Niamh O’Connor is a stitch artist and designer working at Urban Threads, where they are revolutionizing machine embroidery one edgy, elegant, innovative, and/or offbeat design at a time.

When I first started designing for embroidery as a freshly graduated illustrator, I was often frustrated by what did and did not translate into thread. Stuff that would look fantastic on paper would just not work out the same in embroidery. Small details, print effects like halftone and offset printing, large designs… it was all limited by thread detail, trims, and hoop size. I would sometimes find myself wishing that embroidery could do more.

Over time, I’ve learned that you can pull out some truly gorgeous stuff if you just learn to design to its strengths, instead of fighting against its weaknesses. With this series, Baroque Punk, I wanted to focus on the one thing embroidery does better than anything: stitch dimension.

Beautiful, textural satin stitches can catch the light and make embroidery look like a sculptural relief when done right. It’s a technique that was common in the regal days of old, but oft forgotten in today’s modern machine designs. When researching embroidery through the ages, I was taken by the ornate qualities of the Baroque period. I thought it the perfect example of a “tapestry” of stitches and depth, and I wanted to bring that back.

This Baroque Punk series juxtaposes those ornate sculptural qualities of Baroque art with tattoo design. While still honoring embroidery’s roots, I wanted to make it fresh and modern by changing up the subject matter. Besides, we can’t seem to miss the chance to throw a skull into things now and then.

To leave the usual “kitsch” association with machine embroidery behind as far as possible, we at Urban threads decided to pair these designs with something you don’t often see machine embroidery on: modern couture fashion — proving that these kinds of designs would hold up to that kind of application, and to show that machine embroidery can be a lot more elegant than its often thought to be. To bring the project to life, we collaborated with celebrated fashion designer Laura Fulk, whose modern and edgy line has appeared on countless catwalks in the Midwest and to rave reviews at local fashion shows. Her classic yet slightly offbeat aesthetic was the perfect style to match the paradoxical Baroque Punk designs.

Together we hit upon the idea of a sharply tailored and asymmetrical jacket mixed with raw edges and patchwork. We wanted to offset the classic look and give it a grunge feel. The layers of fabric would also help to emphasize the overall deep texture we were going for, in both the jacket and the designs.

The blazer came to life in pieces. Laura hand-dyed and marked out her patterns on large swatches of fabric, and then mailed it to me for the embroidery. Using mostly templates, I experimented with placement, size and mirroring effects to get the overall tapestry look I was going for, and embroidered everything over the course of two late nights. Once back in Laura’s hands, it was crafted into the finished jacket and then given a second dye bath, to give the colors a richer, grungier hue.

The whole project took about three weeks from the first sketch to the final shot. This collaboration, along with a few others we have done over the past year, are all part of a larger project we call The Lab, an initiative to experiment, collaborate, and innovate to see just what can be done with the art of embroidery. We’ve had great fun working with other talented people and love finding out just what this medium can do. We plan for many other projects in the future!

If you want to grab the designs yourself, you can get them all right here. See more about this project over on our blog Stitchpunk, or take a peek at a behind the scenes look of the making of the jacket and the embroidery.

Credits: Model: Lucie Mulligan || Photography: Burt Edwards || Hair/Makeup: Sara CapersSimilar Posts:

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The feature post last week by quilt artist Chawne sure did raise a few issues and I would like to discuss a few of them here. First up though I want to say that I admire Chawne and her work and her artistic integrity, she is a wonderful skilled crafter and she creates from the heart. I featured her work on whipup for precisely those reasons and will continue to feature artists and makers whose work is real and raw, as well as the nice and practical and the thoughtful and artistic, just as I have done since whipup first launched over 6 years ago.

We have featured a variety of art/craft over the years – everything from crochet coral reefs to knitted poo, penises and boobs (yarn body parts warning), from knitted tank cosies to radical cross-stitch (language warning), from crafting politics to human hair as yarn, from knitted graffiti to public embroidery - if you are interested in exploring more check out our art+design category.

