Happy Spring of 2019! Yikes, it has been a year since I last posted about about my creative projects. I constantly have them on the go, though. And when I get around to photographing them and blogging about them, I always enjoy the process. As always, I will try to post more frequently about my creative journey. I’ve used social media, but I really do like the blogging process for this. Also, I have many new projects to show you, so I’ll update in several posts.
I like to draw, though I’m not terribly experienced at it. If I took time to practice, I could become more detailed at it, as I learned in my high school art class back in 1985-86! So currently, my drawings are pretty simple. But simple is also fun, and I enjoyed drawing these big flowers and shapes. I filled them in with semi-gloss interior paints in different colours and outlined everything in black. I learned from sheep farmer and artist/crafter extraordinaire Kristin Nicholas about using sample pots of paint for projects, and I collected a ton of colours of quality paint. (If you have a peek at her website, you can see why I am such a big fan of her work!)
As evidenced by the card collection below, I don’t think I’ll ever stop depicting flowers in anything I make or draw. Some evenings, I will take a pile of cut up watercolour paper, sit down with my collection of colourful Sharpie markers, and draw and colour in all sorts of flower shapes and backgrounds. It’s therapeutic for me. These then get glued onto black cardstock lined with folded white paper. I then use these for birthdays.
Speaking of therapeutic – for me, crafting and making are therapeutic. I haven’t posted much personal content on here, but you know the first three hat photos in this post from 2013? I learned how to make those crocheted hats “in the round” in 2010. I practiced the technique over and over that spring and summer during a situation that, later in 2013, provoked in me profound cognitive dissonance and caused major upheaval for my family. Crocheting kept me sane, and gave me many hats to sell in my first craft fair in 2010. Years after that initial upheaval, I have mostly moved on. But lately I find myself wanting to process from start to finish by writing out the story and sharing it. Last year while writing about my 50th birthday (I’m 51 now – that milestone year went quickly!), I alluded to sharing more personal stuff here…just still trying to figure out if I should take the plunge, and if so, how! Can anyone else relate? Plus, I am done homeschooling after twenty-one years of raising kids (yes, both kids got accepted to all the post-secondary institutions they applied to, even after homeschooling til high school graduation); so I’m in a transition period of my life. Lotsa making going on while I process in my head!
Colleen Callahan Sharpe 