Living the Creative Life

My FibR group met tonight for our monthly meeting. Late last year we decided to choose a book on creativity and begin working through it during our meetings. We chose Living the Creative Life by Rice Freeman-Zachery. So, in January we started going through it on our own (chapter by chapter) and then discussing it in our meetings.

Tonight we talked about Chapter 2: The Creative Childhood. So, what types of creative activities did you do as a child? Were you free to create and engage in creative activities? Was it encouraged?? Interesting things to think about . . .


Some of my daughter's chalk art created when she was three.


And thinking of spring!

Sumptuous Surfaces

In an attempt to catch up on posts about art related stuff I realized that I never blogged about last year's FibR art show at the Tippecanoe Art Federation (TAF) gallery in Lafayette, IN. FibR is a a group of fiber artists from the Lafayette/West Lafayette, IN (and surrounding) area. We have quilters, mixed media artists, basket makers, gourd artists, wearable artists, dyers, jewelry artists and more in our group. We meet once a month at TAF to talk, learn from each other and showcase our work. For the past two or three years now we have had a juried gallery show at the TAF galleries. These are a few pictures from our 2010 show entitled "Sumptuous Surfaces; Layers of Meaning".




The two pieces on the left are by Anita Krug. Leaf wallhanging by Sabrina Cassidy. Beaded necklace by Cindy Anderson.



Both of these pieces are mine. "Blooming" on the left and "Temperance and the Hierophant" on the right.

My New Etsy Shop

I've been thinking about opening an Etsy shop for several years now and I finally decided to just do it. I put my first items up for sale yesterday. Some of them are new designs that I just started on right before Christmas. I'm really excited about them. I have some of my work at the gift shop at Gallery 510 in Decatur, Illinois and my New Year's resolution was to branch out to other galleries and venues this year. My new Etsy shop Polkadot Possum is a start! Now I need to keep the momentum going.



New collection of mixed media heart pins.







Framed, mixed media heart pictures.







Mixed media, framable art cards.


And there's more to come!

Need to blog more often . . .

I have been absent from my blog for quite awhile. I am really going to try to blog on a more regular basis. I have recently finished knitting a pair of socks from Nancy Bush's "Knitting Vintage Socks". The pattern is Lichen Ribbed Socks. They are knitted in Australian Merino's Needful Yarns. The color is #1007. The toes were knit in the same yarn but a contrasting color. The color is actually correct in the first photo.

Remains of the Day Journal #1

I have finished the construction on my first Remains of the Day journal that I am making with about a gazillion wonderful and creative people in Mary Ann Moss' latest online class. Hurray Mary Ann!!!! She is a hoot and I have enjoyed every class I've taken with her so far. Here is a video showing the constructed (but as yet unfilled) journal. Enjoy!

Remains of the Day Journal #1 from Cindy Harwood on Vimeo.

Remains of the Day Class

Okay, so it's been awhile. Life caught up with me and passed me by but I'm trying to get back into control again. I've managed to get the twins half-way through first grade so maybe it will be smoother sailing for awhile.

I've just started taking a brand new on-line class from Mary Ann Moss of Dispatch from LA. The class is called "Remains of the Day" and it is journal-making at its finest with paper, fabric, stitching, ephemera, etc. Mary Ann is a great teacher. I have taken two other classes with her and I really enjoy her style and quirky sense of humor. Hopefully I will get around to posting some of the works in progress from her previous classes that I took in the summer.

Our first assignment involved making a scrappy cover for our new soon-to-be-made journals. I used a piece of home decorating fabric that I had overdyed as my cover base fabric and I machine appliqued tapestry, silks and other fabrics to it to make a scrappy chic looking cover. I even made a tie closure with tapestry fabric and several different types of yarns. Then I free motion stitched over parts with fuchsia rayon thread. YUMMY! Here are some pictures but the colors are a bit washed out. I took these in artificial light.

Dingbats spotted!

Well, this studio journals class has so many interesting lessons that it's hard to keep up. This past week we have been working with dingbats (computer dingbats, that is). I made a few designs using dingbats and then played around with some positive/negative imagery. Here's what I came up with:






They aren't works of art but they are fun.