In the Blink of an eye a month
a year has flown by. The short weeks of
the past month have been spent visiting family, camping and enjoying life. They have also stirred my creative juices and
I’m contemplating things I wish I started a year ago... when I began my year’s
hiatus from the 8-5 daily grind of the working stiff, and began that most marvellous
journey into motherhood.
Chicken Little will be a year old too
soon, and I’ll resume my role in the workforce.
Chicken Little will be taken care of at daycare and the precious few waking
hours a day I will have with him will be cherished - being that much more
special. What will likely take a
backseat is all the fun creative stuff I’ve been able to do this year... sadly I’m not ready to be done with fun
stuff.
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| lovely place to loaf about
©RiverWalker Arts
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Maybe it was all the loafing about in
a campsite away from the constant reminders of house work needing to be done
and guilt about not walking the dog more frequently .... or maybe it was one
thing leading to another... but after making my first foray into the fun world
of fabric and creating a series of simple rag quilts and accepting that I’m
really an impatient seamstress and what I really like is all the wonderful fabric
that is out there. (Not that being
incapable of sewing a straight line is going to stop me from my dabbling in quilting ). In fact I knew if I started buying fabric it
would become a problem... I deliberately avoided getting into fabric arts when
my crystal ball while usually foggy and useless for divining the future showed a huge collection of
fat-quarters in store for me, a fortune in fabric just for the beauty of it all.
Nowhere to store it, and not enough time to work through it all.
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| ©Jacquie |
One day after realizing that the
inevitable fabric collecting had begun. I
found myself lounging on the sofa at my friend’s place, the lovely owner
of fishskin fabrics (http://www.fishskinfabric.com/), drinking the splendid coffee she had made me, and
discussing how there was more fabulous fabric to be had than one could ever
hope to have time to sew with it, much like there are more books I want to read
than there is time in my life to read them. “and wouldn’t it be such fun to design those
fabrics” I mentioned. This being as opposed to writing a book, something for
which I have no desire - especially given the fact I can’t even figure out how
to write a short little story to make into a children’s book.
But fabric design... well this
apparently isn’t so difficult... and so she led me to a place called
SpoonFlower. Oh the wonderful sounds Mr. Brown can do.... er ... I mean the
wonderful places the web can take you....
A website that makes it possible for individuals to design, print and
sell their own fabric designs.
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©RiverWalker Arts
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A day later... curtsey of some
detailed ink drawings I did 10 years ago,
voilà. My first fabric design: http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1333607
The first of what I hope to be many. I
envision a whole line of RiverWalker fabrics!!!
Oh and that children’s book I can’t
figure out how to write I did come to
the conclusion that, since I sing the Dutch Lullaby “Wynken, Blyken and Nod” by Eugene Field (he was an
American so it beats me why it’s known as a Dutch Lullaby - but I digress) to
Chicken Little at least once every night - it would be a good practice run for
me. I've no idea the copyright on the
poem, but I’d like to produce a single copy for me and my Chicken Little. Maybe I
won’t go down in history as a great illustrator but I might just manage to
realize my dream and illustrate a children’s story – even if it’s just for use
in this house.
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"Wynken, Blynken, and
Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe —" |
Here are a couple sketches I’ve done
towards that particular project..... the
final project will be in watercolours.
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"The old moon laughed and
sang a song,
As they rocked in the wooden shoe, And the wind that sped them all night long Ruffled the waves of dew. The little stars were the herring fish That lived in that beautiful sea — "Now cast your nets wherever you wish — Never afeard are we"; So cried the stars to the fishermen three: Wynken, Blynken, and Nod." |
Life beats down
and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one. ~Stella Adler
