Arts & Culture: Scribbling In Order to Awaken Creativity

For today's Arts & Culture post I'd like to share something that I've been thinking a lot about recently and that's awakening creativity. First of all, I know that you're probably distracted by this weird photo above :-) However, when I was going through some files on my computer, I found this little sketch. I know that it looks like I probably drew this when I was a toddler, but actually it was only about eight years ago. I'll tell you now, this isn't an actual drawing that I made with my hand. I drew this very badly on an antiquated phone that I had at the time when I was just fooling around one day and for some reason I saved it onto my computer. It's very badly drawn because I drew it with my fingernail on an electronic pad and I had no idea what I was doing. LOL. I can draw much better than this in reality. Anyway, enough of my excuses ;-)

So when I found this photo in the deep recesses of my computer I laughed at it but it instantly brought back the memory of when I created it. The thing that I remember most about it was that it was just a bit of throw away fun that I ended up not throwing away and I'm glad that I still have it and here's why.

Recently I've been trying to awaken more of my creativity and to get back to a place where I can exercise that part of myself more. When I saw the picture above it reminded me that sometimes just having fun can lead you down a path of discovery. Many of us often take ourselves way too seriously and want to create something wonderful and there's nothing wrong with that...that's what I want. However, sometimes you have to scribble and doodle in life in order to let go, so that your mind is open to create something that you love. I think that scribbling and doodling and letting your mind just have fun releases the attachment to outcome and your able to tap into your creativity more readily.

So now that I've found my little scribbly doodle above, I'm going to keep it as a reminder to just let go and breathe and enjoy the journey that is creativity! 

Arts and Culture: Importance, meaning and the Arts Council.

 

Hello, and welcome back to the labyrinth.  In today's post, I would like to talk about the importance of the arts and culture, and what they might mean, in our lives.  For me, art, in any form, can be inspiring and regenerative, can stun the senses creating wonderment (for example, the first time I saw Turner's work in London, and Monet's work in Paris - all I could say and think was 'Wow...'), and can massively enhance our mood.  It feels good to read a great book, to be an audience member at a great play, film or concert, or to produce something creative yourself, doesn't it?  Culture, for me, represents humanity in action - the road map of how we have lived and are living, and what we think, feel and believe.  In today's multi-cultural society, then, the inevitable blending of artistic and cultural ideas should be more interesting and exciting than ever.

Creative Maze - Photography

For today's Creative Maze, I wanted to share this collage that I made from my recent trip to London. I have hundreds of photos of London and so recently I thought that it might be fun to revisit the older ones and put them together in themes.

 These are very recent photos though. Still, I'm in a photography mood lately so I'll be doing more collages like this. It's all about creativity and having fun!

Happy Friday!!!!!

The Creative Maze - Val: Costume-making for film - 3

Welcome back to The Creative Maze.  This week, I have another update for you on the huntress costume I'm currently making for a short film that will be shot in Scotland later this year.  I think it's going well, and here are some photos tracking its progress:

Shoulder strap, stitched, turned, pressed and trimmed with fiddly 6mm brown ribbon. This velvet material is so beautiful, but with a stretch in it, it is a total pain to work with, especially when you are attaching slippery fabrics like lining or ribbon!

Creative Maze - Challenge - Jewelry Making

For today's Creative Maze challenge, I'm here to talk about my revisiting jewelry-making and getting in touch with my creativity again. As I mentioned on a previous challenge post "here", I've decided to put knitting on the back burner in favor of something that I'm more interested in at this time.

So today I thought that I'd talk about some of the tools that I use for making jewelry. Each one has a particular use and they help make the act of creating a little easier. Here are my tools. I'll describe what each one is used for :

 


Bent nose plier - perfect for twisting, squeezing and shaping in areas that long nose pliers can't reach. And this one has a serrated tip to help grip on better.












Long nose plier with smooth tip - good for twisting, squeezing and shaping and especially good for jewelry findings. They have a smooth tip so they won't damage the surfaces of items that are being bent or shaped.









Straight nose internal plier - these are great for twists, coils, and loops for beading. They are smooth so they won't ruin the finish of objects that are being bent.









Side cutter plier - good for cutting and trimming wire, jewelry findings, and head and eye pins.












Long nose plier with serrated tip - good for twisting, squeezing and shaping, as well as picking up and holding small items. This one has a serrated tip that gives a nice secure grip.










So now that I've introduced you to my tools, onward I go on this creative journey!

Until next time...

Arts & Culture: Photography Books Celebrating the Art of Life

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I love taking pictures and one of the things that I really enjoy is looking at the work of amazing photographers. I love the artistry of a well-crafted photo. It's a true art!

Recently I've had the opportunity to enjoy two great books of photos that are rooted in the examination of style. On the surface it would seem that the two books are very different but actually they have a lot in common. They both celebrate everyday people who are being themselves and expressing themselves in the ways that they adorn themselves.