A few issues that were raised in the comments included those discussing the ‘quilt’ and its place in politics and art, many people were offended by the use of certain words but many others found the work to be as thought provoking as I did. Many quilters and crafters may not realise that quilting has a long and strong tradition of political and social activism, when I posted a series of Obama crafts a few years ago there was a strong reaction to politics raising its head in the craft world, so I want to reiterate that women throughout history have used craft as a way to have a voice in a male dominated world and I am sure that women will continue to claim their craft to voice their opinion or protest or to just speak their creativity.

You might like to read this thoughtful essay at the Quilt Index by Marybeth Stalp and titled In the Shadow of the Quilt: Political Messaging in Quilts

…those quilts that do not incite “fuzzy” and “comforting” feelings, but instead those that highlight and address publicly the social reality of inequality, racism, sexism, oppression, and the like.  I also examine quilts that communicate subversive, ironic, and sardonic messages. [Excerpt from essay]

A few folks were worried that their children might happen upon a few crass words online and as a parent myself I didn’t think twice about sharing those images with my kids and in fact it was the catalyst for a really interesting discussion about American history as well as the way language is used in our society.

Many readers were down on whipup for posting this and some even suggested that I remove the post as they found it ‘offensive’ and ‘disgusting’, and there were a few more ugly words thrown in there that I personally found way more upsetting and distasteful than the words that appeared on the quilts. Of course I won’t be removing the post, and I will continue to defend and showcase a wide variety of crafts here at whipup, just as it is your right not to read this website if you choose. However one point did emerge: it seems that many of you wanted a more defined language warning — that I will rectify for next time.

Thanks for reading
xxSimilar Posts:

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Chawne is a multi-craftual quilter who channels all her nervous energy into making blankets and quilts to keep folks warm. She blogs about the processes at Completely Cauchy.

This post comes with a language warning: [be prepared for some thought provoking (some might say shocking)  images - ed]

The diversity of the crafting world can often surprise crafty folks and astound non-crafters. Among us there are young and old, male and female, able-bodied and physically challenged, tall and short, and conservative and liberal. The public stereotypes are blown away by visits to sites such as Mr X Stitch and Craftster, where featured crafter-artists are shown expressing themselves in unique ways. There is a sense in which one need not self-censor if there is a principle to explore and more of us ought to embrace this spirit of individuality and fearlessly show it in our work.

Did you know that some crafters verbally express themselves using curse words? This is the non-stereotypical behavior (by that I refer to the externally constructed stereotype) that currently interests me.

With the publication of Word Play Quilts, more and more quilters are including text in their quilts, whether to emblazon with the name of the giftee or to send a sweet special message. It has opened up a whole new way to express oneself in textiles. But are there boundaries? One must eventually wonder if quilts are somehow a sacred space on which certain profanities must not be uttered. My own recent quilts have tested this in a small way. Reactions have been mixed and, surprisingly, the negative reactions are deeply personal even when the message is a positive affirmation.

Find out more about this quilt pictured above: Chawne has written a follow up post on her blog 

I needed to know how other crafter-artists felt about the act of cursing in cotton. So I invited a wide swath of textile artists in the US, Canada and England to participate in an ongoing communal Give a F*ck quilt project back in November 2011. Using a variety of techniques—patchwork, embroidery, and filet crochet—they are expressing their potty-mouths by making profane quilt blocks. There are few restrictions, including a size range, a “decency” level, and the requirement that the word “fuck” appear somewhere so that it is legible at a nice distance.

The diversity of interpretations of the request has been impressive and will make the ultimate quilt all the more interesting.

Sample Block Artists: Daniel Rouse :: Corrine Bayraktaroglu :: Jeni Baker 

The blocks are still arriving in the mail, but the artists have been telling me of their experiences while making them. Most common are comments about the cathartic effect, releasing anger or frustration. Yet others express youthful glee about doing something they perceive as “naughty.”

The blocks will be assembled into a quilt, likely a cacophony of f*cks. And we will then see what it is like when several crafter-artists express themselves at once. This project aims to face the issue of language boundaries head-on so that we can all return to free and nuanced expression in the future.

