My Creative Process

Maddie Millett from Maddie Millett Ceramics invited me to participate in this creativity blog hop. She makes wonderful handmade pots, so please check out her page.  Here is her post on creativity.   Here are two of my recent quilts. 1. How does my creative process work? I often get my inspiration from the view out of my window, something I see on-line, or an article in a magazine.  I don't discount any raw ideas, but the ones that keep popping into my head or that make me giddy with excitement are the ones that I tend to go with.  I take these ideas and start working with them. I sometimes draw a rough sketch, but other times I keep the ideas in my head and let them percolate until I'm ready to start working.  I keep an idea book where I can keep track of potential projects just in case I need a kick start. Sometimes I work more intuitively and start a quilt or a painting and let it lead me to the finished project.  I don't have one particular way of working, but I allow myself to work in the way the feels right at the time. For my art quilt "Stardust" I drew a sketch which I based my quilt on.  Later I went back and colored in my sketch using a different color scheme.  I often write about my process in my blog as I work on a project.     2. WHY do I do what I do? I want to share joy and beauty with the world.  I enjoy creating art and I feel called to create and share my gifts in this way. When I don't take the time to be creative I feel a little off and I get cranky.  I would rather be creative than make the people in my life miserable.  I want to help people to bring beautiful, quirky art into their living space or that they can wear.  Helping people to feel beautiful and happy makes me happy.  I love creating art that can fill this need.      3. How does my work differ from others in it’s genre? My work has a bit of me and my soul embedded in it. No one else can create just like me.  I take inspiration from others, but I always try to add my own twist and make it mine.  As I continue to develop as an artist I will follow my own voice more and more and my art will be more unique.  4. What am I working on at the moment? I have several projects that I'm working on right now.  I have an art quilt, a felted picture, and a textile art piece that are all in various stages of completeness.  I also have a couple of paintings that I have been thinking about and will start soon. I'm getting ready to teach a fabric dyeing and surface design class this fall.  I'm also helping to start an art quilting group within my quilt guild.  I like to keep busy and always have something that I'm working on. My family and my five kids and running a household also keeps me pretty busy all the time.  That's what make my life beautiful though.   This is my felted piece that is still a work in progress.  It is wool, silk, and Angelina Fibers.  I love the sparkly bits.   Thank you for reading and please follow along with the rest of the blog hop too.  Please check out my website too: www.handsandharts.com I'm passing this along to Clare from Stuffed with Aloha now. Janelle