Next Steps and the importance of leaving breadcrumbs

So I've now had a chance to observe myself while being more creatively engaged than I have been for a long time. It's been interesting. And kind of suprising. And kind of unsurprising, too.

The Good Stuff:

My visual/design diary

For the first time in my life I'm actually using a design diary for its intended purpose. This completely amuses me. I was the student in my high school art class who finished their final project on the last day before it was due, then stayed up all night making ficticious (and backdated) alternative designs in my design development diary. (The point was to make it look like I'd followed correct process and actually thought about my work. The irony was that the stuff was often much better that what I had actually ended up doing as a final piece). Anyway, using a visual diary as a way of playing and experimenting is happening naturally these days. Who knew it was actually a useful tool? :D

Enjoying the process

Even though I've just been inching along, i've really enjoyed doing something creative each day. The project I'm working on at the moment is quite lenghthy, but it's been good to see it emerge a little bit at a time.

Stuff looks good

I'm happy that my technical creative aptitude hasn't deserted me. I've been really glad that what I've been working on has been pleasing to my eyes.

Leaving myself breadcrumbs

I've really been enjoying the fact that I've been leaving myself a trail of breadcrumbs to follow with my projects. This makes it easy to fit in small bits of creative work because I know where I"m up to and know what the next step is. And often the next step is just simple execution. So I feel like this is something that's really working for me! Wunderbar!

Seeing things grow

Even if it's happening slowly I"m getting such a kick out of seeing my projects unfold bit by bit. Very satisfying!

The Hard Stuff

Filling in forms

At times it's felt like what I"m doing (particularly with the felt house project) has been a lot like filling in a form. The design element has been quite small compared to the time spent on execution (embroidery). Plus sometimes when I'm doing something at the end of a day just before bed I feel like I'm just ticking a box. I'm glad that the box is getting ticked, because it's a milestone and also moves my project forward, but it still feels forced at times.

Hitting roadblocks

I've realised that certain steps of the creative process act as roadblocks to me. Often they're technical issues that I"m not sure how to resolve. At other times they're choices that need to be made, and I can't decide what to decide. I find this pretty frustrating, though I'm getting better at recognising when I'm standing at a roadblock.

Record keeping

I suck at it. I hate keeping track of what I've done each day. Or rather, I don't mind it (when I remember it!) but I hate reporting on it here! Especially when it's like the last 10 days has been... the same project worked on for small snippets of time each day. There's not much impetus to write about what I've been doing when it's repetitive.

* * *

It's late and I need to hit the hay. I'll be back soon(ish) to post pics of where I"m at and do a proper check-in. Till then, I'll just keep chipping away!

Rehab in action

I've been treading water creatively this last week and a half. I've managed to inch forward on one particular project (the farm house) but progress has been slow.

On one hand this disappoints me, but on the other I feel proud that I've managed to keep going. Some days it's been a real effort! And I've felt a bit sheepish about actually posting here because of it (hence the gap since the last post). But I realise that celebrating - or at least acknowledging - small steps is important in the rehabilition process. ;) So here's my modest record of the last 10 days...

Wednesday - day 34 - writing

Blog post... not overly creative but I'm counting it! ;)

Thursday (day 35) - felt farm house

Friday (day 36) - doodling

I needed a break from stitching and a little doodling was the distraction of choice.

Saturday (day 37) - Writing

Sunday - SICK

Monday (day 38) - felt farm house

Tuesday - SICK

Wednesday (day 40) - felt farm house

Thursday (day 41) - design development -swedish embroidery

Friday (day 42) - shopping for supplies / design development

Is this creative? Wellll... yeah, kind of! I spent well over an hour in Spotlight perusing their wares, comparing and contrasting embellishments for the farm house, deciding on colours and shapes and sizes. So there were a fair few design choices being made there - I'm chalking it up to design development! Plus I fell asleep when putting Z to bed so I didn't get to do any more for the evening. ;)

Rehab in action - down on the farm...

Another week has raced by! And I've been rehabbing away, creating bit by bit. There have been a lot of thoughts on my mind about the process I'm undertaking. Strangely, though, I haven't felt moved to write about them... yet. I will. But this last week was characterised by physical craftiness & creativity.