Edited to add: Chawne has written a follow up post on her blog – head over there to read more about her work.

Please read my response to the comments on this post here and Chawne’s response here.Similar Posts:

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Gilding the City by Sayraphim Lothian

Sayraphim Lothian is a craft and visual artist interested in exploring playful and participatory experiences. She co-runs Pop Up Playground, an urban games collective; recently participated in a playful residency at the National Gallery of Victoria and some of her work can be found in the archives of the NGV, the collection at MOMA and now, on streets around the world.

When I was young one of my favourite books in the world was Pippi Longstocking. Pippi, the strongest little girl in all the world, had a number of interesting hobbies but the one which appealed most to me was her game of Turnup Stuffing in which she would walk around outside and keep an eye on the ground for ‘Stuffs’ that ‘turned up’. Anything she found she would happily take home. Although as a child I thought the things she found were a bit rubbish (from memory they were a rusty cake tin and an empty spool of thread), I decided I would become a Turnup Stuffer too and find much more interesting things and lots of them. From that day, whenever I was outside, I would spend most of my walking time carefully scanning the ground for anything I might find.

Over the years I’ve found and brought home a myriad of interesting, useful and (I have to be honest) not so useful things. You tend to see a lot of leaves and rubbish, bits of broken glass, cigarette butts and chewing gum but in between all the trash you’d be surprised how often you find other things. If you’re not already a Turnup Stuffer, try it next time you’re out and about and see what you discover for yourself.

A few years ago I noticed that I was regularly finding bits of broken jewellery; pendants that had snapped in half, twisted rings that didn’t fit anymore, stray beads that had made brave leaps off bracelets and necklaces and fake jewels that had come loose from their moorings along with random items that I couldn’t really place but had clearly come off something somewhere. I couldn’t just let all these things get swept away into the trash, it felt like such a waste! These were beautiful, if twisted and broken, and I reasoned that the world hardly needed more rubbish lining its streets. So, I collected up all these tiny, shiny, interestin’ bits and took them all home.

For years I didn’t know what to do with them. They all sat in a big clear glass jar slowly filling their way to the top. I was a bit worried that I was collecting all this stuff for no purpose at all but I couldn’t throw them out. The collection sat on my bookcase and quietly continued to grow as I went about my daily life.

Then one day I saw an interview with Daniel Lynch, the Melbourne street artist behind Junky Projects. “Junkys” are charming little figures created from flattened cans and beer bottle lids which are nailed up around Melbourne. In his interview, Daniel mentioned that he doesn’t introduce anything more to the streets when he makes his pieces; he only uses what he finds and rearranges it into these little creatures.

And then a light went off in my head.

I love Melbourne and I wanted to show my love for Melbourne by making it jewellery to wear and, since Melbourne is a city, jewellery created from broken bits found in the streets seemed the perfect type of jewellery to give. I think the city is beautiful so adding jewellery to it was almost like gilding the lily. So I called the project Gilding the City and I got down to work.

The first ‘Gild’ I created was the Victorian Mourning Brooch, inspired by an ivory coloured resin rose which I found in Dandenong (a suburb on the outskirts of Melbourne). I added black glass beads found in South Melbourne and a crystal bead found outside the Melbourne Theatre Company and finished it off with a pearl drop earring at the bottom. I should clarify that, though I remember where I found most of these items, I’m not obsessive about the collection of broken bits. Instead everything that went into this piece, bar the earring, were found only recently which is why I still remember where they came from. Looking over the photos of the other pieces I couldn’t tell you where most of the other bits came from!

I’ve never worked in the medium of jewellery before and I’ve found the process both interesting and inspiring. Every Gild is created around a central piece that dictates the piece’s theme. For instance, ‘The Garden’ started with the silver spiral bead at the bottom which made me think of a snail shell and I went into my collection and found green beads and other interesting, garden type items to match it. ‘The Night Sky’ was created around the broken semi-circular silver earring, which to me was absolutely a moon, that I then wired to a cubic zirconia still in it’s setting to create a star hanging from the top of the moon.

