrancy of some of them despite being matte.  Next step is to stamp the back and seal them to protect the paint from wear and tear.  And then to add a tassel of sorts.  I'm thinking a beaded waxed linen tassel.  

Stayed tuned for some finished pics!  

Enjoy the week ahead :)  

A Perfect Spring Day

What a fantastic start to the weekend, especially after such a huge work week!  Heath and I started off the day running a few errands and having a wander around our local market, finishing off with a yummy lunch.  As it was so beautiful today, it was also perfect weather to seal some polymer clay pendants I had finished painting about two weeks prior to the market prep, which I had hoped (time permitting) to have available also for sale.  I had another batch of what I call my "nude" (ie just baked polymer clay blanks) beads so I combined a couple from my newest batch and finally gave them a lick of colour.

Here's an example of some nude beads (excuse the lint ;) : 

Polymer clay is such a versatile medium and I love experimenting with different applications to achieve different textures and depths of colour.  I seem to naturally lean towards the old, ancient and organic vibe with chocolate brown, bronze, ecru, terracotta and olive green being my go-to colours.  Despite my love for this colour palette that I could repeat over and over, I really try to push myself to try out different colour combinations.  I love using www.design-seeds.com for inspiration as the many available palettes are fabulous.  I highly recommend this site if you struggle with colour combos like me!

Here are the ones now finished:

Here, my inspiration source for these beads was nature and ancient things.  I always like to depict nature in a different way whether it be abstract styled flowers or imitations of seeds, nuts, pods, wood textures etc.  Also, with ancient things, my muse pulls me to try and imitate items that may have been unearthed from times of Druids, Vikings and Celts.  Perhaps it's my English heritage :)

I've used a combination of mediums (alcohol ink, acrylic paint, chalk ink and embossing powder) and techniques (using my hand-carved stamps to create the impressions and carving directly into both the unbaked and baked clay) to achieve the above.  Most of the beads are pendant sized with a couple made for dangles.  They've all been sealed using PYMII for longevity of the mediums.

Have a great rest of your weekend and enjoy the week ahead ☺️