Hey everyone!
Man, I've been gone from this thing longer than I hoped to be! Even if school has been extremely busy, I feel bad using that as an excuse...it only takes a short while to make a blog post, so I really should work on being more disciplined. I have heard that if you do something for at least 21 days, it starts becoming a habit! I wonder how true that is...
So in my time away from the crafting universe, I've done quite a bit of adventuring apart from school! Most notably craft-related is a trip to the Big Apple with my friends Sarah #1 and Sarah #2, hehe. We went in January to some interesting craft spots in NYC, with the big ones being SpaceCraft in Brooklyn, Gallery Hanahou, and Lion Brand Yarn Studio! In SpaceCraft, you pick from a menu of reasonably priced crafts, such as wooden toys, finger puppets, and brooches, and you get to use a HUGE array of supplies, and everything is included in the menu price! You get to use glitter, sequins, buttons, yarn, paint, shells...the possibilities really are out of this world! (Sorry, that was bad.)
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Man, I've been gone from this thing longer than I hoped to be! Even if school has been extremely busy, I feel bad using that as an excuse...it only takes a short while to make a blog post, so I really should work on being more disciplined. I have heard that if you do something for at least 21 days, it starts becoming a habit! I wonder how true that is...
So in my time away from the crafting universe, I've done quite a bit of adventuring apart from school! Most notably craft-related is a trip to the Big Apple with my friends Sarah #1 and Sarah #2, hehe. We went in January to some interesting craft spots in NYC, with the big ones being SpaceCraft in Brooklyn, Gallery Hanahou, and Lion Brand Yarn Studio! In SpaceCraft, you pick from a menu of reasonably priced crafts, such as wooden toys, finger puppets, and brooches, and you get to use a HUGE array of supplies, and everything is included in the menu price! You get to use glitter, sequins, buttons, yarn, paint, shells...the possibilities really are out of this world! (Sorry, that was bad.)
(I did not take this photo, I found it on Google; unfortunately, I lost all the photos of that day on my camera...*sadness*)
At Gallery Hanahou, there was an exhibit on display of different plushie art...and man, was there a lot! The gallery itself was quite small, but it was filled with so many different plushies constructed of many different materials from many different people...you get the idea. Maybe it was the diversity of it that I enjoyed the most; knowing that there really are many different approaches to art and how limitless the possibilities are. My only regret is losing all those pictures! This person's work caught my eye:
This photo was taken from and is the property of Trunk Chiyo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trunkchiyo/
After seeing her work, I knew this style really appealed to me, so I sketched and sketched for days, trying to come up with a style for Blueberry Crumble plushies that is both original and manageable (as in, time-manageable, given I don't have much time to craft as it is). To this day...I still don't know what I'm doing, haha! It's a very distressing feeling, wanting to create something original and really "your own," and not knowing where to start. It's almost like writers' block, I guess you could say. The more you try to force ideas, the less they come, which is a real pain in the patoot. But the more the days pass, the more I want to make Blueberry Crumble a reality and a nice way to generate a little extra money while I'm in school. I've considered selling nothing but teru teru bozu in a variety of styles, but I'm not sure it fits the image I first had in mind for Blueberry Crumble, and if it's something people would want to buy, despite its success in the past. These are just some of my concerns I've had these past months; I suppose finding your way isn't always the easiest thing, though, I'm sure!
For now, I'm mostly concentrating on school. Perhaps summer break will bring greater creativity? In the meantime, as Spring is finally here, I've got my mind on Spring cleaning and making what I can with what I have, rather than piling on more supplies I don't need. Taking an Environmental Studies class has started to open my mind to think more creatively too, and having me consider new ways of using things that would otherwise end up in the trash. For example, I didn't want to throw away a Styrofoam egg carton the other day, and after a brief moment of thought, I spontaneously came up with this: an egg carton jellyfish!
"Excuse me, did you happen to see a Peanutbutterfish floating by?"
(This could also be due to my service learning at a preschool--they made egg carton daffodils recently, so it kinda rubbed off on me.)
A challenge is in order, perhaps, to make one different animal for every remaining egg carton section! The game is afoot! I challenge you guys to make one too, and post it in the comments section when you do! :) If nothing more, you'll feel a little younger, haha.
If there's anything I've learned in these past months, it's to keep things simple, and to not force creativity. It'll come when it's ready, I think. (Even if I am ready for it now, haha!) I just have to keep a notepad by my side for when the occasional idea does pop up.
Happy Spring, everyone! Hope you're enjoying yourselves!
-Angie
