creativity: journaling

The yoga studio I used to practice at shared the following prompts, and they're good ones. 

Journaling is one of my regular habits, in these blog posts on creativity and in pen on paper about my personal life. My BIG WIN with my art practice has to be forgiving my mistakes and regarding them as learning. I've played and played with all kinds of shapes and textures in my clay practice--and the pots I get most pleasure from are my plates and little vases and speckled mugs even if they are such SLOW making. And that was a lesson in itself, to take my time and focus on refining and making a pot as perfectly imperfect as can be--so is my big win really this lesson going slow to go fast, and my small win those acts of forgiveness? Either way, go SLOW and thoughtful for better results and know that it's OKAY to FAIL because that's how learning and growth happen.

One thing I'm learning about myself is that I am loveable despite breakups with people in my life. And yes I take responsibility for the people I've alienated--I've been selfish and mean and thoughtless. I can only own my failings and strive to do better and hope that I can retain the relationships I do have in the meantime. In this pandemic, I've also re-learned how to turn loneliness into solitude. There were people I had to draw boundaries and then lost in order to keep those who add value and support though I mourn too those friendships that evolved and disappeared--that was the biggest challenge this year and still am trying to learn from in the coming year. Materialism is another challenge. Slowly I'm shedding stuff, actual physical objects that don't serve me or add to clutter and anxiety. 

But on to creative inspiration. I’m loving the plates from this potter in France, whom I follow on Instagram.                  

And her color palette is very similar to the glazes we have at my community studio. Over this winter break I found inexpensive plate forms on clearance (metal and melamine holiday platters) for slump molds at craft stores. And I’ve been perusing glaze colors such as these below for the plates and mugs I plan to make this year. And I’ll be digging into my stash and buying Kona's espresso brown and pickle to make quilts such as the following.                

Luckily I've plenty of white fabric to integrate orphan blocks like the ones on the design wall below.                  

I'm also loving the embroidery hoops I've been seeing DMC featuring.  

Seriously though I've got to finish the hoop projects in my embroidery bag before embarking on seaside (because I'm so in love with blue green water) or poolside scenes like the ones below.

So many projects and seemingly so little time. The images above though have me thinking about surfing and pool swimming and capturing those loves with needle and thread.