See the World Beautiful by Anne Menke,
published by Glitterati Incorporated,
http://glitteratiincorporated.com

The first of the two books is called See the World Beautiful. It's the work of photographer Anne Menke and chronicles her travels around the world. It's a beautifully large book that measures roughly 11x 14 inches and its sheer size makes it an amazing photographic experience. The pictures are large and you can see lots of detail which makes each image seem as if you're peeking through a window.

See the World Beautiful by Anne Menke,
published by Glitterati Incorporated,
http://glitteratiincorporated.com

Anne Menke really captured the true universal human experience in her wonderful book of photographs. The true artistry and her skill made for an amazing experience.

The Way We Wore: Black Style Then by Michael McCollom,
published by Glitterati Incorporated, http://glitteratiincorporated.com

The other book is called The Way We Wore: Black Style Then by designer and photographer Michael McCollom. This lovely book makes me think of a family photo album in that it documents the personal style moments in the lives of McCollom's family, friends, and acquaintances. 

May 1960, New York City.
Arlene Hawkins,
Owner of Arlene Hawkins Cosmetics

The book beautifully chronicles the style contributions of African-Americans and how that style has influenced international fashion culture.

Both books were very intriguing and I think they both shine a light upon something very important. Each book reminded me of the power of the individual and the connection to culture as a whole. In just being ourselves and expressing ourselves we are celebrating our creativity and to me that is an expression of art. We leave our mark by how we choose to show up in this world.

There is so much to explore and there are so many ways of living in this world. And living has an air of the artistic to it. I love that! We are here to create our lives and to embrace the journey.

The Creative Maze: Photography

Once again I'm here with my contribution to the Creative Maze and I want to share one of my favorite ways to get creative again...photography. I love taking pictures...I've loved it as long as I can remember. I love the idea of freezing a moment in time. My hope is to get better technically with photography, so I plan to work on improving my skills over time.

One thing that I like to do is play around with Photoshop in order to see what I can create. Here is an example of my Photoshop antics. I've made some kinda weird things and I'll share some of those in future posts  ;-) But here is an example of a slight adjustment that I made to this picture of a rose.

Do you like to photography? Is there another way that you like to be creative? Please leave us a comment and tell us about how you get creative.

Until next time...

Creative Maze - Joint Challenge

Hello everyone, and welcome to our joint Creative Maze challenge.

Dori - Change to My Challenge

As many of you will know, I have been learning to knit for my challenge. It's been going fine, but I had to admit to myself that I'm not really into it right now. I'm going to continue to learn how to knit but at another time. You know how it is when your heart isn't really into something. Well that's what's been happening with me. I'm interested but not interested enough at this moment to take the time needed to learn.

So today I'm changing my challenge over to something that I would like to revisit. Years ago, I used to make jewelry, but I haven't done so for a long time. Therefore, I thought that I would set myself the challenge of tapping into my creativity again and seeing what I can make. Even though I will be making jewelry, the broader challenge is to tap into a part of myself which has been dormant for way too long...my creativity.

I look forward to sharing my journey with this challenge which I am really excited about. Watch this space :-)

*******

Val – Piano Challenge

 

 

It’s  been a few weeks since my last posting, and I haven’t got very far with the piano practice.  ‘Life’ seems to have got in the way, with other things taking over and bleeding into my precious practice time.  Never mind – that happens, doesn’t it?  I’ll just have to dive back in next week and stick to a more rigid timetable!

I have managed to learn a new piece though, and have moved on from using the odd sharp to introducing flats, so the little practice I have done has been quite interesting.  It’s amazing how many things a pianist has to do all at the same time, but then, perhaps, in time, it will become second nature...a bit like driving a car.  Well, I hope it will anyway, because right now things are a bit all over the place!

You can watch the ‘Russian song’ video here, or go to our Labyrinthus XXI YouTube channel and see it (and others) there.  Bye bye for now... 

 

 

 

Have a great weekend!

The Creative Maze: Photography

Hello there! So this is our next entry in the Creative Maze series and I'm here to present a way that I like to get creative. Last Friday Val featured her crafting skill as she demonstrated how she made the Yellow House flag for my sixth anniversary over at my blog. You can read that entry here.

I have a lot of interests in different areas of creativity as many people do. One of my favorite things is photography. I have loved taking pictures for as long as I can remember. I even used to make believe that I had a camera as I ran around our yard when I was a kid. I'd pretend to take pictures of our pets and the different birds. 

So as I've grown up, I've held onto that interest and I'm trying to become better at taking pictures. Even if I never get great at taking pictures, I'll always do it for the love of it, you know? Sometimes the love of something just fills your soul with happiness so it doesn't matter about anything else :-)

Here's a photo that I took last year. I pulled it out because it makes me think of the daffodils that are blooming now. When I took these pictures originally, I decided to play around with my computer and I put them into a kind of collection in one place. So here's the result.

