New Year - New Me! De-cluttering My Art Studio And My Mind

Trying to see into the future is hard. Living in the past is even harder. I've been cleaning and sorting the art studio and working on de-cluttering my life in other ways lately. Cleaning my working space has lead to reflection and looking back over my past artwork and deciding how I want to move into the future - What skills to keep perfecting, what skills to add, and what to set aside for now, and what to just let go of altogether. This is not an easy task!

2020 is going to be a great year to de-clutter and de-stress

After 4+ decades of being 'an artist', I can see now that most of the best work I did in the past, even commissioned work, was not forced or done on a schedule. The older I get the less I want to even try to make art on a schedule, and the more I feel I should spend time with it, sometimes just sitting with it and even sometimes to just walk away from it for a day, or a week, and check back on it occasionally while I wait for it to 'feel right' and 'just happen'.

4x4" acrylic dog portrait

As an artist, inspiration often just pops into my head (literally, I can see things I want to make in 3-D in my head) but manifesting the actual art it in a physical form is not always easy or straightforward, and I often get frustrated and blame myself when things don't turn out as planned. My head and my art studio are full of abandoned or just unmade art projects. If I had only realized, many years ago, that I needed to do more meditation and less flailing about, and that I should spend more time looking and feeling, and waste less energy pushing and 'making it work no matter what', how much better would my art be now? Ah well, live and learn I suppose.

One of my latest needlefelted dog portraits

So, moving into the future, I want to learn some new skills to add to and improve my artwork. I need to make my art more of an 'expression of myself' and less of what others expect me to 'produce'. There are more layers of me than what most people ever see.

Looking forward to putting more of the 'real' me into my work!

2020 is time to finally get REAL!

Now I'm going to get back to work de-cluttering my studio and my head.

Weaving A New Future One Shuttle At A Time

I am just not sure what happened to September. It was here and then gone in a flash and now somehow it is the first week in October. Time flies and even faster when you have one crisis after another to deal with on the homefront and your creative juices are flowing again. So let's see what's in the works for this month.

First, I have been making more hand carved and hand-painted "Wild Weavers" band-weaving shuttles and having some fun with that.
 

Grab one while you still can! They are selling quickly, but I will make more as time allows and you can see what shuttles are still available here in this album on facebook. They make great gifts for the weaver in your life and are just  as useful as they are fun. Because not everyone weaves, but everyone loves art, and animals, I will also be making some little carved and painted ornaments and will post a link to an album when I get enough made up. Stay tuned.


There are other things in the works here, as well, and I will also be writing a post later this weekend about my renewed interest in making pen and ink drawings, and painting, and the fun I am having with Higgins Inks and Inktober 2019 #Inktober19 because the amazing folks at higgins sent me some Black Magic ink, some white and super white ink and I am all into re-learning the art of drawing with real pens and not just markers!

If you like what I do and want to help me keep doing it but don't want to buy any artwork right now, please consider buying me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/ghosthorsestudios

Carving & Weaving with Whales & Dragons

Well the Summer hasn't been without excitement, so far the dishwasher has broken, the dryer has broken, and I have fought off not one but two seperate attempts of yellow jackets making a nest in the wall by my back door rendering that exit useless. But it hasn't been all bad. Thanks to Keto Ben seems to be so much better and I am feeling amazing. But I digress, that is not the point of this post, so let's get on with the show!

I stopped making my "Wild Weaver" band shuttles a couple of years ago when my life fell apart and no one wanted to buy them anymore, so I shut down my etsy shop and put away my carving tools and boxed up my remaining shuttles. There were a few random requests but overall people seemed to have lost interest and they are not all that easy to make, so I just didn't make any more.

Flash forward to last month, and I can't pay my bills, so I dug out the remaining shuttles and decided to take what I could get for them IF I could sell any at all and voila! I sold all but one! Now I find myself making more of them. I have 11 in the works but working time is pretty slow and I have had all these distractions plus the weather does not always cooperate with working outside but I am started on them now and will get back into the groove and start producing them a bit faster, hopefully.

All I have been able to make so far is a golden dragon and I am working on a blue sperm whale. I'd like to keep the whale but if someone wants it I can always make another one because I'd also like to keep the lights on, so if you ever wanted a whale or dragon or bunny or sheep shuttle you can find these listed for sale on my facebook page.  As I finish them I will put them into a sale album there and they will all be sold first come, first served. I need a better system to sell them but I don't have anything set up for that now so will we just have to manage as best as possible in the short term. 


If you like what I do and want to help me keep doing it buit don't need any artwork right now, please consider buying me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/ghosthorsestudios

A Doe, A Deer

I'm really trying to get myself together here and produce enough to pay my bills before they are late, but my art studio is still a disaster, so I have cleared out a small space and have set up a dedicated place to paint these shuttles. So far so good but it's already 4:30pm 😐

Anyway, I had just been taking a picture to share on my Instagram feed of my new little workspace when I looked outside the window and saw this little doe browsing past...

