Skechbook challenge: 7 days of drawing

Entry for June 22nd

Pathways: Sharpie zentangle

Entry for June 23rd

Pathways: Music pathway

Entry for June 24th

Pathways: Pathways I have walked on

Entry for June 25th

Pathways: Goldilocks zentangle

Entry for June 26th

Pathways: Poppies exploration for a art quilt

Entry for June 27th

Pathways: The life cycle of the poppy

Entry for Jun 28th

Pathways:  Further exploration of poppy seed heads

Creativeness and family

Last night was our family night.  We have a family night every Monday night.  Nothing is allowed to be scheduled over this night apart from emergencies.  We have done this for the whole 20 years of our marriage.  It is a wonderful way to connect with one another and to make our family a priority.

Last night as a family we learnt how to draw zentangles.  We had a lot of fun and everyone finished one.  These are the finished products

I think they all did a wonderful job!

Skechbook challenge: 7 days of drawing

Entry for June15th

Pathways: Grapefruit tree

Entry for Jun 16th

Pathways: Cabbage tree

Entry for June 17th

Pathways: Our fore fathers made

Entry for June 18th

Pathways: Of family

Entry for June 19th

Pathways: Neural pathways

Entry for June 20th

Pathways: Miners hut collage

Entry for June 21st

Pathways:  The pathways we choose determine our destiny

Photography this week

Pictures of a flash flood taken on Saturday on our sloping backyard.  We had a lot of rain fall in a short space of time.  Or backyard was like this for 3/4 hour.  The kids had a great time in it.

Under the deck

I sent this photo into the National news and they published it in the weather time.  the kids were thrilled to see themselves on TV.

Forward rolls???????? 

Our river

Quilters block

I am going through a quilters block at them moment.  I have lots of O.K. ideas but not much that I am wanting to actually make into a art quilt.  The more I draw the more I feel uninspired. Why DO I feel like this?  I decided to take a good look at myself and see how I could overcome this block. 

1. Maybe it is because I am not being creative enough and actually doing anything......No I am drawing daily,  I have a mdae a few quilting projects over the past couple of weeks. 
2. Not enough motivation............Not this one either I have always felt motivation isn't a word, it is either doing it or not doing it. I am practicing daily and I am doing it so I am motivated.
3. Not having a signature look................It could be a wee bit of this one.  Maybe I need to experiment more and find me more in my work!
4. Having interuptions......I find I work best with no interuptuptions.  This is a hard one for me in a very busy house but I am getting quite a bit of time while the kids are at school so it shouldn't be too much of an issue.
5. Not having direction in my work.  Both in how I do my art and how to market my work..........This could be a bit of it too.  I am afraid to market my art because of rejection, a fear which I need to overcome.  I need to write some new goals in how I do my artwork to see if this will help me focus more.
6. Not having won any awards or recognition in NZ.........This is getting hard for me to keep entering things and getting nothing for my efforts.  I know it should enough to have the reward of making a piece of work but I would love to teach and unless there is some recognition for work no one wants to have you teach them in NZ.  HMMMMM need to think on this one.  I maybe need to evaluate why  I am making art and change my outlook?

Well I will contemplate some of these possibilities to see if they can help me through my block. 

What are some of the blocks you have?  How have you overcome them?  I would love to hear some of your ideas!

Skechbook challenge: 7 days of drawing

Entry for June 8th

Pathways: Botanical gardens

Entry for June 9th

Pathways: Exploring roller stamps

Entry for June 10th

Pathways: Careers

Entry for June 11th

Pathways: Hut

Entry for June 12th

Pathways: Maori sculpture

Entry for June 13th

Pathways:  How many ways to describe and cook pears.

Entry for June 14th

Pathways: Mountains

Photography this week

These are some of my photos i have taken this week.  ENJOY!

Skechbook challenge: 7 days of drawing

The new theme for June is Pathways.  This theme can be explored in any way the artist choose.  These are my first 7 for the month

Title page: Pathways

Entry for June 2nd

Pathways: Unexpected pathway-depression

Entry for June 3rd

Pathways: My travels today

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Entry for Jun 4th

Pathways: Dreams versus reality

Entry for June 5th

Pathways: Sketchbook mind map

Entry for June 6th

Pathways: Water pathways

Entry for June 7th

Pathways: Flowers

Quilted book covers

A couple of months ago I downloaded Lyric Kinard's workshop called the sample platter from the quilting arts web site.  It is a wonderful mixture of diffent techniques to try for surface design. At the end of this DVD she demostrated an easy way to make book covers.  So I decided to have a go at making one. 

I used a few techniques in the DVD. 

1. Screen printing-The front cover of the book is a screen print I designed
2. Stamping-I made my own rubber stamp and printed this image onto the spine.
3. Rubbing-I did repeated rubbings of a flower stamp and a line printing block with shiva paint sticks.

In addition to these techniques I ragged colour onto the whole piece of fabric with 3 different colours.

The front of the book

 The back of the book

The spine of the book

I quilted the book cover front and back and added beads where the quilted lines crossed each other. 

It was a really enjoyable project and I am planning on doing many more covers.



Skechbook challenge: Last few days of May

Entry for May 28th

Can't resist this: The family and the remote

Entry for May 29th

Can't resist this: Reading the story of Esther

Entry for May 30th

Can't resist this: Flowers

Entry for May 31st

Can't resist this: Sunset

Entry for June 1st

Can't resist this: Leaves