I had the luxury of a big chunk of time last week and finally got a long term project finished! FINISHED!!! Wahoo!!

Tuesday (day 26) - Finished Matryoshka dolls!!

Ooohh this felt so good! Finally, FINALLY, the matryoshka dolls are done. :D They were polka dotted and had their little faces drawn in on the same day. They look great - just the way I'd drawn them in designs. ;) All that's needed now is a few coats of spray lacquer, but I won't be doing it as I don't want to breathe the stuff in while I"m pregnant. Then... on to the second set (for Z's birthday). I anticipate that it will be much quicker this time because 1) I'll know what I"m doing and 2) I won't have hangups about tackling certain parts because I know they're all pretty easy now. ;)

I"m planning (when I have time) to write a "how to" post on painting your own matryoshkas. One day... ;)

Look at these gorgeous ladies!

Wednesday (day 27) - model felt farmhouse

Many, many moons ago I had a project in mind. After seeing some beautiful felt cottages made by En Gry Sif (and seeing the prices!) I decided to make one for Z. I went and brought all of the materials, carted them to Rottnest, brought them back without having made anything and stuffed them all in the cupboard. This week I decided to drag them out and see what could be done with them. My first step was to make a little model farmhouse to see if the stiff felt that I'd brought was up to the job. I made it all in brown because I had more of that colour. My main aim was to test the stitching and the flip top roof. I've left this model without one of it's sides because it's going to be a dog house.

Had to put her in there cos she's so cute that she deserves a cameo!

Thursday (day 28) - felt farmhouse

Finished off the model, pretty happy to start the real thing!

Friday (day 29) - felt farmhouse - design and cutting

I did a few design sketches of the farm house to get an idea of size and styles of stitching. I also cut out the first shapes to stitch on.

Saturday (day 30) - felt farmhouse

Started stitching features onto the farmhouse. Slowly, slowly...

Sunday (day 31) - felt farmhouse

More stitching...

Pretty vanilla at this stage... will be funkified shortly

Monday (day 32) - felt farmhouse

And yet more stitching....

Tuesday (day 33) - felt farmhouse stitch sampling

I found a few different flower stitching techniques and played with those. I really like a couple of them, particularly the brazilian style leaf stitch (for leafs!) and bullion stitch for creating flowers that have a great 3-d effect. I haven't yet decided whether to go the whole hog and do all of the decoration with embroidery or whether to mix it up a bit and sew on other bits and bobs. I like the idea of pure embroidery and I also enjoy it, but... I know that it's crazy time consuming! And I wonder if little sewn on bits and pieces will create more texture and interest? Will think on it...

Rehab in action

Another week of Creativity Rehabilitation! Here's an overview of the last week's rehab....

Monday (day 18) - Writing

I was moved to write a bit about why I'm in need of creativity rehabilitation. This blog post - Opening the Treasure Chest - was a chance to examine why my creative juices stopped flowing.

Tuesday (day 19) - Z's heart mobile (finished!)

Ahhhh.... finally! A finished project! Everything was ready to go, I just needed to assemble it. A bit of fiddling around with some fishing line, and voila! It's now living in its new home, hanging from Z's crazy circus bed.

Wednesday (day 20) - Crappy Craft - egg carton animals

This was a result of a "get Z involved" moment. We painted the chopped up egg cartons together (I held them, she slathered and dabbed them with paint - very thoroughly, I might add!). I crafted the little heads and legs from pipe cleaners. After a failed attempt to glue them in place, I resorted to sticky tape. She held the bodies while I stuck in assorted legs and heads. (I later saw someone using tiny bulldog clips to hold pipecleaners while waiting for glue to dry - will do that next time!). In the end we wound up with a dinosaur, a dragon, a turtle and a snail. They're now all living together in harmony on top of her pink toy microwave. Of course.

Here's old red-o-saurus

Thursday (day 21) - Felt board stuff

I sat down and drew a sketch for the felt board farm. A house, little pond, trees, animals... you know, farmy stuff! ;) I now have a good idea of how many elements I need, what size, and how much work each one will take.

