7 posts tagged “craft”
Good lord! It's been almost a month since I've updated!
in brief:
i finally caved and joined facebook under the pretense that it would be good for networking professionally- and now, yes, I am addicted to the damn facecrack just like most of it's users. once my laptop is out of the shop, i'm sure i'll be finding all the special features that everyone else uses that i'm still clueless about.
i'm doing the Artist's Way with a group of friends and it's been truly amazing. this is about the 5th or 6th time i've gone through this course, and it is hitting me so deep this time around. surrendering to play, to love, being loved, letting go of perfectionism and learning to trust God/the Universe has been the core of this unfolding. just amazing.
i'm still crafting away, but i am also now letting myself paint on canvas, which has been great.
as much as i am wanting to form creative alliances that involve community, i am in a space right now where my inner world is being healed and restructured- so i hope to do some more community stylee work with video after the new year.
i am also letting go of false friends who don't really know how to support me, but sure do know how pour there stories in my ear and feed off my support. seems to be a re-occurring lesson- but i guess somethings you just learn in stages. and i can also let these people go and still wish them well- not bad people, just not good for me.
and that is it for now! life is singing through the snow and all the world turns to into a choir of crystal.
Kman
Hello all!
It has been over a month since I have written! I suppose a lot has happened in the month of August, but really, it has been a lot of slowing down- more inner action that outer. I gave up caffeine and then sugar to prepare for the herbal cleanse I’m doing now. It has been good- definitely more aware of what I am feeling and thinking than normal. Another good tool in this has been Eckhart Tolle’s book, “New Earth,” which I started reading last week. It is amazing- I recommend it to anyone. If you click on the link above, you can then click on the link provided on Tolle’s page to listen to an interview with him by Krista Tippett of NPR’s Speaking of Faith.
I have been crafting as well, but not as much. However, last night I let myself sit down and play. I started experimenting to see what I could do with a stencil print after it had dried. So here is what I came up with last night. I really enjoyed the process and like the results.
So last week I completed a shirt I revamped for myself- I ripped out the seams on the side and sewed in some panels, then painted and stenciled it (it use to be all white and almost too tight for me to even get over my head).
I also made very, very belated Father's Day card for, um, my father, of course. I figure it being hand made makes up for the incredible tardiness- which tends to be one of my bad habits when it comes to mandatory card sending
.
Howdy, howdy.
So, currently, I have been getting crafty. Just a smidge, but I am planning on wading further and further into the world of fabrics and paints and stamps and knitting and god knows what else. I've wanted to learn to sew for years and years, and now, thanks to the Home Ec Workshop, that dream is slowly being realized. I am almost done with this bag that I hope turns out just cool enough. Cool enough for a project of this complexity. However, I will post that pic when it is completed.
In the meantime, I did manage to get some patches that I hand painted sewn onto a pair of jeans that my friend, Jon, donated to me. It is really all experimental right now. And I tend to go for sloppy-chic while figuring out how to make what I like actually work.
The text on the patches are part of a poem I wrote years back. The complete poem goes
"Outlive your demons.
Transform them
into a pool of raw resources.
Nourish not only yourself
but all those around you
willing and able to accept and benefit.
When being chased by tigers,
make pancakes.
- The Lesson of Sambo"
This is the second of the two tshirts that my friend Holly "commissioned." this is the one i experimented with- i think it turned out pretty good. she really liked it, so i can say i feel good about it.
my internet access at my apartment is mostly non-existent these days, so i am only able to update on the occasion from the coffee shop. so my updates will probably be more infrequent for awhile.
so my good friend Holly has asked me to make her another mergirl tshirt. the first one i made her was on a shirt that really wasn't her size- it was a guy's shirt and too large. so she gave me a couple to work on for her. below is the tshirt (on the left) that i am working on, and the first tshirt (on the left), via a scanned printout, that i made. i bought some beads today for this shirt. i'm feeling beads, not buttons for this one. i hope she digs it.
(my cel phone takes not the best pictures, but...)
i've never worked with beads before, so if anyone has any hints...
tell me if you like.
Kman
so i did the thing with the iron and the plastic bags. yes, it takes a little bit of experimenting to figure out how hot the iron should be. i tried putting a small image from a magazine under one of the layers of plastic, but after i ironed it, the plastic basically just melted off the image. so i will experiment with that some more.
i didn't make a bag, cuz i didn't have a real need for one. however, i desperately needed a new wallet. so that is what i made. i took two bags and put one inside the other and then folded them in half. does that make it 8-ply? after the melting and the measuring, i made an easy-peasy wallet. it was nice to sew something again. next time, i will make little folds for inside the wallet, but this was a good first start. i give you the simple fruits of easy labor below:
