And next up was supposedly Chaucers The complete Canterbury Tales, but what happens when you order via online libraries is that you risk getting it in original old English…. Fun and understandable enough, but not quite what I feel I have the energy to study at this point in my life. So I’ll have to find something else until my next batch is delivered. Or I could try not to read if I finish “Creativity” and GASP do some painting instead! Haven’t knitted in a while yet either.
And then I look sideways at the mess on my desk (needed a box used for temporary storage, so all the contents got poured out), there’s a book someone lent me about synchronicity. “The Power of Flow”. So I guess I’m good for the rest of the holidays. 😉 I also have the C.G. Jung version somewhere in the back rows of my bookcase.
NÃ¥r man bestiller via bibliotek.dk fÃ¥r man nogen gange ikke helt det man regnede med – som fx. Canterbury Fortællingerne pÃ¥ middelalderengelsk. Jeg kan godt forstÃ¥ det, men det er en smule anstrengende og helt ærligt ikke lige noget jeg orker at studere pt. Enten mÃ¥ jeg gennemrode reolerne eller ligefrem holde læsepause, uha! Der ligger jo noget strikketøj og venter. Men sÃ¥ fandt jeg lige her til sidst en bog nogen har lÃ¥nt mig: “Flow – den strømmende kraft. Synkronicitet og meningsfulde tilfældigheder.” Jeg har ogsÃ¥ Jungs version et sted.
I haven’t been spinning since my fat singles adventure, but this week I thought I’d get out two braids of Rambouillet that I bought summer 2011 from CJ Delights.
I’m hoping they will take up less space as yarn, although braids are actually quite dense, but I also decided to use them for practising consistensy, so I’m just spinning and spinning from one end to the other, planning to make a chain-ply. I’ve got 3 batches of Targhee from Spunky Eclectic that are destined for the same fate.
Normally I’ve been able to put 100 g on my small bobbins, as you can see I’ve started to pack it down one end, but then I realised I had nearly 60 g of fiber left and gave up, started a new bobbin with the rest. I hope this means my yarn is getting fluffier = more yardage, but I’m not really organized enough to have kept solid records of everything I make.
And then today I read Woolwinding’s review of “The Spinner’s book of Yarn Designs” and was tempted to buy that and use my assorted fibers for something fun – but there’s time. Another time. (although the page says they only have 6 left, and not, as they usually add “…but more on the way”. ACK – what if they get sold out. Sigh. You have no idea what my Amazon wish list looks like. I need some cash. Wanna buy yarn?
Lageroprydning
Spinder Rambouillet denne uge, som jeg købte for et par år siden. Sådan et par fletninger er egentlig ret kompakte, men jeg håber alligevel at jeg kan frigøre mere lagerplads ved at lave fiber om til garn. Så jeg bruger de her købte, færdigfarvede fibre til at øve mig i ensartet spinding.
Jeg var lidt overrasket over, at spolen var så fuld kun halvvejs gennem den første fletning, normalt har jeg let kunnet have 100 g på, men her er altså kun godt 60g, så jeg valgte at starte en ny frem for at kæmpe med at få det til at være der. Jeg kunne sikkert godt, men jeg har jo rigeligt med spoler.
Det er dejlig blød og bamset fiber, men det er jo også en art merino. Minder måske egentlig lidt mere om Polwarth? Det er længe siden jeg har spundet Polwarth.
Sometimes I need to zone out from real life, and now apparently is one of those times. So instead of being busy doodling in my repurposed books (I’m planning for 7 with each its own theme, but I only have 5 so far) I’ve been reading and not much else. These breaks are usually very univited, I’d just figured out that acrylic paint doesn’t work in the books because the pages stick together and my promarkers don’t work well on gessoed pages. Doh. I’d tested them on acrylic only… So I splurged on a little box of pastel chalks just yesterday to force the flow, but alas, it’s not how it works. My body reminds me not very kindly, that I’m not really in contol 😉
Pause fra mine hjemmelavede skitsebøger og pause til at læse. Trænger nogen gange til at bare stene og lade verden gÃ¥ sin egen gang uden mig… Ikke af lyst, for jeg vil egentlig hellere fortsætte med mine projekter, men kroppen tager over og bestemmer noget andet.
