Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Pomegranate and Puce: New Banner

Check out my shop's new banner!



http://www.etsy.com/shop/PomegranateAndPuce

Creativity Series: Making a Plan

Making a plan is generally my next step in the creative process. This comes before gathering materials, unless, of course, my schema has the rule, "no new materials." which I frequently do. But not frequently enough.

I think through the project from start to finish, often mapping ideas in my sketchbook and keeping a running materials list as I progress through each step. At times, this includes a budget for the materials, where to get them, when to order, etc etc.

My current project is getting the knitting needles up on etsy.com. I have listed my materials and budget, and look forward to ordering materials on Friday. The only thing not as yet decided is the type of adhesive I want to use.

The planning stage is essential for the project to go well. Yes, surprises happen and on visual art projects I often allow the actual art making process to take a life of its own. My knitting projects, however, are frequently fully planned before I pick up a pair of needles. Pattern written and all. It makes it so much easier to stitch, quicker overall, and allows for the logic of the piece to make sense so frogging is not necessary.

Speaking of frogging, the previously mentioned wingspan in knit picks yarn is in the frog pond. Now, I've started it again in some hand dyed laceweight on size 4 needles. It is going really well.

I look forward to unveiling the new knitting needle project. It will be fabulous!

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Creativity Series: Editing Ideas

Creativity is a key component of the most successful people. It requires both right brain and left brain processes. Artistic ideas, without the logic to pull them into fruition, leads to no work being created. Foster both sides of your brain to maximize creativity.

Third, and probably the most important step of the creative process is editing your list of brainstormed ideas down to a few that may work, in a logical way. You may decide which are viable by choosing based on materials you have on hand, desired end result, skills to learn, or a multitude of criteria. I generally will create a schema at this point with rules by which an idea will be chosen and which will be culled out.


Creating and using a schema to choose which idea(s) are taken further increases the probability of a successful project. Often, the set of rules that I use is based on the particular project, but you can always start with the basic question words.

  • Who will this benefit?
  • What is the desired result?
  • When will this be completed (what is the timeline)?
  • Where will the piece be created?
  • Why should I make this?
  • How will this be made?
What questions do you ask to help edit out ideas?



Friday, February 24, 2012

The Creative Process Series

I want to write to explore the creative process, both mine and the creative process in general. My brainstorming post started the series. I generally begin with the feeling of needing to create, or a certain unrest. This can come in the middle of another project (unfortunately) or between projects. I get bored with projects easily, at times. Other times, I can spend a month on a single project. For example, I spent 6 weeks working on my "permanent bracelet" that I have been wearing for nearly a year. I sewed it on March 14, 2011. It is showing no wear, as of yet.


I nearly always have multiple projects going. Right now I am working on knitting two shawls, and have two shawls ready to be presented. I am currently working on Wingspan and Arabella. Wingspan is being knitted with Knit Picks Felici in Moonlit, and Arabella is in hand-dyed Knit Picks merino silk bare. It is a beautiful, beautiful tonal red. I have a lovely lot of dyes now, I'm so excited. Lots of bare yarn and lots of dye; now I just need to knit faster!

What motivates you to create art?



Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Brainstorming



I find brainstorming to be very useful in my art process most of the time. All of the time, dare I say. I love the exhilaration of getting the ideas flowing as I'm sure many artists do. If you are not familiar with brainstorming, it is basically picking a topic (ie. What to crochet?) and then coming up with as many ideas as possible. Some people set time limits, some people look for a magic number of ideas; the goal with those is to make you push for ideas after the most apparent ones. Here is where it gets tricky. The ideas need to be written down as they come, without editing. There is time for editing later. Nothing is a "bad" idea at this stage! It’s very freeing.

Brainstorming can be used for creative as well as non-creative uses, in fact, I brainstormed this post before writing! It is a creative task, and now the writing falls into place easily. Non-creatively, you might use brainstorming to solve a problem, financial or otherwise.



What did you last brainstorm about?

Monday, February 20, 2012

Etsy Kickoff Pending


I've been researching Etsy selling this morning. I think I am going hit this blog hard about my daily creative endeavors. Or post 2x/week at the least, as a goal. I plan to list at 930am and 930 pm, at least 4 times a week. I am going to invest $100 in this, to get started, and make as many listings as possible out of those bux. My mom found a product source that is amazing, so I will be using them. I am still on the fence though about that. That source has bamboo while my other source is wood. I don't know if bamboo takes paint. I suppose I could try it. And/or try ink. I plan to work on the graphics design and planning my inventory until my items get here, but first, I need to decide how to budget my tiny investment. It bears strong looking at to spend a tiny bit on advertising. If not money, then time. Time I have, most of the time. Money I do not, most of the time :)