Showing posts with label Artistic Inspiration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Artistic Inspiration. Show all posts

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Artist Feature: Liz Smith of Made in Lowell & The Power of Suggestion


















How many times has a well intentioned family member or friend offered you advice on something that you should be making? I know I often find myself rolling my eyes at my husband when he has one of his "great" ideas about what I should be making. After reading this great interview from Liz Smith of Madeinlowell.etsy.com, I am rethinking how I immediately dismiss these ideas. Who knows, the next suggestion might be the next big thing. Read below to see how a suggestion turned into a lovely work of art!

What inspired this piece?

I almost hate to admit this, but a lot of my greatest ideas are inspired by other people’s suggestions! I guess I can take credit for recognizing the genius idea from the not-so-great, and then for the execution of said idea. I can also take comfort that my original items inspire others to see new products I don’t always think of. The ideas that resonate with me the most create a feeling like a little bell ringing in my heart.

In this case an Etsy buyer saw one of my nest pins and sent a simple convo that said “Hi, I just love this cute little pin. I thought it would be great for my mom but I immediately thought of it as a pin cushion. Is there a way to add a bottom to it so you could stick pins in it?”Ding ding ding!

Can you detail how you translated your inspiration into your work of art?


I thought that was a great idea so I developed a pincushion using one of my felted nests. It took a while but I worked out a technical solution to make them three dimensional and once I did, I loved the result! After making several in my bestselling nest pin colors like green, blue and purple, I realized customers were referring to them by “flavor” and commenting that they resembled cupcakes. So I took it a step further and made them look like cupcakes deliberately and now the “vanilla and chocolate” pincushions are a best seller!


















Where do you tend to find inspiration for your art pieces?


Besides listening to everyone’s ideas, I find visiting a bookstore and looking through all the craft how-to books plus the craft, design and fashion magazines is about all it takes to get the creative ideas flowing. I usually end up racing home to try a new "lt" discovered technique! Also I like taking a walk if the weather is nice, snapping photos of things I wouldn’t normally notice, trying to find the beauty in the mundane. Interacting with other like-minded crafters/artists also help to get my energy back.

Any advice for someone feeling uninspired?
I usually have more ideas than time, but not always the excitement needed to develop a new project. I recommend doing something that soothes your soul, for me this is a nature walk. Another thing that gets me going is looking through my art supplies, just getting out a box of something pretty and laying it all out on a table. I start to experience that happy, childlike feeling inside that I get from making things, and before I know it the inspiration is flowing again.

You can find all of Liz's lovely creations in her Etsy shop : Made in Lowell on Etsy

Want to follow Liz on her handmade journey? Check out her Mill Girl blog

Not only is Liz wonderful felt artists, but she is also a pretty amazing polymer clay artist too. Check out some of my favorites from her shop:





































So take Liz's advice and listen to those suggestions. I know when I get custom orders, I often make things I would never make if they hadn't been asked of me. Take those opportunities to step out of your comfort zone and explore something new!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Waking Up from Hibernation

I'm baaaaaack! Happy belated 2009 ! I had to take a serious little hibernation from the blog as life got a bit busy and I needed a serious break once the kids finally went back to school (I swear that was the longest holiday break ever). I have had a few weeks to recover and while I probably could have used a couple more, I thought it was time to come out of hibernation and get inspired again! With not having to worry about filling lots of orders, or worrying about things getting there on time, or entertaining kids or doing much of anything, I was able to get my mojo back and create some new pieces. I have been adding them to the shop and my flickr. Most of the new pieces were inspired by Valentines Day and affairs of the heart, but I will do a full post about them after I have unveiled a few more. So instead, I will ask you to be inspired by hibernation and the animals and trees who smartly hibernate each winter and awake in Spring refreshed and hungry for a new day. Here are some fun items I found that were surely inspired by hibernation:














I always knew the bears weren't really sleeping. Hibernation print by MyPaperDaydreams.etsy.com


















threedogparty.etsy.com has the perfect pro-hibernation letterpress journal for keeping your thoughts and sketches in during your hibernation. Maybe I should start a pro-hibernation movement. I don't anyone would really care if we all took the month of January off to hibernate. Do you?

Here are some inspiring words that come to mind when I think of hibernation: sleep, comfort, rest, rejuvention, cozy. They can all be good starting points for inspiration. Here are some great handmade items that I would want to have on hand while I was hibernating and that could have been inspired by any of my hibernation words:


















I would love to have my hot cocoa (not coffee because that would keep me awake) in this great mug by JDWolfePottery.etsy.com . The pink inside would be such a treat to find after all the cocoa was gone.


















OK, this Under the Apple Trees Bed by attiladesign.etsy.com has to be THE best place to spend your hibernation. Enough said.

















This Luxury Eye Mask by BibBon.etsy.com would be a great way to shut the world out in style.

So take some time to hibernate this week, and I guarantee when you awake you will be full of new ideas.

Monday, April 28, 2008

You Were Inspired by What? - Experimenting with an Unconventional Art Medium

If you have been following a long with my blog, you will see that I keep my eyes open for inspiring things no matter where I am or what I am doing. This may be one of the most interesting yet. I was in the kitchen and I sprinkled cornstarch on my work surface to keep the clay from sticking. As I shook it onto my work surface, I found it made the coolest "crater" patterns. I called Kyle (my 5 year old) because he loves the moon (and my strange art ideas) and showed him the texture. He thought it was cool. Of course I took a picture to have the texture for future reference. I wanted to see what else we could do with the powder, so I got a black sheet of cardstock to use as a background. Here is what we came up with and all it took was some imagination and some cornstarch:

Space (just sprinkled on the paper):


















Moon Craters (Sprinkled from a distance on top of a thick surface of cornstarch):


















Droplets (Shake the paper back and forth until the cornstarch forms little circles):














Snow capped Mountain (Shaking the paper a bit more vigorously in one direction):


















Here several ones that looked like shots of clouds taken from space (same technique as the mountain):
























Then we decided to get fancy with a skewer:
























And a comb ( I think we had the most fun with this one):




































And finally here are a few we made by scraping the powder across with an index card. Check out the spooky face that appeared in the first one.

