It’s really important to me that I am not introducing anything new into the environment in the creation of these pieces. I don’t want to create more litter; what I want to do is refashion the things already on the streets into beautiful and interesting works of art.

I see the Gilds as secular versions of the ritual items hung off trees and thrown down wells in earlier societies; little trinkets that hold wishes and hopes, prayers to gods big and small. They also echo the natural debris and rubbish that gets caught in low hanging river trees after a flood. At the same time, they’re little decorations hung on the streets; surprises for those who see them, tiny magical moments bubbling through the city.

This project was released on the streets of Melbourne on January 2 and it’s already evolving. With the help of members of the Agency of Coney, a UK based company whose three principals of adventure, loveliness and curiosity helped inspire this project, Gilding pieces will start appearing on the streets of England and America in the next few weeks which is a thrilling development.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go out and Turnup more Stuff. Gilding the City has just become Gilding the World and that’s going to need heaps more discarded and broken bits to create enough pieces!Similar Posts:

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November: Month of books at Whipup.net

Pinhole Cameras: A DIY Guide. By Chris Keeney, Published by Princeton Architectural Press (June 8, 2011).

This is avid photographer and pinhole camera expert, Chris Keeney’s first book, nicely published by Papress – I love their quirky and quality mix of design, diy and architecture books. In Chris’s book, he claims that you can turn any container into a pinhole camera – exciting to experiment with – there is something about this old style of photography that is very raw and very real – and such a contrast to our digital age. Great for kids to experiment with these projects too – teaches about light and lenses – good diy practical science at work!

Images from left: SPAMera Medium Format 120 Film Pinhole Camera :: Lavazza Espresso Coffee Can 5×7 Photographic Paper Pinhole Camera :: Romeo y Julieta Cigar Box Pinhole Camera

Publish Your Photography Book by Darius D. Himes and Mary Virginia Swanson, published by Princeton Architectural Press (March 23, 2011).

Insightful and informative guide to getting a photography book published. Industry insiders Darius D. Himes and Mary Virginia Swanson, take you through the steps of producing and publishing a photography book.

This book will help you to understand the publishing world and the process of getting a book to press – from submissions to contracts and the digital revolution you will come to terms with what you need to do to get started. Once you have that contract or you have decided to self publish then the authors take you through the next stage – the design and production. From there it’s onto marketing and selling your book in this very competitive market. Along the way you will hear from industry professionals and be able to read case studies and access a multitude of resources. Good luck my friend!
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Victoria Gertenbach is textile artist living in Lancaster County, PA. where her story continues to unfold. To learn more please visit her blog.

Finding Your Creative Voice

Hello Everyone! I’m Victoria from the Silly BooDilly, and I am delighted to be filling in for Kathreen today as one of her guest bloggers while she is on vacation.

When Kathreen first asked me if I would do a guest blog post, I wasn’t sure what I would write about it. So, I started thinking about various topics which are important to me in regards to creativity, and that led me to the topic of finding one’s true creative voice, something I feel very strongly about.

"Work Quilt #1" 2010. Inspired by the surrounding farmland where I live, as well as old patched utilitarian quilts.

It’s common for most of us, when first learning a new craft, to look around at what others are doing. In fact it’s usually seeing what someone else is doing that first sparks our desire to learn about a certain subject. The next obvious step is to try and recreate something similar in look and style to whose ever work it is that we admire. And if we can find any how-to’s provided by them, books featuring them, or take a class taught by them, all the more wonderful, for this helps us learn about process, techniques, and methods.

But too often, (in my personal opinion) folks can easily get stuck in this apprentice stage, embracing and taking on the style of the teacher/influencer to such a degree that they forget to move forward into the next stage, which is where one takes the technical information that they have learned and figures out how to apply that information to express something that can only come from their own unique perspective, which is how true art is born.

So, how does someone find their own creative voice? Well, I think one of the best pieces of advice that I have ever heard about this topic was in regards to writers. You probably have heard it too, at some point…

“If you wish to be a good writer, write about what you know.”