Her op til og i weekenden har jeg læst “Labyrint” af Kate Mosse og “Bogens folk” af Geraldine Brooks. Nu venter “De ti herskere” af Christian Mørk, “I giftefærdig alder” af Sharon Moss samt “den ubundne sjæl” af Michael Singer og pÃ¥ biblioteket er bestilt “Sepulchre” af Kate Mosse, “The Map of the Sky” (den er vist ikke oversat endnu, men “Tidskortet” er) af Felix Palma og “Bird by Bird” af Anne Lamott. SÃ¥ hÃ¥ber jeg at jeg har nok til jeg igen dukker frem af tÃ¥gen! 😉 Jeg skal jo i gang med at lege med mine nye pastelkridt som jeg købte i gÃ¥r, dels fordi jeg ikke kunne fÃ¥ de sprayflasker jeg gik efter (som man bl.a. kan bruge med skabeloner til at lave art journaling baggrunde), dels fordi jeg har fundet ud af at akrylmaling ikke duer i bøger, siderne klistrer sammen, og mine fine dyre tusser tegner ikke sÃ¥ godt ovenpÃ¥ gesso. Doh. Jeg havde kun testet dem ovenpÃ¥, ja akrylmaling!!
***
Jeg har et spørgsmål til de danskere som evt. læser: vokspapir, hvor finder man det? Det skal være mere vokset end bagepapir, altså så man kan bruge det som mellemlæg ved sider som ikke er helt knastørre uden at det hænger i.
Heidi asked what my thoughts (and actions) were on conquering the fear of white canvasses. So I thought I’d give it a go and see if summing it up would help myself in the process too! And of course it’s a process, not a one-step fix. I probably won’t get it all in one blog post either…
Well, it’s a start, the canvasses are no longer white even though they’re filthy. (keep reading below)
I think the problem for most people is the illusion that they need to be perfect. At once. Always. Don’t get me wrong, I think art is something to be dead serious about, just imagine a world entirely without it! Well, No, right? Well, say hello to the World Champion of perfectionists. I know exactly, inside my head, what I want my stuff to look like. And if I can’t pull it off in first try (usually I can’t), I resign, tell myself I have no talent in this area and sulk about it. A lot. It’s even been a motto thoughout my life, “if I can’t do something really well, I won’t do it at all, and if I can’t have what I want, I don’t want anything”.
Lately I seem to have changed. I still want to be good and I have very high standards for it. But the concept of “practice” has suddenly dawned on me. Oh, I knew that old proverb, but really, it didn’t seriously apply to myself. Now I’m suddenly game to give it a try. Worst that can happen is – well, at least more will happen than before, when I didn’t do anything but wait for the perfect moment, running over the theory in my head (my version of practice). I might even have fun along the way.
Are you still hesitating? Break it into small steps. Arrange every step to be a succes in itself, be satisfied with your progress even before you get to the actual creating. Buy supplies, arrange a workspace so your supplies are there and ready, allow yourself to be fearful, push and rest, advance and retreat. Doodle a bit, go to an art exhibition, make really silly collages from magazines if that seems like a smaller step than brush on canvas. Tell yourself you’re just going to paint a nice background to get some colour happening. Don’t overly pressure yourself, nor let yourself get away with excuses forever.
Of course, some people like to just jump in, but they’re not reading this. It’s ok to sneak up on the action so to speak if that makes you more comfortable. What set me in motion and gave me a new urge to paint again, was learning to spin in 2011. I suddenly rediscovered the joy of working with my hands, not just my head, after years of photoshopping and Flash animating. My creativity suddenly woke up after being near dead for a couple of years (not good when you are a self employed graphic designer) and suddenly I had all these visions about colour and yarn designs and all sorts of things. Sometimes what you need to get the spark going is not even related to where you want to go!
So, what are some of the excuses the mind comes up with to postpone the moment of “failure”?
Equipment costs a lot of money.
I don’t have enough room in my house.
The kids (husband, cats) won’t leave me alone.
I’m exhausted today (again).
I have no time.
And the classic:
6. I don’t have any ideas….
Well…
Yes, it does. You can get cheap acrylics and low quality canvases at the supermarket from time to time, you can paint on almost any paper, doesn’t have to be 300g acid free watercolour paper straight off the mark. You don’t really need an easel, technically you can just cover a table in old newspapers. I always put nails in the wall and hung my frames on those. But even so, a decent starter collection of stuff does make a dent in your budget unless you have stuff from 20 years back stored in the garage like I did (and then I still spent some on this and that. And strangely enough, when you begin using it, it’ll be gone and you need more). But you have to make a decision. If you want to paint, you do need colours of some kind and a surface to put them on. Easier if you want to write, if you’re reading this I assume you have a computer, so you don’t even need pen and paper (although it actually does give another perspective on the process to handwrite from time to time)
Paint smaller. Something that fits your chosen table, see note #1. Keep your paints in a handy box or suitcase that you can get out in a jiffy and get cracking.
I don’t have human kids, but I imagine this can put quite a damper on your ambitions. I hate being interrupted when I finally get started and focused on something, impossible to stay in the mood! Or have someone stand behind me and just watch. I don’t have a lot of advice to offer I’m afraid, if you can’t train the kids to give you an hour in peace, or their other parent to deal with them, their grandparents to pick them up for the weekend, you might want to cover the whole room in newspaper and give them their own brush and paper. My solution to a small house and a chatty partner has been earplugs and mental blinders. Even if I feel eyes on my back, if I do not want to take a break I.DO.NOT.TURN.
