Creativity

Muscles I Never Knew I Had

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I’ve been doing Postcrossing for about a year or so now, and I love sending cards all over the world and receiving cards from all over, too. But what I don’t like is that you don’t really build any connections with people. I send a card to Person A, and get one back from Person B. This made me send less cards than I used to, because I got worn out with it. But then I read the (then) most recent blogpost on the Postcrossing website and they were talking about the League of Extraordinary Penpals. It intrigued me, and I took a  look at the website, and I signed up immediately, and was given access to the Facebook group almost directly as well.

That was about three weeks ago. In those three weeks I’ve sent out about fifteen or so postcards and six letters; realised there’s way more muscles in my hand than I thought before; and received a letter and about five postcards. I’m enjoying myself immensely writing messages and letters, finding pretty papers, decorating the stationery and envelopes and waiting at the mailbox for mail. I was already way into getting craft materials, and this only made it worse. I’ve bought many stickers, lots of washi tape (which I basically just discovered, it is awesome), stationery, pretty paper and so on, and so on. I’m currently contemplating whether to be lazy and just buy an envelope mold to make my own envelopes, or make one from cardboard…

Here’s the batch of letters and cards that I sent out yesterday, I can’t wait until they reach the folks they’re going to.

MailboxFood

Craft it Forward

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Earlier this month one of my friends on Facebook posted a photo of some very cute crafts she had received from someone. They were sent to her as part of a Craft it Forward Project. Craft it Forward is based on the idea of Pay it Forward: you make something for other people, and they then make something for other people, who then make something for other people and so on.

I immediately took to the idea. It combines some of the things I like best: getting mail, sending mail, making stuff, and giving people things. So, I signed up at Signe’s post and last week I received my package.

Signe is immensely creative and talented and I love what she made. From left to right there’s a tag with the letter R on it, an empty envelop to put things in (with a beautiful sticker on the back to close it with), a flag of (I think) washi tape, a magnet with Signe’s horse on it, some clay beads to decorate (or keep as is, I think for now I prefer them like this) and a drawing/colouring page.

I’m always especially enamoured with Signe’s drawing skills so I think I’ll have to find me a pretty frame to put it in.

After receiving this, it is now my turn to make something for other people. I already have some ideas of what I want to make. A general shape or outline, but the nuance will depend on who signs up for this. I maintain the sign up at my Facebook because that’s where I have more people, plus the ease of tagging them. And besides, it’s not as if more than a handful of people actually ever comments here.

Once the people are known, and the packages sent I will post photos of what I made and my process.

Celebrate! (Nienke’s Birthday Drawing)

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I also made a drawing for Nienke’s birthday in the style of Connected. It has the same basic shape with the focal circle in the middle and the detail panels surrounded by a knotwork border.

I decided to do a drawing after Nien expressed how much she liked Connected. I chose to put a Tree of Life in the middle, with Murphy (her cat) below, except I exagerrated him a bit into a lion so he could also represent her astrological sign.

The panels show various things that are important to Nienke or mean something to her. Below is her name and date of birth. The border features knotwork in blue, which is her favourite colour.

Celebrate!: the process

As I was colouring more and more, I realised the colouring of the letters was off. I wasn’t sure what to do with it at first. For a second I even despaired the thing might be ruined. But then I found my silver marker and realised that would be perfect.

Celebrate!: details.

 

Celebrate!: final result, framed

Excuse some of the glare, silver marker doesn’t photograph well in evening indoor light.

Connected

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The nameless Pagan thing is done, and has a name. It is called Connected. Here’s pictures of the process and the end result.

Connected halfway done

Connected: Fire corner

Connected: Air corner

Connected Earth corner

Connected: Water corner

Connected: the end result

Excuse the somewhat crappy quality of the last picture, I hadn’t realised the shot wasn’t very good before now.

Knotwork

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Here’s some pictures of Lines III: Dreamscape.

Lines III: Dreamscape (WIP Composite)

Lines III: Dreamscape (Final)

After inking the water painted result I added some more drawings of various pop culture related things that are meaningful to me. See if you can find (and identify) them all?

 

The last few days I’ve been burying myself into deciding what symbolism and decoratives to use for my latest drawing (which is, as of yet, nameless). It’s fun, I’ve never spent this much time in research for a drawing before 🙂

So far I’m going on a bit of a Celtic/Norse path with one or two Greek influences. I’ve been practicing making knotwork for the border. As long as I stick to fairly simple designs, it goes pretty well. I’ve only made two mistakes and I think I can hide them once I start colouring. The design continues through the corners, but is mostly covered up by triskeles that I’m putting up there.

