Project Update: Embroidery, Music Box and The Artist's Way

So I’ve been working hard trying to finish the pieces loitering around in the realm of unfinished projects.

Sublime Stitching - Ryan Berkley Pattern

First off, I finished my Ryan Berkley, bird tux, embroidery pattern from Sublime Stitching. You may notice the lovely green curly cues at the bottom and say to yourself, “Oh my, what a wonderful and whimsical embellishment.” The truth is I forgot to cut the directions, copyright and company brand off the pattern before I ironed it on. I thought that pattern ink should wash off, but it did not. So, the lovely green embellishment is my solution to covering up unwanted text.

My Pretty Music Box

Next we have an update on my music box project. Yes, I spent six hours gluing sequins to a cigar box. I wanted to spice up this project and make it glamorous. The music box project is all about randomness. The songs I hand made from music box paper are random notes I punched in by hand. I made three songs. I intend to take my favorite parts of the three randomly made songs and produce one perfect song. The sequins I so lovingly and tediously fixed to my homemade music box are made up of many different colors that I randomly picked up and glued on. The point of this project is to answer my question to myself. “Can you make something beautiful out of random chaos?” Random music notes. Random color decor.

My Workbook and Journal

And for our final update this week I have begun my personal journey of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I have successfully completed all tasks in week one and am moving on to week two’s tasks. The Artist’s Way is a twelve week program for stifled artists to unblock their creative powers. I love this book and I love the projects in it. This week as in every week in The Artist’s Way you treat yourself to an “artist’s date.” The date is a few hours every week that you set aside to indulge your inner artist.  It’s something you do alone and protect from all other interruptions.

Artist Carves Himself

For my first artist’s date I took a trip to the Seattle Art Museum and spent the afternoon alone there with my thoughts and imagination. I had a great time, because I was alone I went through at my own pace, read about all the pieces and even went back to look at my favorites. I stopped and sketched in my book and wrote down new ideas for future projects. It felt amazing.

Here is a photo of a sculpture I took in the museum. You see the artist roughly carving himself out of a piece of wood. He has his tools in his hand and has done a very primitive gesture on his body when compared to the realism of his head. I feel like this guy. I love making things. I love to create and I’m slowly making myself into the artist that I want to be.

More updates to come as I am still working hard to complete the works collecting dust in the realm of unfinished projects.

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