DOTs on the Mind

I was just looking at the dot paintings done by the Aboriginal Australians when across my computer screen FoltBolt features this wonderful artist and her spirit filled dot paintings.

The aboriginal dot paintings have a very old heritage, from the morning of the world. Today's Australian dot painting is very much kindred to the dot painting you find in Mexican folk art and the kind of dot paintings you see in the Ukraine and Russia. I love dots. Humans love dots. We are all related.

I am at my painting table finishing up my own miniature dot paintings(the below beads, eggs and jewelry components)!

 

Mirree Louise Bayliss
Facebook
FoltBolt Blog

Getting Unstuck - Three Tips to Breaking Through a Creative Block

         What do red balloons, Paul Klee and the Australian aboriginal dreamtime have in common? How do Día de Muertos sugar skulls and an urban skyline at night find their way together? And what if you bring some Kandinsky into the mix, what happens then? Welcome to my mind when I am designing a new batch of beads!

Last week I painted some great beads. I put a lot of creativity into them and really pushed my ability. I did things I had never done before and the end result looked exactly like it did in my mind. It doesn’t get much better than that!! That feeling is a big part of why I do what I do.

The only problem is that I still have a lot of beads to paint before I have a batch large enough for a good dip. And I just got a hoard of cool new shapes in the mail that I want to paint and include in the dip too. When I approached my studio and my beads the other day I realized I was empty, the creativity well was dry, almost as if my last burst of creativity used up my juju. I couldn’t even THINK about what to do.

What do I do when that happens? The very first thing I do is get away from my studio. Sometimes I get really edgy when this happens so I go for a walk, or to a café. When I have walked off the edge a bit I turn a little more inward. I look at the beads I have done, and I look at designs I have sketched out already and see if there is anything there that I feel passionate about at the moment. Right now I want something really fresh, so I had to put away my old designs to come up with something new.

I found myself in my favorite, comfy reading spot with a sketchbook and my favorite pen. I doodled, not even thinking at this point of a bead or a result. I just doodled what came to mind, found my way through the familiar shapes and curves that I have been doodling for years. Then an idea popped into my head. The shape of one of my new beads reminded me of Boomerangs, boomerangs reminded me of Australian aboriginal Art. I jotted a little note and a sketch of a boomerang in my notebook and had some dinner. After dinner I was still restless, I had made progress but my thoughts were still chaotic. I would sit at my bead table with no clear image in my mind as to how to proceed or what to do next, even what colors to pick out for base coats.
Once again I stepped out of the studio and I took my mind off the beads for the entire night. In the morning, fresh and energetic I went to my bookshelves and found myself thumbing through a book of the art of Paul Klee. I sat back down in my comfy chair with my sketchbook. Klee has a painting of a red balloon, and that reminded me of a French movie I once saw, which reminded me of a red balloon over a city scape. I saw some of the brick style paintings Klee did and was fascinated by lines and colors. I was officially inspired. 

I bookmarked one of the pages of the Klee book and did some sketches of ideas with bead shapes. Klee led me to Kandisnky who he worked with at the Bauhaus - more sketches. Then I saw the boomerang and went to the computer to look up Australian boomerangs… bingo. A Ton of ideas started coming to me and while searching I found some awesome sugar skulls. It popped in my head that if I turned one of my bead shapes upside down it looked just like a skull shape. Boom. By that afternoon I was bursting with ideas. So many in fact that it took me the entire rest of the day to draw them all out.

Here are three tips on how to get inspired when your well is dry

1. The very first thing I would say is change your environment, get out of the studio, get outside, get some air, forget about yourself for a little bit and just enjoy the things around you. 

2. My second suggestion is always carry a sketchbook, you never, never know when your mind will find an idea that will fire you up. 

3.Finally… let yourself free associate. Let your mind really wander, let ideas flow from one thought to the next and watch where they go. Pay attention to what pops up and be ready to think “how can I apply that to my creative work?” You never know where you thoughts will lead you so let them soar - and follow them with your sketchbook… like a red balloon.


Love,
Sandra
Painted By Hand

Look at what's coming up!

Since we started the new year, I've been having some fun in the studio coming up with new designs and styles to bring to you in 2015. Looking back, 2014 found my beads obsessed with Pysanky, Peacocks and Tudor Roses.

What will I find to play with in 2015 I wonder. Here is a sneak peak at some of my first beads painted this year. These have just been painted and are not dipped yet. I have quite a few more to paint before I do a batch dip which is how I work. 

So far I have little city skylines during the day and at night. I really love the single red balloon loose in the sky right now. I think that it will find it's way into more beads this year. I have never made word beads before but it has been something I have always wanted to do so I began the year with three words that have strong personal meaning for me, Hope, Brave and Courage. And look what I found when I turned my little egg beads upside down. Día de Muertos sugar skulls! These will definitely have a place on my new 2015 bead menu. Also found in this early batch of beads is my first custom order for the year - yes, my old friend the Tudor Roses (tudor-roses.com). I made enough for my store this time too! In the first part of this year I will be releasing my first painted bead tutorial and it will be for creating your own Tudor rose beads. 

 Finally, I got something exciting in the mail today. Not only are their new designs for 2015... we got new SHAPES!! Check out all these cool bead and component shapes, and there are more coming.

Many of these were picked for my marble/swirl designs but I have big plans for some of the shapes, big, detailed, tiny brush kinda plans! 

2014 was a very good year, but 2015 is going to really shine brightly! I wish each of you a very creative and happy start to the new year.