The circle in the middle is not getting just a simple circle frame. Instead I’m turning it into Ouroboros/Jormungandr. At the top I’m placing a Goddess/God symbol by combining the triple moon with the horned sun to end up with a circle and three sickle shapes at the sides and top.

The little space that is left between the border and the circle will be filled up with various symbols that have meaning within Paganism (elements, pentagrams, spirals, labyrinths) with possibly some specific additional ones such as Mjolnir or Ankh. It depends on how I feel about it once the border and the middle are both inked and I have a better sense of the left over space.

Nameless Pagan Thing (First Sketch)

Extra sketches to decide on the borders and way of filling

Nameless Pagan Thing (WIP + Border detail)

 

 

Pencil

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I’m really enjoying the pencil and paper spirit that has taken hold of me. Lines III: Dreamscape is mostly finished. I coloured it with water colour pencils, then painted over that with water and inked the lines with a fine liner (picture later, they’re still on my phone). I’m considering watering it once more, but not sure yet.

As for Lines II: Earth Mother, I’m not sure yet what medium to use. I know the colours (earth tones and/or element colours), but haven’t decided whether I want to use pencils, water colour pencils, paint, crayons or even felt tips. I’m just going to let that stew for a bit, I’m sure the Mother will let me know once she has decided what her medium should be.

Tonight, as I was browsing through some of the paganism/witchcraft blogs/tumblrs I have in my Google reader I was suddenly hit by an image in my head that I knew I had to draw immediately. So I put the laptop aside, sat down at the table and sketched the image. Just to get the idea on paper so I can properly work on it once there’s actual day light. It only took a few minutes, but I’m already so full of what I’m gonna do with it, mostly in terms of edges and decorations around it. The middle image is a circle with two humanoid figures embracing each other in it. Seeing the context of what I was doing when I saw the image in my head, I’m going to assume they are supposed to be the God and Goddess. I tend to take my pantheons in the Celtic and Norse tastes (with some Egyptian thrown in occasionally), so I think there will be lots of influences from those directions. The circle itself gets a very simple edge, the people take up all the space and are the focus so the circle edge is to frame them, not to detract from them.

For the rest, I’m thinking a border along the edges of the paper, with some connector pieces in the corners and background nature-type things in the space between the border and the circle.

Pictures later, it is too dark now.

I <3 inspiration, and I love it even more when it intersects with my paganism. 🙂

 

 

More Squiggly Lines

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I finished the Squiggly drawing from last post, took me about 7,5 hours total. I really like how it turned out, and it inspired me to take this tubular, colourful, enthusiastic form further. I named this work Lines I: Tubular and today I’ve been sketching Lines II: Mother Earth and Lines III: Dreamscape. I haven’t decided yet if I’m gonna use the same method of colouring them (aka just regular pencils) or if I want to use, for example, aquarel pencils or even paint or markers.

Lines I: Tubular (Composite of Progress)

Lines I: Tubular (Composite of Progress)

Lines I: Tubular (Finished Piece)

Lines I: Tubular (Finished Piece)

Lines II: Mother Earth (Sketch)

Lines II: Mother Earth (Sketch)

Lines III: Dreamscape (Sketch)

Lines III: Dreamscape (Sketch)

Squiggly Lines

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For the first time in ages, I’ve been feeling inclined to draw. I first noticed it earlier this week while reading a  book in which the main character drew. I got to thinking it had been quite a while and then it started itching inside. Except I didn’t know what I wanted to draw.

Then today, I was stumbling around on the web, and I found this website. I’m not very good at drawing lifelike things, and more abstract designs are more my thing anyway. So I decided to do my take on this thing.

I only spent about an hour and a half on it today, so it will be a couple days before it’s done, but the start is here.

 

Photos June

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Walking @ Lauwersoog with Eva, Gregorius, Nienke and Tessa. From left to right: the tree that Nienke threw Gregorius’ toy into, Eva & Nienke trying to get it out, and continuing the walk.

  

Fabric Day at Verhildersum. Bags of coloured wool, an awesome! quilt, and a display of tin figurines in historical clothing. The guy who ran this table made these all himself, from photographing people in historical outfit to sculpting a mold, casting it in tin and painting it to match the photo.

  

Going out to eat @ Pappa Joe’s with Eva, Mellien, Nienke & Ingrid, with ice cream from Toscana across the street after.

  

Random stuff

Monkey in the sun, the day my parents had to get a new car… since dad put the coolant fluid in the oil tank…

  

Marshmallows indoor style, Monkey & Murphy sharing the window sill and Tessa taking it easy on my sofa.

  

Monkey and his weird ways of getting to water, and sitting behind plants. Plus awesome! thunderstorm.

  

Bored at work during lunch 😀 an angry egg, and an ‘eiphone’. Also, summer is very pretty. I miss it.