THIS. I suffer from headaches, back aches, chronic fatigue among other annoying things for years. BUT. Another reason you are feeling tired might be the lack of creativity in your life. Art gives you energy, excuses and avoidance drains it. For real. See if your head doesn’t clear and your confidence gets a boost simply from that one victory of starting your first painting. Then have tea, pat yourself on the back, take a nap and have another go.
Do you ever watch tv? Do you have to? I mean, is there really, really ever anything on that is more important than painting? Your choice…
So you have no ideas? So why do you even want to make art? Like me, you probably can’t answer the last question, you just do. No matter how you try to be sensible, it keeps sneaking up on you, the urge, the dreaming. I think the more we keep telling ideas that they don’t exist, the more they’ll oblige. Leave the door wide open and they begin to trickle back in, soon you’ll be flooded if you let them come. In fact, you may have too many ideas and postpone acting because you can’t pick the best one, because you fret about all the ones you didn’t pick. What I discovered is, you don’t have to finish all of them. Just acknowledging them by writing them down in a notebook with a few strokes of crayon, is enough to satisfy your creative mind. Most of those ideas never get any further, but by taking note, you keep the flow coming in, and you free your mind of clutter that prevents you from focusing on one project at a time (ok, 2 or 3 is ok, right?). You’ll find that some ideas survive, others are no longer as important, they’ve done their job. Still not working? Go on expeditions, see something new. Take the kids to the zoo, they’ll be exhausted and sleep early, so you get a few hours to paint your impressions of the day.
A friend of my grandfather’s made me this about 25 years ago, great for painting on a table.
Then after you’ve inched your way towards action, no more excuses, it’s all sitting there, ready for the taking, staring you in the face, be aware of the following facts.
Rule #1: There will be obstacles. Such as, to mention a few: You finally get your A into G, plastic on the wall so you don’t splatter, jars for water, paper towels within reach. And then you discover that A. your ultramarine is not in as good shape after 10 years in the garage as you thought it was, B. most of your brushes leak hairs and dust like mad, completely ruining your canvas at first stroke (this is where the paper towels come in) C. you really need a waste bin for those paper towels. And more water for all those dusty brushes. You probably should have changed your clothes too. Oh well, and that plastic sheet on the wall could be a large contributor to all that dust, find a roll that hasn’t been in the garage or under hubby’s bed (or wherever he kept the darn thing).
Rule #2: There are no rules. A colour you dislike can be painted over as many times as you like. The painting can be turned upside down halfway through the process (any time during the process, actually 😉 ) You can use both hands, one at a time or simultaneously. Give it a go, paint with your “other” hand, kick logic up its backside.
Rule #3: Creativity is not linear or schematic. You need to listen to and follow your impulses. Even if it means that after a week of setting up your painting workspace, you have a sudden urge to spin purple yarn or rearrange your kitchen cabinets. Follow the flow. Sometimes the first step in a new project is finishing an old one! Art is not a job, don’t restrict yourself to one form just because you’ve decided you should. Life and your subconscious will tell you where to go next, even if it seems erratic. Now, if something tells you that you need to finish ALL your house chores before you’re allowed to paint, that is not your subconscious speaking, it’s your mum, and she ought to go and mind her own business.
Rule #4: Don’t talk, just do it. And keep doing it, no matter what rule #1 throws at you.
Julia Cameron: Walking In This World (The Danish version is “The art of being creative”)
Want some quick and easy ways to start playing, making art with no ambition of succes whatsoever, just fun? While I was writing this and in the process of testing my oil paints I remembered all sorts of little tricks, in fact so many that I’ll save them for another post. Stay tuned!
(som sædvanlig en ikke særlig ordret oversættelse fra engelsk…)
Nogen gange tager vi kreativitet alt for seriøst og kommer ingen vegne fordi vi helst vil forudsige resultatet inden vi overhovedet er kommet i gang, og det skal naturligvis helst være “perfekt”.
Og så kommer vi aldrig i gang med fx. at male, vi snakker bare om det i årevis, køber måske lidt pensler og farve i ny og næ når vi fristes i butikken, men det perfekte øjeblik at gå i gang opstår på forunderlig vis aldrig af sig selv.
Sat myself down for some prescribed quiet time and attacked my UFO pile in between reading. It’s sooo great to be able to cross out things on a to do list! And good to not run around trying to do ALL the things, just attack one at a time, never mind the others for the time being. I really, really must practise slow living since I probably won’t be able to master slow thinking…..