I would suggest that the same holds true for the visual arts. Create what you know. Create what you care about. Create what you are drawn to. Create what you resonate with. Create what you love.

If you follow your heart it will lead you to your soul.

"Barn Door" 2011. Inspired by the beautiful worn and weathered old white barns near where I live.

Start paying attention to what in your environment makes your heart skip a beat. What do you find yourself looking at, photographing, collecting, thinking about? And ask yourself, “why?” Why do you like what you do? Break it down… for example, if you find yourself photographing close up shots of flowers and insects, ask yourself what it is that attracts you to them… is it that you love the relationship between the two? Their colors? Their shapes? If you have a collection of found bird nests on your mantle and artwork of eggs and feathers hanging around your home, ask yourself why… do you like the freedom that birds seem to have? Are you attracted to their ability to weave a nest, (I know I am). Is there something about the shape and/or color of their eggs that lifts your spirit? These types of questions can help you define what it is that you want to explore and express in your art.

Remnants #5 and #4, 2010. Inspired by the lines and shapes found in the old farms near where I live.

If you are attracted to architecture, (as I am) ask yourself, what style of architecture you are drawn to, and what aspects about that style are you most drawn to? And for the record, don’t be surprised if you find yourself drawn to more than one type, even if those types seem to be completely different. (This just proves that you are multi-dimensional!) I for one am very drawn to mid-century design for it’s clean esthetics and use of line. For me it represents order and simplicity, the ability to say more with less. However, I am also extremely drawn to old farm structures, primarily for their worn exterior with peeling paint, their holes and broken windows, their patched and mended areas and their wonderful odd lines and off kilter shapes. For me they represent quiet beauty, endurance, an undying strength of spirit and a life well lived. I also daydream about owning a darling little beach cottage one day, as I love the seaside and associate it with true bliss. And last but not least I have a real attraction to cute vintage trailers as I associate them with one of my favorite childhood books, “The Boxcar Children” which sent my 8 year old self day-dreaming of young independence found in the act of setting up housekeeping in a small place of one’s very own.

Embroidered Miniature Houses, 2011. Inspired by my attraction to little beach cottages and small retro trailers.

Regardless of how many different architectural structures I am attracted to, I know that each one holds something personal for me, and that’s the key…

As soon as you start to examine what truly resonates with you, and figure out why it pulls at you, you will begin to create your own personal foundation that you can then build upon with a body of work that reflects you as an creative individual.

Everybody has a story to tell. What’s yours?

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A crafty type and a lover of mischief, a whim, a ‘Why Not?’. Tania is also a mum of three, a wife, a graphic designer, a juggler extraordinaire (in training). You’ll find her over at Myrtle & Eunice, celebrating her crafty hits, confessing the misses and always bewildered by the pile of dirty washing.

It Ain’t Only About The Flies

It’s not that I’m obsessed with flies, cos I’m not. Certainly, if you happened to refer to the November page of this year’s Whipup calendar,  you’d turn to look at me all sideways and squinty and doubtful-like. But THAT fly – the one composed of a bazillion stitches, was really all about the obsessive joy in (finally!) mastering the french knot. THIS fly, the one above, was all about the sudden fascination with the crafty potential of fly screen.

I almost did my eyeballs in. Crafting with fly screen is like crafting blind. The grids of tiny squares appear to move and intersect, creating a moiré effect. Half the time you can’t tell which is shadow, or which is the surface you’re working on. And it’s a SHOCKER to photograph. Navigate the light, the shade, the shadows cast, the greying effect of the mesh, the disappearing into-backgrounds, then give up in a huff. Put away your camera, live it in real time.

In real time – and you’ll probably have to trust me on this – it is possible to appreciate the delicate intricacies of embroidered fly body hair.

As a crafty type who never knows when to leave well enough alone, I couldn’t help but try my hand at cross-stitching a flying fly…

…which in one fell swat, becomes a cross-stitched, well past-his-prime fly.

