Today's Happenings

Well, I was off to a slow start today,but once I got going it was good!
That was about 2 in the afternoon. I got dressed and went out to get the mail and I had three pkgs.
One contained the charms from a charm swap I joined. When I arrange them I'll post the picture.
I'm not sure whether to make a bracelet , a garland, fancy fringe on the end of a scarf ????
I also got a terrific set of presents from Christine ! Wonderful ! Thanks again.

The other parcel contained a great book ! Machine Embroidery Inspirations from Australian Artists. Kristen Dibbs
It is very cool to see the diversity and it is full of tips good for all fiber artists.

Speaking of being artists I had several requests in the last few days for various things, how did I do this or that ..... can I tell them how to do things.
This batch of requests which I can kinda answer really made me think about something I like to call the magic bullet.
Frequently we look to someone else to give us the answers. Rug hooking is certainly set up like this. But the answers we get are for their questions, not our own.
We are really the only ones who 'know" what our answers are. We are looking for the magic bullet to be shot straight for us. But aren't we the owners of our own magic, unique to us ? If we knew our questions better it would help to find the answers.

For instance I'm frequently asked to tell people how to hook a face.
This is not a topic I'm an expert in. I have only hooked about 5 faces in my life and those were of people whom I'm really familiar with. Yes, in case you were wondering Elvis is living right here with me !
It is easy to tell people what I do.
It is easy to explain what to look for.
It is easy to jot down tips for colour use and all the rest of what you might use to create a great portrait.

But what I can't do is look for you, or study your visual as you need to, or hook for you. Or rip out your work as you refine your method.
Because it is your method. Only you can discover it. Mostly by making a start and tons of mistakes. Go for it !


One of best encouragements for me as I started my hooking life was a documentary on Picasso and the creation of his painting Guernica.
He was working on it only 15 days after the attack on the town by German bombers during the Spanish Civil War.
He had his initial ideas. But watching him execute them and cast aside those that didn't fit his work as it progressed was such a relief.
Because don't we all in our minds eye set out to make the most glorious thing ever ? Then we start to bring them to fruition, and the tree sometimes bears fruit that we don't expect. The work sometimes demands a new turn. It becomes entity itself.
It might only resemble our initial idea. This is still good. This is for the best. This is what creativity is about.

Now take a gander at this: I'm living in a white world .... it is GOOD to see green !