Didn’t manage to get done yet, even though I have several knitting projects just waiting, tempting…
So what do you do about sleeve syndrome?! As soon as I get there, I just lose all my steam. Knit summer tops you say? But I’m such an icicle, I need my heavy sweaters… I could do the sleeves first, but I tend to have length issues when I do. I need to set up some sort of reward system perhaps? I feel really silly working on one project, while my mind is all buzzing about another one that I’d rather be doing. Not very zen. I wanna be zen! So what do you do when one sleeve turns out too thin, the other too wide (not on the same garment thank goodness) and the body has stretched in width (on the garment that has too thin sleeve – but will the sleeve grow too?). You get REALLY bored!
This is just the very short immediate list. Oh boy, you should see the other one!
Sleeves on orange sweater
Sleeves on blue featherweight cardigan
Blue reverse sweater
Felted bag
New soft collar for ugly scratchy sweater
I felted the sweater, which I didn’t remember had no sleeves. I’d meant to use those sleeves for the shoulder strap. It also shrank A LOT. Well, that’s what felting does, stupid… So, now I have to knit some kind of strap, then felt THAT, before I have my bag. Which incidentally won’t be big enough for its intended use I think… Anyway, not the quick and dirty project I had in mind! For some reason, second hand stores here don’t have any wool sweaters, it’s all bleeping acrylics. I guess it’s a good thing though, I don’t need any storage space for felted items-to-be-turned-into-cool-stuff. I may just cut off the buttons and save those, you know. I know a cat or 3 who would love a new sweater.
I need a magic wand to finish these UFOs. And not one of those with a knob and a number on the end.
And now to go frog the too wide sleeve. In laceweight on 3 mm needles…. Wax on, wax off….. Yes, I did read that book up top. All looks so simple on paper, yes? Actually, maybe I’ll just keep knitting and accept what I get.
Så blev det lige tid til lidt stilletid, læs og strik, få has på nogen af de halvfærdige ting (så jeg kan starte 10 nye, ikke?). Jeg prøver at øve mig i at gøre få ting og gøre dem færdige frem for at rende mellem 25 forskellige projekter og få stress som jeg plejer. Jeg kan tilsyneladende ikke tænke langsomt, men måske jeg kan lære at opføre mig langsomt.
Det er ikke helt lykkedes mig at blive færdig endnu, selvom jeg har adskillige strikkeopgaver som ligger og frister! Jeg ved ikke helt hvad der sker, men så snart jeg når til ærmerne, længes jeg bare efter nye projekter. Hvilket er skørt, for ærmer tager jo ingen tid i forhold til kroppen, få dem dog overstået! Og hvad sker der så? Jo, selvfølgelig bliver det ene ærme for smalt og det andet for bredt (dog ikke på samme trøje), i min iver for at blive færdig. Og så tager ærmer pludselig meget lang tid, især med mønsterstrik som man er blevet rigtig, rigtig træt af. Nogen som har en tryllestav til låns? (ikke en af dem med numre på) Ja, og selvfølgelig er kroppen på det smalle ærme vokset i bredde helt af sig selv, men kan man forvente at ærmet også gør det?!
Ãrmer til orange sweater
Ãrmer til blÃ¥ cardigan
Blå omvendt sweater
Filtet taske af sweater
Strikke ny blød halskant til kradsende, grim, men varm trøje
Dette er den meget korte liste – I skulle bare se den lange… Mht. at filte en taske, ja, jeg havde overset at der ingen ærmer var pÃ¥ trøjen, de skulle have været brugt til skulderstroppen. SÃ¥ nu skal jeg pludselig til at lave en skulderstrop af noget andet, det tager lige mere tid end beregnet. Eller ogsÃ¥ klipper jeg bare knapperne af og gemmer til noget andet og giver trøjen til kattene.
NÃ¥, det blev sÃ¥ til en rapport om, hvordan man IKKE bliver færdig med sine UFOer… I gang med at trevle ærme – i lacegarn pÃ¥ pind 3. Zen, tænk zen…. wax on, wax off.
Hm. Måske få projekter slet ikke giver mindre stress end mange?
Vidste du, at man kan kommentere min blog uden at være wordpress medlem? Bare udfyld navn er nok. Det er så hyggeligt med dialog fremfor monolog!
NÃ¥r man bestiller via bibliotek.dk fÃ¥r man nogen gange ikke helt det man regnede med – som fx. Canterbury Fortællingerne pÃ¥ middelalderengelsk. Jeg kan godt forstÃ¥ det, men det er en smule anstrengende og helt ærligt ikke lige noget jeg orker at studere pt. Enten mÃ¥ jeg gennemrode reolerne eller ligefrem holde læsepause, uha! Der ligger jo noget strikketøj og venter. Men sÃ¥ fandt jeg lige her til sidst en bog nogen har lÃ¥nt mig: “Flow – den strømmende kraft. Synkronicitet og meningsfulde tilfældigheder.” Jeg har ogsÃ¥ Jungs version et sted.