Friday (day 22) - Writing

I've been getting a bit frustrated when struggling to get some time to myself to create. I wrote a post on Friday to exorcise my frustrated demons and create something at the same time. (It's often easier to write while Z is around than it is to create anything using materials.) It's here: Mornings and Personal Brinkmanship .

Saturday (day 23) - Felt board shapes

More shapes, more animals. Slowly, slowly, the farm is emerging! This has turned out to be a good project to work on when I've only got 20 mins or so to spare. it doesn't take long to sketch a shape, cut the pattern and cut the felt.

Sunday (day 24) - Sailboat picture

Mmmm... yet another project started! (I'm noticing a pattern emerging here - heavy on the starting, light on the finishing - so far!). I felt like doing some embroidery so started sketching a simple sailboat design to embroider on felt. I did a few test samples of various stitches and have a pretty good idea of how to proceed.

Monday (day 25) - Felt board shapes

This was an end of the day effort, sketching and cutting shapes in the ad breaks while watching my fave crap TV show. Just managed to squeak in there!

Here's where the feltboard is at... fair bit to go yet.

* * *

Errrggghhhh!!! I must finish this post by venting a bit about supposed "font choice" on the blog. I always choose Arial, but somehow it only appears sporadically. Times New Roman keeps muscling its way in. Feck off, TNR!!

Oh and now another vent - can't get rid of the centre formatting for one piece of text above. I can see I'll have to make friends with HTML if I"m going to get this formattting stuff under control.

Mornings and Personal Brinkmanship

Early mornings are a mixed blessing for me. Getting up early in the morning - and by early, I mean when the rest of the household is sleeping - is one of the few ways that I can wrangle some time to myself. But - but! - that time is usually characterised by bleary eyes and a slow mind. (Cos that's what I'm like in the morning).

My early mornings also tend to come with the unpleasant side serve of afternoon crash-and-burn. Which wouldn't be so bad, could I nap, cos I love me a good siesta. But my 2.5 year old daughter finds napping a quaint and boring activity, and therefore this lifesaving pleasure is unavailable to me.

Despite this, there's something special about mornings, and working in the morning. I felt it when I used to wake at sparrow-fart to do Mysore Ashtanga yoga at 6am, and I feel it now.

Mornings feel good.

Mornings are fresh. They're full of potential. And there's a latent energy in the air, which is probably a result of the natural world getting ready to do its thing. (I'm pretty sure that birds don't have a snooze button).

When I do stuff in the morning, I feel like I'm aligned with similar energy.

Mornings are hard, though.

I love sleeping in. Profoundly. And I almost always need more sleep (refer to above mention of parenting a 2.5 yo with unlimited energy and no naptime). Some days I need more sleep so desperately that no stretch of alone time - bleary eyed or not - can even vaguely compete.

My mornings represent a personal brinkmanship.

At this point in my life, mornings are about a brinkmanship of self-care. One side is "getting some time alone" (very important to me) and the other side is "getting enough sleep" (also very important to me). And I really, really (really!!) don't want either side to come up short. Because...

Lack of time alone = cranky, resentful me

Lack of sleep = exhausted, impatient, unpleasant mother-&-partner me

I don't like spending time in either of those states.

A diplomatic solution to brinkmanship?

Is there such a thing? Does a solution even exist in this scenario?

One thing I've learned as a parent is that there is no perfect solution. What's needed is a toolbox. (Or better yet, a treasure chest!) A treasure chest filled with lots of mini solutions that all yield helpful, positive results.

I need to break here to have a good think about what I can put in it. I might come back for a second post on this later.

Resistance... Is futile?

I wasn't sure when I woke up, or after breakfast. But it's midday now and I have identified the signs of resistance...resistance towards doing anything creative today. So I'm going to have a chat to Resistant Me and see what comes up.

Me: So... is there anything creative you'd like to do today? Anything that takes your fancy?

Resistant Me: No. Not really.

Me: Are you sure? Sounds like there's something that might be ok?

Resistant Me: Yeah, but I can't do it today, because Z's around and she'll see me painting the dolls.