THIS - watching deer walk past my window unafraid - is the only thing I really love about this house... and why I am hesitant to move to the city in spite of how much easier it might be to find a job, have access to things and just generally get around in life.

This makes me want to sell my house here to some fat rich retiree and buy a nice old farm house in New England that's big enough to house some large looms, a real woodworking shop, an art studio and with enough land to have my own woods for wildlife watching and photography and pasture and a barn to raise a few animals and put in a geothermally heated solar lighted greenhouse to extend the growing season and I could have horses again, maybe even a sleigh... and take up snowshoeing and hiking again like I did in Montana...

But for today, I'll just enjoy the deer...

Time to Move On Down the Road?

I have been trying to sell my house for several years now, but as you all know, the economy is bad... If I asked less $ for it, I could probably sell it quickly... and move on with my life... but then I would be effectively homeless and would have less money to re-locate with... and I am not 100% sure where I want to settle when I leave here... but I would be debt free and free to go wherever I want.... so it's a two edged sword...

I used to think I wanted to live on a barge in France... I still would do that, if I could, but I can't manage it, so here I am... and now I find myself pondering the thought of selling my house and living in a converted school bus while traveling around the country making and selling art at least 1/2 of the year and parking it somewhere suitable the rest of the year... Others have done it... why not me?

Sure, it would be a bit cramped... but that can be dealt with by downsizing and  the views and adventure might just more than make up for the tight quarters... and at least we could make it the way we want and go where we pleased... It's a BIG country and I haven't seen it all yet!

I know... you're picturing this....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023532/True-story-Magic-Bus-trip-launched-hippy-era.html

But just look at some of these amazing #Skoolies as they call them...

From School Bus to Fabulous. Don’t Miss This Must-See Mobile Tiny Home. 

(Converted by Chris and Kelly Ross)

"If you could comfortably live with a mistake like gap in your wall or crooked doorway then leave it. If you know it will bother you forever, then take the time to go back and fix it and sleep peacefully at night. The beauty of building your own home is these are your decisions to make." http://www.snugshack.com/school-bus-fabulous-dont-miss-must-see-mobile-tiny-home/

That is cozy but this one is amazing!

Hank Bought a Bus
http://www.hankboughtabus.com/a-tour-of-the-bus/
"In August of 2013 we embarked on a 5,000 mile journey and documented our travels. You can read about and see photos of our experiences by checking out our Travel Posts."

and there are countless other examples out there....

 http://mentalfloss.com/article/52933/15-creative-converted-school-buses

 http://tinyhouselistings.com/tag/bus/

and there are lots of videos! Here's one...

For now it's just a thought... but I'll let you know what happens ;-)

Wild Weaving Shuttles

Besides beading I have recently also become addicted to weaving and since I needed a way to weave - looms... shuttles... and since I also do woodworking of course I can't just leave it at that... so I get a hold of some power tools and get carried away... now I make these handcrafted wooden weaving shuttles for inkle,  card weaving and tablet weaving...
 

So now I am making shuttles in the shapes of fish and foxes and dragons and sheep and cats and hares and dogs and horses.... all sorts of WILD weavers! You can check it out HERE and they can be bought HERE in my Etsy shop...

 

 are you a #fox ? or a #blacksheep ?

 

I can even make a shuttle to look like your dog or cat!

(REQUEST A CUSTOM ORDER HERE)

#Siamesecat

#tabbycat

#poodle

#jackrussellterrier

 #tuxedocat

 And then I HAD to try my hand at making some Popsicle stick heddles - these will also be available to buy soon...

 

(REQUEST A CUSTOM ORDER HERE) 

My Beading Addiction (and more...)

HI, My name is Cindy and I'm an artist. I have been an artist for my entire life. It started back in the 1960's with fat crayons and those really big pencils.... then I moved up to paint, pastels, watercolors, acrylics... then sometime in the early 1980's I found out how to do beading and there was  no turning back... now I do this... Of course this sort of thing eats up all of my time and money, so if you would like to have some I would like to make some for you because I am willing to bead just about anything for a price.

You can find me here on Facebook most days...  Just pop in and say "Hi!" and scroll down to the bottom for a preview of my next post and to see what else I am doing......

 

SPOILER ALERT!

Besides beading I have recently also become addicted to weaving and since I also do woodworking I am currently making handcrafted wooden weaving shuttles and popsicle stick heddles for band weaving... card weaving... tablet weaving... will post more about that soon... but for now you can check it out HERE and they can be bought HERE in my Etsy shop...

 #beadwork #beading #weaving #bandweaving #cardweaving #tabletweaving #beadembroidery #art #artist