It struck me that flies were not the only obvious subject matter. Too busy losing focus to fly screen, to notice teetering laundry piles, a disaster kitchen, and an impressive spider web population inhabiting window frames, it finally dawned upon me. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

While the bug lovin’ middle kid is chuffed to bits with his fly-eating, window-inhabiting spider,

I have been forced to concede to the Mr’s long-held theory: not one part of this house is safe from the craft.Similar Posts:

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Anna Hrachovec is a Brooklyn-based designer and fiber artist who creates strange and adorable characters for all ages. She divides her time between designing knitting patterns that she shares with the crafting community and creating complex knitted worlds for exhibition. She is the author of two books of knitted toy patterns, Knitting Mochimochi and Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi, and you can find her blog and patterns at mochimochiland.com.

Knitting Teeny-Tiny Toys

I’m really excited to be guest blogging on Whipup again!

This time I want to share with you my biggest (but actually smallest) knitting obsession over the past two years: really tiny knitting. I’ve been knitting toys nonstop since 2007, but in July of 2009 I decided to challenge myself by designing and knitting a new miniature toy every day for a month, and sharing a photo of the finished project on my blog. My subject matter was about as random as you can get: animals, foods, people, and any kind of object I could think of. I started with a Tiny Brain.

Some days it was more of a challenge than other days (a Tiny Mailbox turned out to be a tricky project, for example), but I was having lots of fun with it and getting encouragement from my blog readers. So I decided to continue the challenge on a weekly basis, and 130 Tinys later, it’s still ongoing to this day! I never thought I would stick with it this long, but it seems that there is no end to the things that are fun to make in miniature knitted form. You wouldn’t think that a Tiny Asparagus would be so cute, but often I am surprised by which random things turn out to be my favorites.

So I started out the project because I was looking for a challenge, and I continued it because the challenge was so much fun. The fact that it turned into a book was a huge bonus! Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi was just released by Potter Craft in August (at least in the US; the release date for other countries is happening this fall).

Designing a Tiny takes about one to three hours, depending on how complex it is.

I start with an idea of something that I want to knit, whether it’s a frog, a hamburger, or a fire hydrant. I make a sketch of what I think that thing looks like. I think it’s valuable to put on paper my imagined idea of what this thing generally looks like (I’m not a skilled illustrator by any means, so it truly is a general idea).

Then I usually do a Google Images search to see if there are any important features that I left out. Sometimes I’ll look at other simple line drawings, like clip art, although I don’t want to be too influenced by another person’s artistic rendering.

Next, I go back to my notebook, and keep sketching until I arrive at a design that’s as simple as possible while capturing the essence of whatever it is I want to represent. Sometimes this means sketching something over and over again, until something takes shape. In the end, I usually have one basic shape with just a few details. And a pair of eyes, of course!

Now it’s time to knit. Since I’ve been knitting toys for about five years now, I have some go-to formulas in my head that I use for basic shapes. But there’s nothing better than trial-and-error when knitting toys, and since the designs are so small, it doesn’t hurt to just start knitting and then start over if I have to.

For the main piece, I usually work from the bottom up, or from back to front, because the closed-up end looks better than the cast-on end. I almost always knit this main piece in the round using double-pointed needles.

Time for details. For flat pieces, I will often pick up the stitches, which looks like this:

And for long, thin pieces, I make an I-cord and thread it through the main piece. I do this with lots of arms and legs on animals and people.

Embroider on the eyes and a few other details, and we’re done: a tiny blue penguin!

It’s so simple and quick, I bet any intermediate knitter could tackle their own Tiny toy design. Let me know if you do! You can see all of my Tinys on the Mochimochi Blog. Happy knitting!Similar Posts:

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Karen Barbé is a textile designer and lives in Santiago, Chile. Her passion for crafting, textiles and everything nostalgic finds its space on her blog where she shows her works in progress and what currently inspires her. Her textile creations can be found on the her online shop.

Hi there! I’m Karen, I’m a textile designer and I’m happy to be guest blogging here on Whipup.net.

