Photo Credit: Ozyman | Creative Commons

I heard this episode of Think Out Loud on the radio this morning. http://www.opb.org/thinkoutloud/shows/local-library/

Its all about the role of Public Libraries in our communities. Turns out that the Multnomah Public Library system is the second most used library system in the United States – just behind the Queens Public Library which has 80 branches and serves millions of people!

Go Multnomah County!

‘Tis the eve of the last day of my Internship with Piddix and in true ‘last day’ spirit I thought I’d share with you some of the most valuable lessons I learned in the last 8 weeks.  If you’re interested in the business side of things, you can read the full blog post over here (as soon as its up).

This list is dedicated to the what I learned about myself during this internship.

Personal Growth: You can’t learn this in the Etsy Forums:

1. I like to take things slow. Corinna likes to dive in. Corinna held me accountable for following through with my goals of making, learning and discovering, but I felt at times like things were moving just a little faster than my comfort level. At this point in my creative career, I want to take it slow. I want to fall in love with the process and if that means having a sparse Etsy shop, a sporadic blog and the occasional freelance job – then that’s the way its going to be. My mother always said, “Let your comfort guide you,” and that message has been loud and clear the last 8 weeks. If I had a toe in before, I’ve at least got both feet in now, which is a big improvement, I think.
2. I am a creature of habit. The last book I reviewed was “The Creative Habit” by Twyla Tharp. While I wasn’t crazy about the book itself, the concept revived me. Since the creative part of me developed through classical ballet, a rigid environment of habit, ritual, technique and infinite repetition, my creative brain is naturally accustomed to more structure. Since I quit ballet 6 years ago, my life has lacked that structure and I had no idea how much my creative energy was suffering because of it. Now that I know that habit and ritual are such an important part of my creative process, I can find my way back to them.
3. I need a room of my own. Remember Corinna’s post about the door? Well I feel exactly the same way. Furthermore, I really miss the feeling of having a space that is all mine. When I lived at home with my parents, my room was a sanctuary and it had a life of its own. I love my house now and I love that I share it with my partner, but I look forward to the day when I can retreat to a room that is mine – ALL MINE!
4. I am not a workaholic. I don’t have a problem sitting still and I don’t have a problem taking time off. Does this make me lazy? I like to think not. I prefer to consider myself I relaxaholic: someone who cherishes down time with loved ones and respects my relationship with others and myself by allowing myself to relax, go to bed early, watch a movie and snuggle or meet up with friends. Can a relaxaholic succesfully run their own business full time? I have my fingers crossed.
5. I need to distance myself from the work of other artists and crafters if i’m going to be creative. When I spend too much time on blogs and websites and at craft fairs and stores admiring other people’s work, I start to doubt my own creative instincts and my ideas quickly become stale. In order to be creative, I need to isolate myself from too  much stimulus so I can be confident that my creation is an expression of myself and not someone else.
6. Follow my instincts. I realized I have good ones, so why not listen to them? Trends, market research, design blogs and craft fairs are all great tools – but in the end, I prefer to follow my instincts.
7. Business is a problem to solve, not a mountain to climb. I’ve been trying to reframe my perception of business ownership. I’ve always thought of it as a mountain, as a struggle, but I think in many ways its more like a game. I still have a long way to go with this one, but I’m starting to realize that owning business can appeal to my love of problem solving and knot untying — I don’t have to think of it as a burden, a life sucking alien or Mount Everest. I can do it!
8. I LOVE photoshop.  I just love it. Its a funny moment when you realize you might like photoshopping the pictures of the Tote more than you enjoyed making the Tote. We’ll see how this develops.

Now that my internship is over, I have few excuses not to be keeping up over here. I hope that means you’ll be seeing me more often!

Stay tuned!

Being a dancer most of my life, it’s no big surprise that I worship and revere the beauty of a dancer’s body. A ballet dancer especially expresses a physical language that is so vibrant, poetic and complex that I can get lost in its lines for hours.

I have many images of dancers around my house and I’ve been looking to them lately for inspiration. I came across this great flickr stream tonight that has so many gorgeous photos of dancers at work; subsequently, I spent the last hour doing some “research” on form and composition in preparation for some prints I’ll be making tomorrow.

Here’s a peak:

You can see the entire collection of jaw-dropping images here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lovely_stars/.  Have a great weekend!

*All images above are copyrighted and courtesy of ello dahling.

{p.s. If you’re in the Portland Area, be sure to check out Super Crafty Wonderland this weekend. Its not to be missed!}

Hi!

I’m writing to you today from deep within the trenches of personal exploration. Reinventing yourself may sound glamorous, but I’ll be the first to tell you that it isn’t easy. Two years ago my mother left her job and sold her home with the whimsy and confidence of Mary Tyler Moore in mind, no doubt.  She spent an entire year as an unwilling vagabond before she finally found her rhythm. Fortunately my case isn’t quite so serious, but right now I think I know how she must have felt. I bet you do, too.