I'm hoping to do more creative things like this with my photos and I'll be showing them here. Do you have any ways that you love to express your creativity? Why not let us know in the comments :-)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

~Dori

The Creative Maze: Creating the Yellow House flag.

Hello there, happy Friday and welcome to the Creative Maze.

A couple of days ago, you may have seen this post celebrating Dori’s six year anniversary at her ‘From a Yellow House in England’  blog, and as we had decided to embrace creativity here at Labyrinthus XXI, I thought it would be fun to design and make a flag for her.  Having never made a flag before, I sort of made it up as I went along, apart from the initial sketch that I scrawled on a piece of lined paper during our recent Skype chat.  This post shows you in pictures how I did it.  I’d really love to hear what you think of it, so please feel free to leave a comment below, or email me through the link on the sidebar.

The Creative Maze

Val      

Hello there.  Today Dori and I are launching the ‘Creative Maze’ – you know, that monster I hinted at yesterday that has gobbled up our alternate Friday challenge posts?  This ‘monster’ evolved through one of our many Skype meets, where we were discussing our challenges and the way we deal with and present them to you.  We felt you might get bored if our individual challenges didn’t show any major progress, and that updating every two weeks didn’t allow enough time for either of us to make any great leaps forward.  Now, this isn’t a cop-out and we’re not shutting down our challenges.  We’re just going to extend the time between our challenge posts, and we think it will be better to update you with our piano/knitting progress in a joint post once a month on the last Friday of the month from now on.  You can see we’ve kicked this off today with an update from both of us. 

I’ve uploaded two new videos to our Labyrinthus XXI YouTube channel – one of me playing a simple tune (but one I couldn’t have played before this challenge), and one of my daughter playing ‘Arriety’s song’, a really pretty piece of music.  She’s only been playing for three years, and I hope I can learn to play as well as she does.  You can watch the embedded videos at the end of this post, or view through YouTube, if you like.

Recipe: Wing It Spicy Pasta

Like many cooks, I have a tendency to wing it and not really measure the ingredients when I'm cooking. I just let my instincts take over and I create dishes according to my taste buds. I've thought about sharing my recipes like this before, but I hesitated because I wasn't able to give precise measurements. However, I realized that it's okay if I don't have precise measurements because part of cooking is creativity and what's more creative than making up a dish as you go along  ;-)

So here's my recipe:

Ingredients (to your own taste):

• roughly a tablespoon of Cajun seasoning
• roughly a tablespoon of oregano
• 2 vegetable stock cubes
• roughly a half teaspoon of flat leaf parsley
• roughly a teaspoon of smoked paprika
• a splash of Worcestershire sauce
• a splash of balsamic vinegar
• 1 large onion (chopped)
• about 8 medium sized mushrooms (chopped)
• roughly 4 ounces of water
• teaspoon of olive oil
• half teaspoon of butter
• spaghetti (amount depending upon how many you're serving)

Cooking time: about 25 minutes

Prep time: Just enough time to chop your mushrooms and onions

 

Add your olive oil and butter to your frying pan, letting the butter melt down. Next add your chopped onions and let them cook down until they're close to being translucent and then add your chopped mushrooms. Let the onions and mushrooms mingle together for a bit.

Style/Home: Accessorizing Your Walls

Today is the second entry in our new Style/Home section. If you missed the first post you can find it here. As I mentioned in that post, this section has to do with all things stylish for your home. I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, however I love expressing myself through the way that I decorate my home. I also just like knowing what's out there. It's fun to discover all of the creative things that are created to help us perhaps bring some bits of personality into our living spaces.

Saturday is my favorite day of the week. It's a day that most of us get the chance to do things that we don't often get to do during the week. Sometimes that means running errands, doing chores around the house, or if we're lucky we get to do something that we just love to do. One of my favorite things, one of many, is to go and browse at home stores. On at least one Saturday a month you'll find me walking around places like John Lewis, Next Home, or Dunelm stores. All of these stores are fun places to just browse and find inspiration. I often walk out without a thing, but I always come away with an idea or two.

Style/Home Section Debut

Today we would like to introduce a new series of posts here at Labyrinthus XXI, our Style/Home section. Every other Saturday, we will be featuring content that has to do with all things stylish for your home. We will be covering subjects such as ways to make the most of the space that you live in or ways to spruce things up around your house.

These days , especially since the recession, many of us have had to hold back on making huge changes around our homes, so we have been challenged with reimagining our surroundings. Many of us may not be able to move to a new place right now, so we are adding little accents here and there in order to make our homes seem a bit fresher.

Therefore a lot of our new Style/Home section will feature ways to change things around the home inexpensively, but there will also be times when we will feature things that are not quite so economical. Sometimes we will feature some pricier things and then think of ways to adapt the style in a cheaper way perhaps. And then sometimes we will just feature beautiful things that are more of a fantasy, but they will hopefully fire the imagination and just be there for fun.

That is the motive behind this new section....having fun and tapping into our creativity! We hope you'll come along on the journey with us!