Inspiration mosaic August 2010; view big!

I had a nice creative hiatus during August with no sewing, painting or art, this week I am trying to find my way back. I have done very little surfing too during August and now I’m at it again, taking in all the inspiration that was posted. I thought I’d share some stuff that I’ve enjoyed looking at this week. I’ve been flipping through inspiration online, collection images at flickr and made two new “Inspiration Mosaics”. These you have to view big, because both are so full of beauty and creative joy, soft colours and happiness. I love looking at my mosaics, little pieces of the creative community in my hand…. And also;

Creative inspiration

* Soul journaling class - I am reading archived posts at Sarah Whitmire’s blog. It’s a free (!) art journaling class that is nicely done. If you want to read it, just start at Day one (where we start by “claiming our journals” - gotta love that!) and click the link Newer Post at the end of each post to go to the next lesson. Then you can go through it all like I’ve been doing. Fun stuff!

* Personalized note cards - I always get inspired by Cathe Holden (of Just something I made). The note cards looks easy to do and they are beautiful. I want note cards like those!
* I also really like back-to-school-pencils with special messages and her Seed packets that include über cute Free (!) graphics to print and download!

Inspiration Mosaic II, August 2010. View big!

Video inspiration

Some videos are so good that almost every blogger out there feels compelled to link or re-post them, the cute video How to be lonely is one of them, most recently mentioned by Violette. If you haven’t seen it, please do. It’s a poem read and preformed by the author. My favorite lines are:

Society is afraid of alonedom, like lonely hearts are wasting away in basements, like people must have problems if, after a while, nobody is dating them. but lonely is a freedom that breaths easy and weightless and lonely is healing if you make it.
/Tanya Davis

To be able to enjoy your “alone time” is such a blessing, I only wish I’d known when I was younger.

* Millefiori beads video - I was watching Rachel on youtube making clay beads, its a time-lapse video showing the process of making a Millefiori Cane from polymer clay, and how to make the beads into a finished necklace. OMG! It does look so easy but it probably isn’t…

* Flip Thru video - Tammy’s new video showing her altered hardback book, full to the brim with yummy colours and her beautiful spirit!

* Social media marketing class - almost two hours with Sister Diane talk. I’ve sent the link to my friend who wants to start a blog for the first time, and anyone interested in twitter, facebook and blogging should take the time to listen to it. By the way, I haven’t been very active at iHanna’s twitter, but my followers now count to an amazing 494 people! Wow, it’s a crazy world. ;-)

* Jesse Reno at Art and soul radio, not a video but a podcast non the less. I haven’t listened to it yet but I bet it’s interesting. I love his art.

I hope you will keep inspired this autumn too, and let that inspiration fuel you into action!

The Green spread is the last of the monochromatic pages that I have made so far. Making a monochromatic page is like doing a little colour investigation. I picked up all the green pens from my pen box and it was obvious that green is a colour that I am drawn to, though of course I already knew that. Pink and green is one of my favorite combinations, and green itself is so rich and luscious to me.

The whole green spread.

In the comment section we’ve been discussing that monochromatic colour pages are great for beginners. If you are new to Art Journaling and don’t know what to put on your page why not start with a few pages of monochromatic. You could start with any colour and just experiment with it, why not ruby red (the colour that got me started)? Mix red colours and use pens, crayons, watercolours and acrylics in red, look for matching papers, find words that makes you think of red or describe how you feel about the colour. I think you will be inspired to continue once you get your materials out.

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Crusade prompt: Use “found” typography as background in your art journal. Cut out text headlines from a newspaper or magazine and glue it on a page to create a background or a text message. Material requirement: found type, adhesive, scissors and journal pages!

I cut out random words from a few newspapers and glued it all together rather quickly. I don’t think this is a finished page, and I am hoping that the next crusade will reveal something interesting to do to it, if not I will try to come up with something on my own…

Check out what others have made during August too: crusade no 43: text messaging!

You make fabric beads the same way you make rolled paper beads, but I prefer fabric. I haven’t had any success when I tried making paper beads (yet). It’s easier to roll the fabric, and the beads get chunkier faster. Here is a quick tutorial to show you how easy and fun this is!

1. Cut your fabric into triangles. I do this without a pattern because I don’t mind if the beads are not the same size.

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Orange is red brought nearer to humanity by yellow.
/Kandinsky

The fourth spread in my Monochromatic Series, and the colour is happy orange.

I’m not sure if it is true but I heard that orange is the colour of creativity. When we see this colour it would makes us more creative… it might be true. At least I know for sure that it is a juicy happy colour. I’ve also read that it stimulates activity and appetite, and encourages socialization! Isn’t it cool what colours can do, hehe.

