DRAWING FROM THE DAY
  • ...a blog on art, creativity, and mindfulness

Almost Good Enough to Eat.

8/30/2022

 
Picture
Well not really good enough to eat, unless you enjoy a mouthful of wool?

This morning I went looking for some sock/fingering weight yarn for my next punch needle embroidery project and what should I happen upon but this hugely expensive, luscious-looking hand-dyed skein.  I'll be building my next textile piece around the colors in this yarn.  Plus a few other colors.  Stay tuned.  I hope to be back to full speed soon, with more rug hooking, rug punching, yarn dyeing, drawing, and who knows, perhaps even some beadwork.

I don't own undyed yarn in this weight, so I can't dye any myself.  This gives me a great excuse to stand in the yarn store and drool over what other people create, and then buy some.  Hey, anything to buy more yarn, right?  I will file this under the inspirational category, Other People's Work.  Gorgeous!

The Perfection of Imperfection

8/17/2022

 
Picture
Tiny portion of punch needle embroidery using hand-dyed wool sock yarn, crochet cotton and embroidery floss with an UltraPunch medium needle tip set on #2. Showing the full piece will come later, once it's 1) finished and 2) hemmed and steamed.
While I'd love to be moving full speed ahead into my former art activities, I can't.  I can only do what I can do (isn't this always true?), so today I surprised myself by getting back into the old punch needle embroidery piece I was forced to abandon a bit over three months ago.  And:  YAY, I am well enough to do this.  Finally.  So I've been working on the border.

What you see above is unfinished.  It'll need a lot of poking and trimming and filling in spaces before it's done, as well as a final hemming and steaming.  It will never be perfect, as nothing hand-made can be perfect.  But it will have "the perfection of imperfection," the irregularities all handwork has.  There are so many parallels to our human lives--I don't even have to say them here; you already know what I'm saying.

The steady rhythmic punching is the ultimate in meditative motion.  I find the work incredibly soothing and have missed it during my enforced rest.

It feels absolutely wonderful to be working on this again even though I'm nowhere near done.  Perhaps within the next two weeks I can begin more frequent drawing and even rug hooking.  A routine, non-serious medical issue forced me to give up all art projects.  What a relief to be able to pick them up again.

Forced rest.  What a concept!

Museum of Bad Art Entry

8/2/2022

 
Picture
Done with a ten-year-old ScratchArt kit using a wooden scratcher.
I am still laughing over this one.  To keep practicing, I thought I would do some ScratchArt today.  ScratchArt is just what it sounds like--you take a heavily-coated black tile and use a wooden stick to scratch off the coating, revealing what's under it.
Picture
Same tile, run through an iPhone camera app, heavily filtered (for disguise??).
This falls into the "you never know what you are going to get" category.

Except.

When your ScratchArt tiles are all ten years old or older, you can be pretty sure that over time the black coating will have adhered itself like super glue to the surface of the paper and scratching will be about 40 times harder than it should be.

Such was the case here.

Using an extremely dull piece of wood was also a factor.

As was lack of practice.

Result:  a vibrant candidate for the Museum of Bad Art.  (Which is one of my all-time favorite places to go when I need a mood booster. Do check out that link--it's a real place.)

And I am still laughing.

It's similar to meditation:  the process can dig up some very stuck stuff and the results aren't pretty at times (even when run thru an iPhone filter, which, alas, no meditation app can do). 

A sense of humor really helps.

Yup, I'm gonna keep on practicing.  Stick with me, ok?

PS, if you'd like to try your own hand at ScratchArt, click that link to get the cheap stuff at amazon.  Note that my set is so old it doesn't even look like this anymore but it's by the same people.  If you prefer to work with better quality materials, just google "scratch art paper" and you'll find some high-quality options that will make a huge difference in the quality of your finished product.  Tools really do make all the difference.  Search the web and you'll see some stunning art made this way, using better tools (and more consistent practice).

Crawling Back:Ā  You Gotta Start Somewhere!

8/1/2022

 
Ok, that title is WAY more dramatic than what is actually happening.  In fact, I'm doing well in real life but am just barely beginning to think about doing anything other than reading. My little "medical adventure" took 2.5 MONTHS away from normal life, and the single thing I could do was read.  50+ books in 8 weeks.  But as I heal, I hope to be back on track. 

I have been extremely eager to tangle or do some textile work over the past month, but have been unable to get comfortable enough.  Only in the last few days did I think I might be able to draw soon, and today I sat down and gave it a try.

This is what happens when you are unable to practice for a long time:
Picture
Central tangle is Singfanie by Debbie New, surrounded by Mooka, Tipple. I used white and blue chalk pencil, blue and green prismacolor pencils, white gellyroll 10, graphite, and gray and black Micron 01s.
Wonky wonky wonky! 

After nearly 3 months, it's just wonderful to be tangling ANYTHING, even if I've lost a lot of aptitude.  As I said in the header to this post, you gotta start somewhere.

Very similar to meditation--after a time with little to no practice, you gotta start somewhere.  The big lesson of meditation is "Begin Again.  And keep going."  It's the same with Zentangle®.  Just start again, and keep going. 

Practice will never make perfect, so give up that idea.  But practice will prove itself to be worthwhile over and over.  Practice makes for noticeable improvement.

I'm on it!

    ABOUT ME

     I'm a textile artist (traditional rug hooking, punch needle rug hooking, and other textile arts), a long-time meditator, a certified meditation teacher and coach, and focused on learning about the interplay of art, creativity, and mindfulness every day. 

    I am also a Certified Zentangle® Teacher (CZT 11) and a student of drawing and of the tarot.

      If you enjoy reading this blog, input your email address here to get an every-other-month notice about checking for new posts.

    Subscribe to Newsletter
    Picture
    Certified, 2021
    Picture
    Certified ZentangleĀ® Teacher, 2013
    Picture
    Certified by AmyOxford.com at The Oxford Rug Hooking School, 2016
    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Black Tiles
    Bookbinding
    Broken Wrist Tangles
    Clocks
    Colored Pencil
    Creative Inspiration
    Death
    Diva Challenge
    Drawing
    Dyeing Wool Or Yarn
    Fans
    Frederick Franck
    Gellyrolls
    Gesso
    Gratitangles2018
    Gratitangles2020
    Gray Tiles
    Ims
    Inktober
    Inktober 2018
    Inktober 2019
    Inktober2020
    Iphone App On Tangles
    Joey Challenge
    Knitted Knockers
    Knitting
    Knots
    Mandalas
    Map Tangling
    Marathon
    Meditation
    Neurographica
    No Fail No Learn
    Other People's Work
    Poetry
    Portrait
    Punch Hooking
    Punch Needle Embroidery
    Quilts And Other Art
    Rainbow Lead Pencil
    Renaissance Tiles
    Rug Hooking
    Scratch Art
    Sketchbook-skool
    String Thing Challenge
    #summertangles2018
    Tangles
    Tarot
    Tarot Rug Project
    Truly Miscellaneous
    Watercolor
    Weather
    Zenagain2018
    Zendala-dare
    Zenuari2019

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014

    SITES TO WATCH:

    Insight Meditation Society

    Oxford Rug Hooking School


    Zentangle:  The Official Site

    Green Mountain Rug Hooking

    Massachusetts Tarot Society


    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • ...a blog on art, creativity, and mindfulness