Beaded 2 Bless

The week has slipped by without any beading being done but the inspiration is still swirling inside. Taking a passive role by just looking at magazines and books instead of creating, keeps me going.  I may still get to bead today  but I will save the progress photos to share next week.  While looking through magazines and previous journal entries, I discovered  that this has been brewing for a lot longer than I thought. I came across a journal entry created several months ago during a worship service.  It is an awesome experience! You look at the photo...seem like a coincidence to you? I used water soluble oil pastes and pen to create this journal page. I love how you can work in one medium and it inspires your direction in another. If you work with multi-media, be sure to play with them all as your inspiration allows. You will find that it fuels a much bigger fire than you had dreamed. Uhh, no pun intended ( I think). I wonder what they were saying...

Whenever I start a large doll, I have a specific vision. I encourage my students to create this way too. What is a vision? A vision is something you see, it doens't have to really be there and it doesn't have to really be seen with your  physical eyes. It doesn't even have to be the whole thing- just a part. It can be a hope or a dream that you envision. It could be real or imagined, so long as you "see" it. My visions usually come from experiences that are unique to me. I may have shared events with others but the links to each event are my own. Hearing a band play a song, seeing the hawks floating on the wind, wanting to free that rooster of his beautiful neck feathers, even finding feathers on the driveway. Each of these events led to the vision of this doll. The song started it all. The lyrics say: Come be the fire inside of me, Come be the flame inside my heart, Until you and I are one. I see this part of the vision as a pose or a body position- which I have ...

Sometimes we all find ourselves in a creative funk. My funk began before I taught my class at Bead Fest. I had a difficult time getting it together to be productive. My preparations ahead of time really saved my keester. My class was successful, I had a lot of fun too. There was a lot of love in that room! But, it vanished almost as soon as I got into the car to go home. We all deal with this problem in different ways. When I am in a mild funk, I like to look at magazines, books or blogs for inspiration. I love to look at Etsy too. This funk was different, it couldn't be shaken so easily. I made myself create something- anything. I started with quick projects like ATCs. I have over a dozen new ones now. Then I fell back on the fun project and made a fish with some new beads I bought at Bead Fest. I even sewed  two new jackets, a skirt and a vest that is still half done....   The funk was still there. I knew it was something deep seated...  I needed to...