Orange makes me thirsty for orange juice. I can even smell oranges when I see the colour. Another strong image that comes up when I think about this colour are the smiling Buddhist monks I’ve met, all wrapped in orange cloth. I also think of henna, curry, saffron and other spices…

This is the orange spread in my Art Journal:

If you mix red and yellow you’ve got yourself a pretty orange. Try it out and let me know how it goes.

Here are some more details of this spread:

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Details do create the big picture. I wrote about this Hand Bound Art Journal last spring and considered the promising emptiness of it. I thought I’d go through it quicker, but I’ve been working in other books too so it still has blank watercolour papers to fill. But soon it will be full and I need to consider binding another one together. Here are some details from this one journal:

Image transfer.

Red sticker rose.

A yellow butterfly sticker.

Colourful letters cut from a magazine. Big they say: use your whole palette!

A LOL Buddha on a Diana Trout inspired page, written on a loose lined page (now glued into the journal) while I was reading her book Journal Spilling.

Time for a quote;

A mountain is composed of tiny grains of earth. The ocean is made up of tiny drops of water. Even so, life is but an endless series of little details, actions, speeches, and thoughts. And the consequences whether good or bad of even the least of them are far-reaching.
/Sivananda

I love taking bits and pieces of the whole and seeing it anew. Looking at the detail of each collage. That is why I love close up photos of my art journal. I love my art journal, both the making of it and the look and feel of it when it is full. Sorry to go on about this, but it is true every day. Dear Art Journal, you are my friend.

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way - things I had no words for.
/Georgia O’Keefe

Continuing to paint in The Monochromatic Series, as I’ve come to call it. Art Journal spreads exploring one colour only and the different aspects of that colour. The third colour of course had to be my favorite colour (not even wild horses could hold me back any longer, as we say in Sweden): pink.

A mix of red and white, the colour of sweet love, young girls, and my cat’s nose. Pink is my own true love colour.

View of the whole spread:

Mixing colours, trying out both watercolour pink and acrylics from bottles and jars, some pink papers and stickers etc.

A few details of this spread so that you can have a closer look:

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Summer in full bloom, everywhere. There is abundance and I try to notice it and embrace it.

I take more photos in the summer. There are more looking closely at ordinary things happening. More little details of the whole. More documenting what surrounds me today, things that will be gone or changed or different tomorrow. More experimenting with the photos in the computer. More appreciating of life in general. More stillness, just sitting and breathing in and out of the nose, listening within. Lots more flowers. Lots more of it all.

Poetry is the journal of the sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air. Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable. Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away.
/Carl Sandburg

These days I almost exclusively write with black ink in some form. Right now my favorite pen is the Pilot Hi-techpoint V5 Grip pen (a Fine Roller Ball Pen with black ink). The metal nib seams to hold up for the pressure I put on it daily. I’ve written with the same pen all summer and it still works! Pen testing (for me) needs to go on for some time before you can give a true testimonial and judgment of the pens long-term qualities.

I have tired of the Pilot G-tec-c that used to be my favorite. It has the thinest nib ever and when you write with it it feels great, but it does not hold up in the long run. The nib keeps breaking before the ink runs out and it drives me crazy that I have to through away a half full pen over and over again. It is too costly to be a staple good in the house, so when one pen breaks I try to keep writing with it but the nib gets stuck in the paper, I get irritated, the ink pools and smears - and I though it in the trash with a sigh.

In my last order from Amazon I bought a pack of two Sharpie Fine Point Pens that I really enjoyed writing with - for a week. Then the nib got pushed in and the fun was out of the pens. Maybe I have too much pressure on the pens, but I think they should last more than two weeks for daily writing!

So for now I’m going to keep writing with the Pilot Hi-techpoint pen because it works well for me. I recommend you to try it out. But as you know, the search goes on. For ever. The perfect pen is just around the corner and one day we might all just find our own Perfect Favorite Pen! :-)

Have you found your own best match yet, when it comes to pens and notebooks?

The rinse water is colour coordinated after painting another monochromatic page!

Do you remember the Ruby Red Page in my Art Journal? It was so much fun I decided to go on an explore colour a bit more… Time for another almost monochromatic page, this time in turquoise, the colour of 2010.

I have tried out all the different colours of turquoise that I could find around here; crayon, acrylics, deco tape, bits of paper that was in the right colour, and my own try at turquoise mixing;

To make your own turquoise colour you mix white, blue and green together. Isn’t it a beautiful colour?

I like making monochromatic pages, it’s fun! Why not give it a try?

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