Me: Ah. You'd like to start painting the polkadots on? Even though you've been putting it off?

Resistant Me: Yes. *frowns*

Me: Is there anything special about painting the polkadots that makes it appealing?

Resistant Me: Well, it's a next step. I already know what I need to do. And it will be absorbing.

Me: OK. So it sounds like it's something that would be relatively effortless for you to do today, unlike creating something new from scratch.

Resistant Me: Yeah... I guess so.

Me: We've got a few other mini-projects on the go... could you take a "next step" on one of those instead?

Resistant Me: *thinks* I don't really want to design anything today.

Me: Ok... That's fine! What about doing some shapes for the felt board? You could do some really basic ones or do some embroidered ones if you felt like it?

Resistant Me: Mmmm. Some embroidery might be good. Might get into the flow a bit with it. I'll see how I feel.

Me: Great! After B leaves this afternoon I'll get out the sketchbook and the felt, and you can see what happens. :)

Opening the treasure chest

I decided a long time ago I wasn't creative.

This was despite possessing considerable skills in several creative disciplines. But seemed a lot easier to forswear creativity than to figure out where it fitted in my life.

I'm starting to believe that part of my decision was to tie up loose ends.

My various creative talents were like loose ends. Loose ends that made me feel like I was letting myself down. Loose ends that asked, “What's the point of having talent if you don't know what to do with it?”.

In order to get rid of these niggling, disconcerting loose ends I stuck them into in a box.

When I didn't get into Performing Arts Academy? I chucked acting into the box. When I withdrew from my Architecture degree? I shoved design skills into the box too. And so I went through my late teens and early adulthood, tossing creative talents and skills into a box never to be opened again.

By my mid-twenties I had labelled the box “I'm Not a Creative Person* ”. (The disclaimer read: “despite the fact that I have considerable skills in several creative disciplines”. In very, very small print, mind you.)

I realise now that I mostly put things in the box because I didn't know what else to do with them.

I never really examined the criteria that made a talent or skill box-worthy. I believed that if the stuff in the box was really worth pursuing it wouldn't have ended up in the box.

I figured that if one of my talents didn't deserve to go in the box that someone else would have stopped me from putting it in there. (Like “Hey! You're a great actor! We want you at the Academy”). Or that the non-box-deserving talent would have come up with its own escape plan. It would have compelled me to paint great pictures, or write a novel... And since that never happened, I figured everything in the box was meant to stay there..

After a while, I didn't really want to look in the box. Or even think about it.

Because what if something was in there by mistake? I'd feel really, really bad about having put it into the box. I'd kick myself over lost opportunity. (Plus, I'd also have to deal with that loose end again. And I hate(d) loose ends!)

This year I'm opening the box!

There are lots of little bits and pieces of bright, sparkling things in there, but the common theme is creativity. The abilities to draw, sculpt, act, direct, sing, write, improvise and design are all in there, along with other “loose ends”.

Basically, the whole box is stuffed full of my creativity!

I still don't know what to do with these loose ends. But I know in my heart that they'll make my life a lot richer if they're not stuck in the damn box.

Rehab in action

This week has really been about getting the first set of dolls done. So little chunks have been accomplished here and there...

Thursday (day 14) - Painting Matryoshkas

Little chunk here - hoods got painted, which took ages! Mostly because borders take a long time and there are heaps of borders in the hoods.

Friday (day 15) - Painting Matryoshkas

Scarves got painted. Which doesn't sound like much but sheesh it took a while! First a practice run with the brushes on each of the different size scales... which was well worth while because the smaller ones needed a different technique than the larger ones. Then the nerve wracking painting itself.

Saturday (day 16) - design development - Matryoshkas & doodling

Had a bit of a weird day here. I was anticipating a block of free time in the arvo to do some creating. I got the free time but was also struck by a pulled ligament. This left me pretty much immobile. So the sketchpad was pulled out and I got started on designs for the next dolls. Plus I co-drew a fair few ballerina worms with Z.