I chose to hand print this piece of fabric because it’s been a long while since I had last tried it and I had in my mind these images of cross-stitch patterns, grids and textile structures I wanted to play with.

For making my stamp I used a clear polycarbonate sheet and small squares (5 mm / 2.5inch) of EVA foam [hard foam - comes in blocks - is used quite a bit in packaging too].

What I like about using small squares is that you can easily build a nice motif without having to carve or cut complex shapes. Just choose your favorite cross-stitch pattern and start gluing the squares (or “stitches”) on the surface.

I printed a piece of roughly 1 x 1 mt (a bit more than a yard) of natural cotton muslin with three rows of my design. It’s best to use clear bases for the stamp for easier registration (instead of wood or matte plastic).

I must confess I was going to cut the final cloth and sew a bag but when I saw it finished I changed my mind. I can now use it as a small tablecloth, a wall hanging or small curtain, a cloth for sitting on the grass or for wrapping your stuff you have to carry around (like returning the books to the library).

Can you think of any other ideas?

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Alexandra Smith aka Lola, writes the blog Lola Nova – Whatever Lola Wants. She is a mother, wife, designer, musician, and maker of 100% pure handmade goodness.  She lives in a little green cottage in the Pacific Northwest United States with her family, some lovely lady hens, The Buddha Cat and an ever changing population of fish.

Everyday Inspiration

How lovely to be asked to guest post here at Whipup.net, a place so chock full of inspiration and wonderful folks, thank you Kathreen!

So I have been thinking about inspiration lately; where does it come from? In this modern life we live, we have access to so much through our technology; there are amazing blogs, fantastic music, images from all over the world at our fingertips. Many of us have access to museums, galleries and exhibits that fill our heads with new and exciting ideas. However, in this modern life we live, there is also an issue of time. We are all so busy; we have jobs, families, homes to manage, etc. and often it is a struggle to find time just to make something - let alone go to a museum, craft fair or to spend hours scouring the internet. I am no exception.

Recently, I was caught up in the whirlwind of everyday life, feeling un-inspired and a little sorry for myself if the truth be told. After a long afternoon of wearing my grumpy pants and punctuating my chores with heavy sighs, I looked around and realized that no one was going to take me by the hand and say, “There, there dear, why don’t you take the afternoon off and go to the museum and while you’re at it, get yourself some cake.”  No, I was going to have to buck up and find my inspiration in the everyday stuff.

Here are some of the ways in which I found inspiration in the small details of everyday living:

*I picked up a new notebook, made myself a little pouch to keep the essentials in… a small pair of scissors, tape, a glue stick, pens and pencils, as well as a wee sewing kit. Now armed with everything I needed, every outing became an opportunity to look for inspiration. I collect things; a feather, an interesting scrap of paper, a leaf to press between the pages, and I add them to my notebook. Some days it is just a single tidbit with a small note, other days it may fill up a few pages with drawings, observations and thoughts. Whatever the case may be, I find it opens up my eyes and my imagination.

*I engage my daughter in the exercise as well, she has her own notebook and we talk about what we find and why we chose those things. If we don’t have time to put everything in our books, we save things in our pouches until we have a moment to stick them in.

*I take my camera everywhere; going for walks, trips to the park, even to my back yard, and I take pictures of things that strike my fancy. No pebble, stick, fence post, storm drain or bit of dandelion fluff is safe from my lens. I discover patterns, colors, shapes and textures that fascinate and inspire me.

*My daughter and I play a game while riding in the car that is a little like “Eye Spy” only we call it “I Like.”  We call out, “I like the way that yellow sign looks against the blue sky!” or “I like that giant letter M on that brick building!” or “I like how that tree looks like an old man!” It’s all about opening our eyes to the little details we often miss.

*I remind myself to turn on music that makes me happy. It just works.

All of these things make an impression and they lead to inspiration that makes its way into my work. Not all of it turns into a dress, a quilt, a cushion, or a handbag but, I am often surprised how these little inspirations show up in something I have made, sometimes in ways I would never have imagined.

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