We could have probably gone on for hours creating with this stuff. Lots of fun. I would recommend wearing a mask as it can get a bit dusty and never use talc powder as it is not good to inhale. I think my favorite thing was creating something cool and beautiful randomly and spontaneously with little thought. Each time you shook the paper you would get something new. I think artists (me included) think too much about what they want to create, so sometimes it is fun to create something without thought or a plan. Take some time this week to create some spontaneous, random art. Mix polymer clay colors together and create cool marbled or striped effects. Roll it up into a spontaneous "mudd" canes, slice pieces and cover something with them just to see the patterns and colors that randomly appear. Mix paints in a haphazard fashion and splatter paint them onto a canvas. Grab a handful of mixed beads and create something from the random mix. Let go and just create for the joy of creating. You may find that you get lots of new ideas from the results.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Artist feature with Carol Dean of SandFibers.etsy.com

I thought it was about time to do an artist feature. I haven't done one in a while, and I am sure you are all getting a bit tired of just my perspective on inspiration. I chose Carol Dean from Sandfibers.etsy.com because I am totally in awe of her artistry as well as her patience. I cannot imagine sitting down with those teeny tiny beads and making anything. I am a clutz, so after a while I am sure I would spill the beads and after about 10 min my lack of artistic patience would kick in, along with my lack of love for numbers, geometry and precision. I am sure I would give up before I finished anything. Thankfully there is someone out there who has the passion, patience, artistry and skill to create some amazing beaded jewelry.

Here's what Carol had to say about the inspiration for this beautiful bracelet:





















What inspired this piece? This particular piece was inspired by a front page on etsy that was created by heather91. I've actually included a photo of that page in my etsy listing. It wasn't the first time I've seen this color combination or the first time I thought I should do something with that color combination, but it was the time that finally pushed me into doing more than just thinking.

Can you detail how you translated your inspiration into your work of art? The inspiration came from the color combination of orange/purple (tangerine/grape), so that was rather easily translated into bead selection. I wanted each color featured equally in the design, which is why I chose the simple positive/negative image pattern using the two colors. Since I only used one shade of each color, the piece is really simple. There's nothing subtle about it. I'd like to do something more complex with an expanded palette, something softer, less geometric. (Like I need a reason to buy more beads!)

Where do you tend to find inspiration for your art pieces? My inspiration comes from striking color combinations, fabric patterns, symbols (especially spirals), simple geometry. When I'm not up to designing an actual pattern, I'll take my beads out and create "mixes" that appeal to me. Then the random "order" in which I pick up beads becomes the pattern-maker.

Any advice for someone feeling uninspired? Relax. Open your eyes to the world around you. Doodle. Work in a different medium.

You can see more of Carol Dean's fantastic work on her blog at http://sandfibers.blogspot.com . Her flickr is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandfibers/ and of course her Etsy shops at http://Sandfibers.etsy.com.

Her work was also featured in the Jan/Feb AND Mar/Apr 2008 issues of Step by Step Beads!



















































Thursday, February 21, 2008

Vote for your Favorite ACEO Theme

If you haven't been following along, read this post to get the background of this project. Here is a poll to vote for your favorite suggested theme. If you didn't make a suggestions, make sure to comment at some point during the project so that I can add you to the drawing for the finished ACEO. I was going to pick my top 3 favorite for you to vote from, but I decided that since there weren't too many suggestions, I would open it up and let you vote for any of the them. I will take the one with the most votes and make a couple sketches and then post them as the next step in our collaboration so stay tuned! Thanks to everyone who has participated so far. You all had great ideas. Maybe one of the suggestions will inspire you this week!

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Inspired by Love and a PCAGOE Challenge

It's PCAGOE challenge time again and in honor of this month's theme was "Love". There are a lot of places I could have taken this challenge. These are a few of the words that floated around in my head while I was brainstorming; love lost, true love, unloved, passion, motherly love, kissing, elation, forever, commitment.... I have been planning to do some wall pieces for a while and decided that this challenge would give me the motivation I needed to get it done. I had a tree in mind (Yes, I do have a tree fetish) for my first piece and already had it sketched out in one of my sketchbooks. I then was inspired by my new XOXO design and decided to make the tree's "foliage" a bunch of hugs and kisses. For some reason I have been inspired to use mostly black white and red with my XOXO design, so I decided to stay with that color scheme. I plan to make the circles painted on the canvas a common thread throughout my canvas series, but for this piece they symbolize the cycle of giving and receiving love. The story behind the tree is that it has a lot of love to give (represented by the hugs & kisses) and is just waiting for someone to share it's love. I think most everyone has felt this way at one time in their life. Just bursting with love and wanting someone to give it to. I added the "Love Me" circle to emphasize that it wants and needs love in return!


We had 43 entries into the challenge this month, and seeing all the different interpretations of love was really inspiring. There was puppy love, the feeling of bubbles in your stomach when you are in love, mothers love, romance, passion, hearts, heat, summer love and even love potion. Make sure you get over to PCAGOE.com to check them all out and of course vote for your favorite to be entered to win a fun polymer clay prize pack! Here's a sneak peak of this month's entries. You can see each one of them up close here.






















Take a little time this week to create something inspired by love or make something for someone that you love. Use some of the words and themes used by the PCAGOE entries as a jumping off point and don't forget to vote!!

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