Sunday (day 17) - Painting Matryoshkas

Noice! A good 1.5 hours spent on painting, thanks to Z being off on a day trip with her grandma. Got the hair done (neatly!) and did lots of tests on different techniques for getting regular, neat polkadots. Harder, far harder, than it sounds. :/ I also managed to push past a barrier to get the first section of pinhead dots done. Part of me has been dreading doing that part... So I was pretty happy to make progress on it. Amazing how something so simple can be so scary!

* * *

From here on in I"m planning to do a weekly update on rehab in action. This will record every day's creative acts in one post, rather than splitting them across several posts. That way other posts can have more focus on the process instead of the product. Cos there's a lot of interesting stuff coming up that I"d like to talk through.

Wednesday Museday?

So I didn't make a Tuesday Museday post yesterday... but I'm completely happy about that, because I was actually Doing Stuff instead. Creative stuff.

I finally started painting the matryoshkas.

And you know what? It was lovely. Gorgeous. I remember thinking to myself, "Wow! How ironic that I was putting this off?"

Turns out that painting on the dolls themselves is umpteen times easier and more enjoyable than painting the designs on the damn paper. The wood is so deliciously smooth, the colours are delectable. Yum!

It also turns out that the brush has an intelligence of its own. Seriously, I was worried about how to stick to my wobbly little pencil lines. Screw the pencil lines! The loaded brush has a flow and a smoothness to it that my shaky pencil lines just can't compete with.

So. I"m feeling pretty happy about yesterday's session. I was in a state of flow (bliss!) And the dolls are looking so, so pretty. I could be disappointed that I'm not able to pull a repeat today. But I won't be. Despite an inauspicious morning I've managed to post here. ;)

Oh - an update is called for, I guess! A couple of posts ago I listed my efforts up until Saturday, so here's the rest....

Sunday - Creativity Rehab post (day 10)

Despite the fact that it was Christmas, I managed to post here. I was contemplating giving myself a pass instead, but stuff needed to be said.

So I said it. And it felt good.

Monday - writing (day 11)

I wrote a never-to-be-published blog post. It wasn't terrible, and it didn't say terrible things. It just turned out that by the time I'd finished writing it I didn't need to hit the Publish button. That's all.

Tuesday - Painting matryoshkas (day 12)

That's right, baby. Yeah!

Wednesday - Belated Tuesday Museday post (day 13)

Self explanatory. ;)

* * *

Wow! Almost 2 weeks in! :D

Perfectionism and the stealthy art of Avoiding-What-Comes-Next

So... I've got all my artist quality paints ready.... I've bought brushes that don't shed like mangy dogs... I've got a design all worked out it my "design diary"... I'm pretty much ready to paint these matryoshkas. Gulp! There's probably one more thing (two more things?) I can legitimately do before I reach the point of ok-now-I'm-avoiding-what-comes-next. (That's test the paints and finalise my colourways, btw).

Ok-now-I'm-avoiding-what-comes-next. It's so unpleasant to acknowledge Avoiding-What-Comes-Next that we've created a special word for it - Procrastinating. A sort of placeholder word that makes act of Avoiding-What-Comes-Next seem legitimate. And benign. And sort of understandable.

Avoiding-What-Comes-Next is strange place to be in... because part of the way that it works is that you can't really acknowledge that you're there. And to do that successfully, there has to be a really good and defensible reason for not doing what you need to do next.

Like:

"I can't do it while my 2.5 year old daughter is around and wants to mess with my painting shit".

Or...

"There's no one else about at the moment but I'm still sleepy cos I just woke up so I'd better not start now".

Or...

"The table where I need to set up and do my work is too messy right now" (cos clearly cleaning is out of the question!).

Any of those "reasons" are potentially great distractions from what's really happening when I'm Avoiding-What-Comes-Next.

Sometimes they're not. Sometimes they're legitimate reasons. I know they're legit when I feel like I've got an itch that I can't scratch (frustrated). But I know they're probably suspect when I realise that sitting just behind them is a cold-hearted dread. Of doing-what-comes-next.

In these scenarios, what comes "next" is usually something hard. For me, Hard is a special place where my perfectionism feels free to come out and play.

My perfectionism seems to love anything that resembles a finishing process. Because things that are finished are things that are ready to be judged. (Even as I write that I realise that it sounds creepy).

