You Were Inspired By What?

I'm borrowing from my son's blog for this post. He was inspired by the empty spaces in the handle of his scissors. So he created this little gem:

 Looking at "empty spaces" is a great way to get inspired. You don't have to be as literal as Kyle was with filling the spaces, but you can be inspired by the shapes of the "empty spaces" or create interesting "empty spaces" in your work. Sometimes what's not there is as interesting as what is there. Take a little time this weekend to notice the "empty spaces" around you.

Please check out Kyle's blog and leave him a comment.

You Were Inspired by What? - The Fall Squirrel Frenzy

If you are in a location where Fall has arrived and you have squirrels, you must know about the Fall Squirrel Frenzy. All the squirrels in my neighborhood are zipping around all day collecting acorns for winter. Inevitably there are fights and chases and little acorn hats litter the ground. In some places it really looks like a war zone. The poor acorns don't have a chance against these crazy nut-thirsty fiends. I have an affinity for the little nuts and their cute little hats and collect them whenever I can, so I thought I would create a little homage to the last acorn. The brave little guy who hung in there and survived the the Fall Squirrel Frenzy. The details of the piece were actually inspired by the 1st photo in this post.





















To me the necklace represents being a survivor and would make a sweet gift for the survivor in your life, or for yourself. In fact (I just had a light bulb go off) I think I will make another one with a little pink acorn in response to October being Breast Cancer Month.

So beware of the crazy squirrels and if you get a chance save a little acorn. The poor things are being smeared in the media too, so they are getting it from all sides. Here are some fun squirrel and acorn items I found on Etsy. Who knows, they may have been inspired by the Fall Squirrel frenzy too :P
















Acorn Necklace by Tigerlillyshop.etsy.com (and a super talented fellow BEST member!)













Gray Squirrel Bead by Humblebeads.etsy.com
I know Heather was thinking about the Fall Squirrel Frenzy when she created these cute little guys. Just look at what they did to all those poor acorns. Nothing but little hats everywhere (the horror). Visit Heather's blog to caption another photo of these squirrels and be entered to win one!


















Squirrel Print by Berkelyillustrations.etsy.com If only all the squirrels in my neighborhood were this dignified. I am sure this guy would never be caught dead running around like a nut chasing nuts.


















Felted Acorns by lilfishstudios.etsy.com
At least lilfishstudios is making good use of all the little acorn hats. Each little felted beauty is a like a little memorial to the acorn that once was.

Disclaimer: I really do love squirrels, but they sure do get a little bonkers this time of year. This one gave up on the acorns and instead feasted on our pumpkins.

You Were Inspired by What? - A rabbit in the sky

Remember laying on your back and looking into the sky to see what you could see in the clouds? I always saw a rabbit (maybe it was the fluffy tail?) and I always loved that everyone could find something different and that if you closed one eye, or squinted just right, you could see what they saw too. This idea of just laying back and using your imagination inspired a new ring, the "Imagination" ring. I like to wear things that bring memories or thoughts to mind when I look at them. When I wear this ring, I remember to use my imagination to make my world more interesting and to never forget to enjoy simple things like the clouds (and the rabbits in the sky).





















Take a little time this week to lay back and see what you see in the clouds. Maybe you will be inspired to create something too! If you are stuck in an office or it's raining, or even if there are no clouds in the sky, you can still play along. Check out these clouds on Flickr and see what you can see. Also check out the 1,191 rabbit clouds on Flickr. Apparently I'm not the only one who always sees rabbits in the clouds:)
















Rabbit Cloud Photo credits:
Rabbit by Aaron Cooney
2008 12 august rabbitcloud (1) by AK Yakstrangler.flickr

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.

You Were Inspired by What?

I had a memory pop up recently when I was teaching my son a skill all artists must learn... the M birds. You know the birds shaped like the letter M that you put in the sky whenever you make a land or seascape drawing. It brought me back to memories of my Dad teaching me the same thing. I always thought it was the coolest thing in the world and I felt like I knew a big secret. I mean how simple & brilliant was it to make a bird by making a letter M. I think I added those birds to all my pictures for years. I had totally forgotten about them until we were painting a house recently and I thought it was missing something. It was the birds. His turned out to look more like S's, but I think he thought it was as cool as I did when I was 5. In honor of my fond memories of the M birds (If anyone knows a cooler name, please let me know) I created this little pendant with a flock of M birds. Who knows where they're going or where they've been, but they will always remind me of my early art years. For those of you who don't have a past filled with M birds, this pendant could also represent or commemorate a journey (literal, emotional, creative, etc...) For me it represents the journey from making M birds to making a living with my art!












Here are some great flocks I found on Etsy:































































Artist Credits:
1. Flock Smock by Hende.etsy.com
2. Birds in Flight Print by CuriousZoo.etsy.com
3. Birds in Flight Wall Graphic by oneupdesigns.etsy.com
4. Going Up - Together in Chaos - set of 3 prints FRAMED in 11x5 Silver Vintage Frame by flywithme.etsy.com
5. The Birds- gocco screenprinted flatnote stationery set by heatherjeany.etsy.com

M birds & M birds Pendant- blockpartypress.etsy.com
SBirds - Kyle

You Were Inspired By What? - An Ogre & An Onion?

A couple of months ago one of the Etsy forum challenges was to create something inspired by a fairy tale. Being forced to watch Shrek almost nightly, I started sketching things inspired by the movie. My favorite part of the movie is when Shrek says that Ogres are like onions because they have a lot of layers, so I started drawing some onion shaped things and then began adding swirls and leaves and ended up with this pendant, which I entered into the challenge and that was basically the end of it.

Recently, I was going through my sketchbook when I came across one of the sketches and it made me think of a crest that would be perfect for Princess Fiona. So I headed off to create the block and ended up with this necklace, which I call "Ogres Are Like Onions".


You may not be inspired by onions and big green ogres, but I was. Think about a favorite movie character or fairytale character this week and make something inspired by them, or something that they might wear or keep in their house. Putting yourself in a movie character's "shoes" can help open your eyes to possibilities that you may not have seen on your own. Their character traits, where they live, their family and their likes and dislikes can all become your inspiration. Here are some more works of art inspired by onions and ogres (click the photo to be taken to the artist's Etsy shop):























I even found something that would be perfect for Shrek and Fiona's triplets: