Being Creative :: March

I've completed the March task set by Julia.

I started with much trepidation, but found that soon I was enjoying the whole experience and wondering why I had been so nervous.  I thought you might like to see how I progressed through to the finished piece.

A stark white sheet of watercolour paper - quick get some paint on before I lose courage

That's better ... I had it in my head to have a background of same-colour squares, but out of necessity (due to me being careless) I had to smudge over it with a mix of green and yellow.  The outcome wasn't too bad so I carried on ...

I stamped on white daisies (I so LOVE daisies) and put the paint on thickly to add interest.  I decided that I would have bright orange middles to the daisies and painted a blob on each one.

I then thought it would be good if I accented the first daisy in some way so it would draw your eye into the picture and decided on chain stitching around the petals.  As the paper is 190gsm to withstand a fair amount of water, I thought it best to prick holes around the petals first and sew through them

This worked extremely well, but I hadn't appreciated that the thick paint would crack and flake away, but I kind of liked the effect so decided to keep going. 

What should I do next?  It needed something else and after much deliberation I decided I would french knot the centre of one of the other flowers

And I'm so glad I did as I'm really happy with the finished look.

Ta-Da!

The worst thing has been trying to photograph it!  These photos do not do it justice whatsoever, but they're about as good as I'm going to get them.

For information, I used 190gsm Bockingford watercolour paper, 10 x 7 inches (I seem to prefer working small) and acrylic paints.  The daisy stamp was a freeby with a craft magazine some years back.  I separated the stranded embroidery thread and used two ply for the daisy chain edging and three ply for the french knots.

All in all, I'm over the moon with this, but still feel I could have done better!  I really MUST train my brain to think positively about my own work.  I'm hoping that as the months roll on, my confidence will rise. I'm really looking forward to seeing other members work and I can't wait to get started on April's theme.





Being Creative

Hello and welcome.

I've gone and done it!  With much trepidation I've enrolled on Julia Crossland's Being Creative online monthly project. I have absolutely no idea what I am doing and feel very scared that I will fail.  Similar to Julia's experience , at age sixteen I failed to get a placement on a foundation course for creative studies.  As my next opportunity was to wait until I was eighteen and try to get into the mainstream Art college, it was decided that I must get a job for the two years and so I found myself as an office junior for a firm of Solicitors.  I can't tell you how heartbroken I felt and how bloody useless I felt - I couldn't even get into a FOUNDATION COURSE, I was that bad.  How did I ever manage to gain O'Level Art B+?  And so, somehow in those two intervening years I forgot about my dreams of being creative and forgot about my pencils and sketch books.

Mnay years later and I have slowly started to be crafty again,  but still lack any confidence that I am any good.  I enjoy a monthly 'play day' with my friend, where we create and craft (although lately its been more chat less work!) and we have set up a business to sell items now and then.  Even though I have sold one or two things I have made, I still feel that it was a fluke and that the purchaser bought on a whim without even thinking about the item, only to get it home and not like it.

So, I must be strong and just go for it!  Otherwise I will be stuck here forever, in this uncomfortable place being pulled towards creativity by my heart but being told to stop dreaming by my brain.

Wish me luck!