My perfectionism also loves to visit when I'm doing something that can't be done over. It could be a conversation, or a physical process that can't be repeated. (ahem, yes, like painting a pristine wooden matryoshka doll.) Even if the act itself is relatively easy, actually getting to the point of doing the act is hard. Because perfectionism is already whispering in my ear that it's safer not to do it at all. Can't fuck it up if you don't do it, right?

I've been spending a bit of time over at FluentSelf.com, a place which is both intriguing and inspiring. And I'm pretty sure that based on Havi Brooks' approach, I'd say something like this to my perfectionism:

"Hi Perfectionism! I'm going to do something that's probably going to make you very anxious and nervous soon. You're welcome to stay and watch if you can be supportive (or at least quiet). If you can't, I completely understand... but in that case you'd better head off somewhere else for a while and come back when I'm done. I know you want to keep me safe, but I need to do this. And if it isn't perfect, that's ok - it's the doing that's most important."

Week two - snippets

Since my last post I've realised it's pretty easy to forget what I've done each day! So this is a sort of a placeholder post, to refresh my memory.

I have managed (just!) to create every day since last posting. Some days it's been with desire and intent, other days it's been an effort to fit something in to meet the challenge. Yesterday, interestingly, combined both desire, intent and challenge. It's simply not as easy to create while Z is around. Which is a real shame, and something that I hope will change as she gets older. The issue at the moment is mainly that she wants to do whatever I'm doing - and that usually means exactly what I"m doing! She wants to draw with the same colour on the same drawing, or cut the same piece of fabric... *sigh*. Yesterday I managed to set her up with a copy of what I was doing that kept her happy, but not without a fair bit of frustration first. So yesterday was about meeting a parenting challenge too... which I did, successfully, but it took some effort to shift myself from a resentful "this is My Thing - don't bug me" to a more open attitude. Huh.

I feel a bit of a tentative rhythm developing in my creative efforts, but I"ll dwell a bit more on it and share my thoughts in my Tuesday post. As I prepare to record my efforts, I realise that a fair amount of this is either project work or work that is not destined to stand alone. I'm ok with this for now, but may shift things up a notch in the future. (When I first envisioned this project I had notions of lots of small things being crafted on a basically daily basis... not so far, we'll see!)

Wednesday - Z's name mobile (day 6)

This was a mini burst of creating - just enough to pull this project out of the craft cupboard and take the next step. Crossed the line - just!

Thursday - Z's name mobile (day 7)

Got a fair amount done on the mobile, which is now basically finished barring final assembly. The end was in sight, but Z needed to be picked up from hanging out with Dad. Which I was ok with , because I needed to think a bit longer on how I want the final assembly to look. This was actually a bit of a power session, because it was done in 40 minutes after cleaning like a maniac and mopping the floor. Yeehah!

Friday - Writing (day 8)

I've got a private writing project going on which definitely fulfills my definition of creative self expression (in parts). Friday morning was spent on one of these parts. It was great to get a big chunk of this done as it's something that's very close to my heart.

Saturday - Matrioshka design development (day 9)

Another "just" here. I actually spent a lot of time first thing in the morning researching for another project that's been in the back of my mind for at least a year. This particular project is a velvet silk patchwork doona cover. I found some sources for silk velvet (devilishly hard to do) and did a few back of the envelope sums to work out material needs and costs. Ouch! It's looking expensive. :-/ Anyway, part of me wanted to class this work as creative - but strictly speaking, although necessary, it's definitely not. So, come late afternoon after a full day I still had to meet my challenge.

I was really feeling like getting into some lovely rich colour and using some enjoyable materials, so I pulled out the oil pastels (Z's kids set) and created a large scale matryoska in the design I'm using for O's set. It wasn't groundbreaking (because I'd already had the design worked out) but it was pleasurable working with the oil pastels - they're so rich and fun to create colour blocks with. Plus at this stage I'm happy to go for mass repetition of the designs, because I want to be as familar with them as possible when I create them on the blank dolls set. There's nothing I can do if I make any mistakes, so I'm happy to be drawing little doll faces repetitively till it becomes very comfortable. ;)

* * *

Oh... the first of the family is up! So I'll leave it here. Today is Christmas, so this post is likely to be my creative act for the day. Much eating, drinking and being merry awaits!

