It's YOU! Hello! Nice to see you! Here you will find stuff about living a creative life in country Australia. I create with watercolour, pen, collage, mixed media and photos. I teach, hosts workshops, collect, dream. I love cheese, travel, my garden, faffing, colour and whimsy. I am crap at time management, and do way too many things, but it is all good. Oh yes, all pictures and photos on here by me too, just saying.

Wednesday 21 May 2014

Some little AHA! moments...


 Some  little AHA! moments...

 Stumble, discover, seek , find. Amble, trip, meander, follow a thread, a link.

And so...many minutes later, I find myself still gazing at a computer screen, sucked into  a time warp...Sometimes these instances garner nothing but me wondering where the day went. But sometimes I do indeed have little breakthrough moments, little fizzy feelings in my tummy when I discover a site or scene,  image or words that resonate and I know this will lead onto good things. 

Little "AHA!" moments 

And so it was when I found my BLOG with PIP
classmate Leaf and Petal and her awesome writing and creations.....and then through her, another blog by a rather clever lass, The The Bowerbird Girl. Like me, she digs photography.Unlike me, she seems to have begun to master it...whereas I split myself into a million pieces.Jack of many trades and master of none I believe is the usual, standard cliche!

 Leaf and Petal wrote a terrific blog about her GENESIS moment, as part of a LINKY party (oh aren't I SO discourse technology savvy and cool...lol), and so ambling along I followed her to the origins of this idea, and  that was The Bowerbird Girl blog. 

So what is the the Genesis moment?You know, when you go...

AHA! I THINK I MIGHT BE ONTO SOMETHING HERE!

It is a fabulous feeling. A buzz. A fizzy buzz. A fizzy fuzzy buzzy thang. A bump in the solar plexus, a nudge towards your path.To be listened to, and not ignored.

Truth is, in the last few years, on this journey to reclaim a creative path...to get back to my passions and desires...there have been many many genesis moments. They actually stretch back all the way to my childhood.I see those moments all lined up, a little like  dominoes, and intrinsically know the connection between them . But I also know the things that intervened and stopped the dominoes from gaining momentum.

Maybe one day I will write the story of how rare pear studio started, and got some of that momentum back. But I will do it further along into the story, when the story has a bit more juice.Maybe.

But for now... I share these little AHA  moments...and why they are what they are.


CLOUD ON A PLATE

 Making lunch, playing with my bread...saw a cloud. I have blogged about this before, I know...but this little act of seeing, playing, snapping...reminded me that there are moments and opportunities to create and dream and see magic in even tiny things. It is still one of my favourite moments of "COOL..this is fun".One day I want to see it in Frankie magazine! I shall then die happy!

TIMBER

So one month of #7 Vignetting (yes, what is it..to the uninitiated it is a challenge on Instagram that goes for one week, the first 7 days each month, with a word prompt to inspire you), there was the word TIMBER. I had worked all day, came home in the dark, exhausted but panicking because I had not posted my shot for the day.I set this up with props grabbed from anything I could find made of wood. There were about 6 lamps and some candles burning just to give me enough light. I had not yet discovered the amazing joy of  the SNAPSEED app on my phone (oh how I wish I had known...!). It is a cleanskin shot...not even any cropping...I was SO green about how to edit photos on my new phone. I was about to call it quits, give up totally...when I looked and saw this image, and thought GOT IT!I could not wait to post it. It got a good reaction..one of the best I had had at that time. And it hooked me in...line and sinker ..into #7vignettes and Instagram.

BOOKFOLDING...



Strange but true, book folding is what got my creative juices and mojo back again. I thought I had come up with the idea myself, after playing with vintage books I kept picking up at op-shops. Then after doing a few books...and feeling like "WOW I AM AMAZEBALLS!" Then, I Googled it..at a friend's suggestion. And was so gutted (boohoo), I realised I was not that original. This was before I knew about Pinterest. Or Instagram. But I picked myself off the floor,threw away the used Kleenex and kept folding...and began wondering if people would buy these from me? After all, how many folded books did my house need to decorate it?And a little bit of the idea of rare pear studio began to form...
         
          STRINGRAM HEART
 
Making...from  whippy wisteria prunings and builder's string...I started winding and winding...for a thing called the string challenge, organised by Tina Fox of PAPER BAG KITS, through the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. I had no idea what I was making or doing...but just went with it. And once again...had one of those..."I am out of my comfort zone  but really enjoying this" moments. From the comments of others, I began to realise that what seemed perfectly natural and normal thing to do...to make something from bits of old twang, was actually a bit unusual and quirky to them.And made me remember that being creative was intrinsic and I could not describe it....except to know that it is part of who I am, and needs an outlet.Whatever it is, even old twang and string! 


So there you go...a couple or so of little light bulb moments.Not enough to change the world itself, but enough to change my little one.











BLOG WITH PIP

Monday 19 May 2014

PAPER, DENIM, LOVEHEARTS...another #7 Vignettes


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PAPER, DENIM, LOVEHEARTS...
another #7 Vignettes

And so May 1st came up. And another #7Vignettes challenge began.Lordy they seem to come around quickly!

I enjoyed last month's challenge words so much, that when I read the words for each day for May, I had a bit of a heavy heart. They were tricky. Damn tricky. I could not seem to find a common thread amongst them....

1. WHITE
2.HIDDEN
3.ESCAPE
4.TREASURE
5.HOME
6.SUNSHINE
7. AUTUMN

So scratching my head...I decided to fall back on one of my faves...the love heart, and put it into the word...somehow.

Unusually for me...I decided to only do 1 series. And one shot...for each word. This is so not my normal operating procedure! But edit edit edit, down to the bone...keep it very simple, and not go to crazy...was the plan.(LOL)

And so it began.
The background is a piece of scrapbooking paper...denim...the hearts all papers, hand coloured and cut. 

They were all done without too much pre-conceived thought...just kind of evolved as I tried out ideas.They were the fastest series I think I have ever popped out. 

True, I did not win...or even get any comments from this month's judge. But you know, I really do not mind. I really like them as a series, and some of the images I think still work as stand alone shots too.I did get lots of likes on Instagram...which is always a BUZZ. 
I think it is this BUZZ that makes me keep going back each month. Or maybe it is the masochist in me.

Because why would you make a complete mess of your house as you ignore the detritus on the floor, dishes in the sink, washing in the laundry... exacerbate this usual chaos by pulling out props, scissors, paper, tape, string, glue... ignore your family members for awhile, and then stress over how each picture will be received every time you post one,THEN torture yourself by looking at the amazing entries that make you simultaneously swoon and go green with envy...

I do not know. But odds are, I will do it all over again in JUNE, JULY...AUGUST....and so on..and on...and on.Yep,Sucker.  x


 AUTUMN
self explanatory really!

 HIDDEN
hidden love

 HOME
is where the heart is

 TREASURE
X marks the spot where the treasure is..which is of course, love

 ESCAPE
love flies free

 SUNSHINE
love makes the sunshine brighter

WHITE
love can come in all types of colours