Inspired By... Vol 9/2018

Tenth of the month means a special post again. It's time for Inspired By.

Inspired By is something sweet Marsha and me have been doing for years now. Until 2018 it was that we chose a subject to be inspired by and then did something inspired by that theme, a piece of art or a book. The inspiration could be anything but we both turned that into some kind of project and blogged the creation on the 10th. You can browse the past "Inspired By" posts from here (link).

Inspired By is a playground, a concept we can use to explore, to play and to discover. We can do as much or as little we want and have time for. I guess it's not a surprise then that we both enjoy Inspired By very much but after doing it the same way so many years, we thought to change the things a bit.

This year, 2018, we both just post on the 10th with some source of inspiration we found that month. Or rather on a period from the 10th of previous month to 9th of the current month. It can be a series of photos, a book we read, an artwork we saw, just a pebble on the street or a new product we bought. We can make something using that source, but it's more about sharing just the inspiration. Consider it as a window to our creative minds!

I guess I won't surprise anyone when I say that once again, I had a bunch of sources for the project I did. Even though we intended this year to be more about the sources of inspiration, I think I've done an actual project in most of the months. Somehow that's the easiest way to go for me and try to explain the inspiration sources. I mean, I have sources of inspiration daily in abundance. I'm very rarely without an idea or something I want to try when I start crafting. Mostly the inspiration nowadays comes from the "assignment" - a DT duty, an article, a GDT post. But when I have extra time, I can draw inspiration from what ever!

 

That's the way I go with Inspired Bys. I notice things differently, make little mental notes and then turn those notes into a project. This month I had maybe three or four main sources. 

The first was an ATC I received from Darcie. When I saw the card in her Instagram (link) I fell in love and was so happy to be able to swap it. It's now waiting for me to decide how to frame it. (I'm thinking a long narrow frame with some ATCs.) I love the tones it has and the theme as I adore crows and ravens. 

Then another bird popped into my mental pin board. I'm so in awe, that I got to work alongside Mirja years ago and get to know her art. We actually have two of her earlier pieces hanging in our living room. I love her way of combining painting, embroidery and beading. The finished pieces are absolutely, breathtakingly stunning. But what now really caught my eye was one blackbird in her Instagram feed (link), a close up from one of the works. The long stitches reminded me of a piece I created when I first drew inspiration from her art (link) to make a little pendant. Which, by the way, is still one of my favorites and I use it every time I need an extra boost.

The rest of the inspiration sources were my wish to use more fabric in my crafts this year. It's kind of an re-occurring theme, which is naturally nice as it was kind of my goal for this year. To gravitate towards multiple materials and not to be limited just paper. 

I also kind of went back to my roots in many ways as I made some mixed media brooches years ago (link). And of course roots in the way that I'm a costume designer by education and studied embroidery while in polytechnic. 

As this piece was a sort of return to a theme I'd already used, I wanted to make things better. What happened with the pendant was that the resin hid most of the stitches I'd done and also the little piece of fabric I managed to add in. With this new piece I wanted to have more textures, more different surfaces and stitches more visible.

So there above is what I came up with. A little raven mixed media piece. The theme - raven - came from the ATC as well as my love for that particular bird. The coloring of black with some blue and teal tones came also from these both - the ATC and my love for that particular palette. The stitching, sequins and French knots came from the will to do a better job this time and naturally from Mirja. You can see the little birdie better in a close up underneath. As I fell in love what I created so much that I framed it immediately as I happened to have a Ikea frame lying around. 

The mixed media piece is done on top of a piece of felt. I primed it using clear gesso and then started to paint the basic shape of the bird using black and white gesso. I also added a touch of teal to his chest. After drying, I then layered PanPastels, watercolors and stamping on top. Then I first added two pieces of solid fabric to him and later added the two tulle pieces as well. 

The actual embroidery took the longest time but even though I absolutely hated it during my studies, it was now part of the fun. I enjoyed layering different colors and doing tiny stitches here and there. Lastly I added the sequins and stitched outline. 

I think I need to make a couple of birdies more now! Partly to see, if I can do anything else than ravens and partly just to try out the process more as it was really enjoyable! 

Now let's go and see what Marsha has been inspired by this month! Here's a direct link to her post (link)! Thank you so much for stopping by today! Have a great week! 

Materials: Prima Marketing, Kreinik, Pan Pastel, Ranger