PS - photos. I haven't forgotten, I'm just trying to work out how to get over the hump and publish them.

Tuesday Museday

It's been a few days since I started the challenge of rehabilitating my dormant creativity. I've decided to do something creative every day for the next year, in the hope of waking it from its hibernation. It sounds simple. It also sounds hard. Because I have a couple of crippling tendencies that kill creative efforts before they even get started. So far, though, I've managed to stay below the radar, and have met my goal every day for the last 5 days.

Day One - Friday

OK, this gives a real indication of place where I"m starting this challenge from. This is what is truly meant by the term "baby step"....

I made a potato stamp. Just one. And I felt pretty good about it, too! Because I've been meaning to make some of these most basic of kids art tools for so long, and the execution has always eluded me. No longer!!

Day Two - Saturday

I finally made a start on a farm scene feltboard for Z. I made the felt-covered board, and made the first piece to go on it. A sun, embroidered with a little face and rays. (I didn't know that there were going to be any embroidered pieces on the set. I do now!) This was actually a really lovely meditative process, blending the technical and creative into a very engaging combination. I feel great that I've made a start on it. It's also an ongoing project in bite-sized components, so it's a perfect thing to return to for some daily creation.

Day Three - Sunday

I started a blog some time ago. A long time ago, actually. And on Sunday I felt the need to write - creatively, honestly, personally. So Day Three's act of creation was to spend some time writing a blog post. It was about the process I've embarked on, and it was great to write about it. It helped to get a few things clear for me about the process. It also helped to really clearly identify the risks to it, because it's important to know your enemies. ;)

Day Four - Monday

Ugh. Monday started at 3.45am for me, when Z woke up. Long story short - she went blissfully back to sleep; I didn't. So by 6am I was working on the day's act of creation - decorating Babushka dolls. It was goooood to work on this project! It's been hanging over my head since (dare I say it?) April.... which would kind of be ok except that the unpainted dolls were originally purchased for presents to celebrate birthdays in April and May. Mmmm. A few sketches were done early on, then the two sets of dolls have skulked blankly in the back of my "craft" cupboard since then. The mere sight of them depressed me - they looked like tiny, reproachful, insurmountable failures waiting to be acknowledged. Hah! No longer! These ladies will be painted... I know it now.

Yesterday the design for the first set was all but finalised (there's one tiny detail that's waiting for divine inspiration. The colour scheme was decided. The next steps were recorded, as well as the shopping list*. (It turns out that half of the paints in the set I bought are texturally unsuitable for the dolls). I spent almost two hours painting before the rest of the household woke, and it was lovely. I now have a design diary that has a real project in it. It makes me laugh when I think of all of the design diaries I fabricated in high school art... starting with a final piece at the last minute and then working backwards after the piece was made to give the illusion of a design process.

*I'd love to get the paints and supplies bought before Christmas, so that I have a chance to work on them while M's around a bit more. I need some decent acrylic paints in the right colours (and they're gorgeous colours too!!). I need proper brushes also, because shedding hairs trapped in paint aren't a good look. We'll see, maybe a trip to Jacksons will eventuate before the weeks end.

Day Five - Tuesday

That's today! Although details on the format of this new blog remain (intentionally) sketchy I've decided that a day of reflection each week is a good thing. The post (Tuesday Museday at this point) will be an opportunity to dwell on anything that may have unfolded during the past week; any observations, feelings, musings on the creative process. It will also be the act of creation for that day. So, that said, this post is its own creative act.

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So, 5 days in things are feeling good. I've made some headway on long delayed projects, and have one tiny finished creation in the form of a smiley felt sun. (He's rather sweet, I'll post a photo later). I"m not sure where to from here with this blog, in terms of updating, photos, etc, but I'll dwell on it. Things will be forthcoming. I don't have much more to say right now. I'd rather focus on what's coming than what's been, especially when what's been is so modest. But it's still a satisfying start.