Creativity

Finnabair has a challenge on her blog about quotes and how they inspire us to be creative. There are lots of words that inspire me, but I think the ones that have stayed with me and stuck in my head and still make me stop and think, aren't really a quote. Infact, they're a piece of graffiti I first saw nearly 20 years ago- "this inertia that keeps me, hides me, kills me". It was spray painted on a car park at my old university building and I read them every day for the next 7 years. The words eventually started to fade and the car park has since been demolished but still the words linger in my head. They're not the most cheerful words and I don't fully understand what sentiment inspired the graffiti artist when they sprayed them. There's even something slightly uncomfortable about the words, but they drive me on: to understand better, to keep trying, to not give up and never let things get me down. I try to follow this idea through all things in my life, including creativity. If at first something doesn't work or doesn't turn out how I want, I start over and try again.
This is my page inspired by Finnabairs challenge.

Created using lots of paints, sprays, diecut cogs, flowers and a lot of mess!

Changes

I'm generally quite laid back about things and don't usually get too stressed- except for when I'm waiting for big things to happen. I've just moved house and started a new job, and waiting for all the paperwork to go through and making sure all the necessary arrangements were in place left me feeling really strung out. I worried something would go wrong, I had a huge to-do-list that never seemed to get any shorter and what if I'd forgotten a really important thing?! Stress! But we're now settling nicely into our new home and my job seems to have gotten off to a good start so I can start to relax now and wonder what all the fuss was about.

This months challenge at Mixed Media Place is about being patient and well, it's something that I struggle with sometimes.

This journal page is about my IMPATIENCE and was created using sprays, crackle paste, seed beads, alpha stamps and a splattering of paint.

I'd also like to enter this journal page for the May Berry71bleu blog challenge. The colours and textures in their mood board are just gorgeous and really inspired my page details.

Greenwitch

The Dark Is Rising series is one of the first books I remember reading that has left an indelible imprint on my mind. The mixture of ancient magics, Authurian references and nature imagery always conjured fantastical pictures whenever I read it. My copy is now somewhat battered and falling to bits but still I devour each page as if I were reading it anew. The imagery of the Greenwitch book is particularly striking- ancient traditions combining with an elemental power that is renewed with each making.

For this journal page I used various patterned papers, spray inks and I handmade the frame elements from polymer clay.

Once upon a story

Sometimes, I admit, I find inspirational quotes a bit twee and overused. The words in my life that mean the most to me have come from the pages of books, stories that have stayed in my head for years and still have the power to move me and make me think, even after many years or re-reading the same pages many times. So I've made a mixed media journal where I can record these words and stories, where I can put pictures and images to the words in my head. This is the cover for this journal:

Amazonian manatee

I fell in love with manatees a long, long time ago on a family holiday to Florida. They're not the most glamorous or adorable of animals but there's something about these big gentle creatures that just fascinates me. Fun fact- although they are fully aquatic, manatees are more closely related to elephants than they are to other marine mammals like whales and dolphins.

Amazonian manatee (the ones in the photo- you can tell them apart from the other two manatee species by the white splashes of colour across their bodies) have a conservation status classified as Vulnerable due to the continuing reduction in their population numbers. One of the problems with these manatees is that the cloudy, vegetation-heavy waters of the Amazon make them difficult to spot and a large proportion of their territory is challenging for conservationists to reach, so there are no accurate numbers of how many animals there actually are. Sadly manatee numbers continue to decline as they fall prey to illegal hunting, accidental capture in nets and the destruction and degradation of their habitat.

This little guy is for sale here and by weird coincidence, today is actually Manatee Appreciation Day so I'm going to spend some time just, you know, appreciating manatees. I'd like to hug one cause they look very huggable, but it's not really a good idea to hug wild animals so I'll just google some pictures of them and 'aww' to myself instead!

Playing with paper

I used to do a lot of scrapbooking and altered art, but then life happened and I drifted away from it. I've tried other crafts but there always seemed to be limits to what I could do with them, how creative I could be. Recently I started to dabble in polymer clay after being inspired by some fantastic artists, and it's a great medium to work with and no end to the things you can make with it (as long as you have the technical ability!). But I missed getting my hands covered in ink and paint, turning a piece of old junk into something amazing just by applying the right embellishments to give it a new lease of life. So I went back through my old blog reading list in search of something to kick my creative arse into gear and came across this site's Moodboard challenge:

In addition to the gorgeous colour palate, the 'Dream on' phrase really sparked something for me. I've spent the last year and a half chasing an old dream and things aren't turning out as I'd hoped. So maybe it's time to stop dreaming and awaken to the new possibilities that are out there:

Planetary horoscope determination device

The Hellenistic period of history saw the combination of the Egyptian zodiac with the Greek system of planetary Gods, sign rulership and the four elements. This device was inscribed with the zodiac symbols used during this period of history. It is available to buy here.