ponderment

I've been pouring a lot of time and effort into my altered book lately, and I think I need to take a step back. One of the strengths - and weaknesses - is that there's never an end product. Or progress to show. Or anything. So all this time disappears into the book and there's nothing - except a partially defaced book - to show for it.

I love the process, but I think I need some product, too.

vascillation

Can't decide: if you're not good at something, should you still 'waste' time with it? especially if there are other things that need doing? is art for its own sake worthwhile? is it still art if it sucks? if it's pretty? if it's derivative?

I don't know.

musing

One of my many problems with creativity is that the image in my head is almost always miles and miles from what I actually am able to produce.

Also, I might get more posts up if I didn't have a computer trying to actively sabotage communication with the outside world.

Wednesday's art is full of woe

Recently I found the Virtual Sketch Date blog, and it inspired me to go dig out some watercolor pencils and have a go at it. Now, art got picked for Wednesdays because while I love to play with it, I fully recognize that I am woefully bad at it. But I'm going to post it anyway, mostly to wonder why we are driven to do things we are not good at. Wouldn't it make more sense to compulsively do the things we are good at? More efficient, at the very least.

Oh.

You know, a blog sort of fits the description of what I've been looking for . . .

Duh.

organizationality

So, like most people, I have a 'to do' list. My problem has always been how to organize it, however. There's such varying categories as:

-minutiae that needs to be done soonish
-chores
-things I would like to do sometime
-stuff that needs doing but I can't do all by myself
-things with actual deadlines
-crafts I would like to try
-projects already underway

For instance, if you organize by date, where do you put the indefinite things that need to be soonish but don't have a deadline? Or recurring chores? If you sort by priority, how do you decide on priority? Desire? Deadline? Practicality?

Listography is kind of helpful, but I really need something a little more . . . something. Sort of like Ravelry, only for my whole life.

And really, I've never seen any crafter/artist type address this. Or maybe I've just overlooked it. What to do? What to do? (other than putting this on my 'to do' list . . . . argh!)

ordinary time

some days it takes all the creativity you have to make it through the day

FAIL, part 3

I melted my teapot box. It was very sad.

”The seed of your next art work lies embedded in the imperfections of your current piece. Such imperfections (or mistakes, if you’re feeling particularly depressed about them today) are your guides -- valuable, reliable, objective, non-judgemental guides -- to matters you need to reconsider or develop further.” -- David Bayles and Ted Orland

Saw the above today at the ICPG. I'm starting to realize how true it is. Although, perhaps not so much in the matter of the melted teapot.

the wonderful world of biology

When artists speak of being inspired by the natural world, they seldom mean at the molecular level, which is a shame. Nature's exquisite forms aren't limited by the resolution of the human eye.

I just wish that I could have reached this conclusion other than by pondering the nasty cold I appear to be coming down with . . .

insecurity

I wonder how common insecurity is among crafters? Is my opinion of my own work pessimistic, or realistic?

You see, now that I'm nearly finished with the boh I am/was planning to send in for the North Texas challenge, I'm getting cold feet. (cold postage stamps?) I think maybe it's because somehow I have invested so much of myself in this project that I'm afraid to part with it to a less than loving home. Also, I think, what am I doing entering a challenge of all things? What if the organizers get is and are like 'yuck! what on earth are we supposed to do with this?'

Self-doubt is one of those ridiculous things that is dangerous to have either too much or too little.

we're in the money

I really wanted to go to Dan Cormier's class this weekend, but $250?!? There's no way. Even if the money were to fall out of the sky, there are many more important things that I could use the money on. Plus there's the little fact that I've never been to a polymer clay workshop, and so wouldn't know what to do with myself.

But I still wish I could go. (or, rather, magically learn the information)

she's got a good personality

No pictures today, unfortunately. The camera is a wicked tease with its battery life.

A while back, I posted on facebook that there needs to be a word for something that obviously took a lot of time/effort, but was in the end hideous. Nobody could help me out. I was pondering some of my recent forays into new (to me) techniques and thought again of the need for that word.

Also, what do other people do with the things they make that are too awful to give/sell/display, but that took too much effort to just chuck in the trash?

teapot, tempest optional

This is the teapot box I'm working on currently. It's my most 'in progress' project at the moment; i.e. it's the one I work on first when I have a minute. The top is built, finally. Now it needs crevice filling with TLS and some serious sanding. The bottom, on the other hand, is barely begun - and I still don't know what I'm going to do about the spout. It took me two days to figure out the relatively simple handle. Maybe while I'm sick and can't work (or sleep!) I'll look at some online and try to figure it out. Also I need to decide how closely I want to follow the shape of the actual box on the bottom. Right now I have one tier of figural decorationy stuff underway, but I'm wondering if it wouldn't look better with a second of about the same height but a smaller diameter. I can't wait to get back to work on it - a cold has destroyed all my energy and powers of concentration, and so my poor lonely teapot sits, gathering dust . . . Of course, my enthusiasm was dampened somewhat when, while trying to find inspiration for the spout online, I ran across these lovely teapot boxes. Surely I can't be the only one discouraged instead of inspired by obviously superior work? It's why I have a love/hate relationship with various professional polyclay galleries. I immensely enjoy looking, but it fills me with despair, then, when I return to my own work. This isn't that abnormal, right?

bottles of hope

The North Texas Polymer Clay Guild is sponsoring a bottles of hope contest. The deadline is April 10th. I'd really like to enter:
- for the exposure (not that that matters until I can restock my etsy shop)
- in memory of D-daddy, whose bottles I was given by Deedie
- because it's a nice thing to do for people

So far my brainstormings haven't been very productive:
- Hope: clay backed butterfly topper, pandora's box, sun and clouds
- Shape: tree, mushroom, castle tower, gnome

More than the contest, I'd really like to come up with something that would inspire the eventual recipient. Intriguingly, this points to another craft/faith nexus of the type I've been pondering recently. I think my head is a rock tumbler, turning nuggets of ideas over and round until they come out polished and ready for presentation. It's just a very sloooow process, most of the time, and craft/faith nexus needs to go back in for a while.