The last two weeks have been a drudgery of research, punctuated by moments of elation, hope and sincere gratitude. But a drudgery nonetheless. It is one thing to read blogs while you eat your morning toast but it is another thing entirely to spend all day on the computer reading about other people’s successes, failures, inspirations, cravings, outfits, vacations, and aspirations. It sucks the life out of you. It makes every original idea you thought you had seem hackneyed.

The solution, I thought, would be to turn off the computer altogether and put pen to paper. But then of course, as I promptly reminded myself, I can’t draw. So I probably wound up lusting after the pages of my Pattern Sourcebook, wishing Phyllis Baron and Dorothy Larcher might rise from the dead to adopt my weary, unoriginal heart.

All this struggling had me feeling very pitiful. The real solution, as it turned out, was to take a retreat and recharge my brain. So I drove to  Seattle to spend the weekend with my road-worn Mother who, since her vagabonding, has settled graciously in a Queen Anne Studio. We went to the ballet, we spent 5 hours at Via Tribunali trying to finish a litre of wine, and we bought new shoes. I’m not suggesting that new shoes and wine should be the solution to all your problems, but sometimes they certainly do help. Especially when Phyllis and Dorothy are nowhere to be found.

The weekend was full of serendipitous encounters and many eerie coincidences, hinting that I might be on the right track after all.  And despite all the advice Corinna gave me on the contrary, my To Do lists this week are growing quite large; though she seemed proud to hear that I’ve turned them into little works of art, proof to myself that I CAN draw, even if it does look a bit juvenile.

An exercise of art in the everyday

I won’t bore you with all the items on my list, but I do want to share with you the most exciting list of all: My Creative Interests. I made this list to remind myself that this new adventure is about learning, exploration and having fun. The goal is to do 6 of these (that I’ve never done before) in 6 months.

• Knitting
• Sewing
• Printmaking
• Painting
• Drawing
• Pattern Making
• Stamp Making
• Gouache
• Dyeing
• Making Paper Goods
• Fabric Design
• Dancing
• Photography
• Designing Websites
• Designing Print Materials

This list reminds me that the trenches aren’t so deep after all. Happy making everyone.

Phase one of Project Fraserhead is complete: Make a studio.

I’ve wanted my own studio since I can remember. When I was a dancer, of course, I dreamed of a Ballet Studio. But no matter my passion du jour, I’ve always pined for a room of my own. Alas, it could be a while before the dream is fully realized but there is absolutely no reason why I shouldn’t make use of what I have now. So, armed with a vision, $100, and my own personal carpenter (my partner, Joe), I turned my living room into a real, working space.

I started by picking a suitable corner and proceeded to make some drawings. I decided on a great big table. Measuring 8 feet long, it would offer enough room for 2 separate working spaces, one for computer stuff and one for art stuff. It also allows Joe and I to work simultaneously, side by side, the way it should be. We went to The ReBuilding Center, a non-profit used building material resource center (and also my employer!), to find some reclaimed lumber for the table. We lucked out in finding some beautiful door frames made from old-growth fir and turned them into the table top.

Once the table was complete we bought an old piece of siding and some metal brackets to make shelves. To top it off, I requested a cork board; A big one. So we found some reclaimed materials to build that, too.

The entire Studio project took us a week to complete and cost $71. With the exception of a table lamp from Ikea and 8 cork tiles from Staples, everything we used to make the space was reclaimed or purchased at thrift stores. Even the pens.  The icing on the cake: While making room for our new table I discovered a check for $100! Meant to be? I think so.

Here are a few tips for those of you who are trying to make a work space on a tight budget:

- Tell your friends! Many of the items in this space were given to me by others who knew I what I was looking for. Those beautiful vintage Thonet chairs, for example, were free. They were being given away by a Parish and my mother snagged them for us.  A truly phenomenal find.

- Build it yourself. If you have the skills or can bribe someone who has the skills (in my case!) do it yourself. Our 8 foot table would cost between $500-1,500 new, but the total cost for us was only $18.

- Use reclaimed materials. Sometimes using salvage and thrift materials can take longer and require more work, but it is truly worth the effort. Fear not! In addition to saving hundreds of dollars, you get the satisfaction of owning something with a history and of knowing you are contributing to a more sustainable world. The cork for the cork board we ended up buying new, but the frame and backing were reclaimed. We ended up paying $24 for a 3×3 cork board that would normally cost between $70-150.

-Be flexible. When working on a budget with reclaimed materials it is absolutely necessary to be flexible and maintain a sense of humor. Changing direction mid-stream is part of the game. Don’t let it stress you out. Enjoy the process of discovery and creation.

I’m still working on the studio and would love to hear your ideas and suggestions. If you have pictures of your own handmade studio add a link in the comments!