The pure joy of creating

Do what gives you happiness. When you do that, you will automatically find yourself making time for these activities. I spend time planning through the week on what I can work on over the weekend. While I let myself go with the flow as well, I like to note down all ideas that pop up throughout the week. Creative work is rewarding in the sense that you don't need anyone to come and appreciate it for you. If you are happy with the outcome, you have achieved success. I do not want to jinx it, but hey, this is making me work on my blog regularly as well. So let it flow! 

Until next time, Happy Arting! 

Instagram for Consistency

 It is strange that I chose to post on Instagram at a time when it announced it was no longer a photo-sharing app. Am sure not a reel-maker, but wanted to document all my journal posts and also my photos of nature, food, and everything good. I had become lazy over the last few months and it was far easier to post there than write about it here. Sigh! 2022 - okay, this is the year that I change it all! 

If you are interested, here's the link to my Instagram page. Trying to keep up with my LazyBird name everywhere. 

https://www.instagram.com/lazybirdchupkechupke/

Gond Art - Workshop, history lesson and so much more

 

I recently saw a post on the Gond art workshop that was being conducted and the timings never suited my schedule. Thankfully they had recordings of these classes and those were on sale. I took up one such class and made this beautiful elephant. The Gond art is traditionally made on the walls of the homes of the Gondi tribes. A couple of months back, as part of kiddo's schoolwork, we read about the Gond tribes of Adilabad Telangana. That gave me a lot of interest in learning more about tribal art forms as well. We need to encourage these artists and the art itself. It is a belief that when you draw the eye of the animal in this art form, it comes to "life". I am clearly not an accomplished artist and yet I was able to make something as stunning as this one! The amazing teacher, the stunning art form, and a free Saturday afternoon helped me accomplish the feat in 2 hours from start to finish.

This is another artform teaching me patience though I ended up rushing a bit in a bid to get started on making evening tiffin for my family. I had to pick a light color so that my details could be visible. SO made an initial dark grey coating and then white on top of it. I am not a perfectionist and can certainly live with messed-up bits in my art as long as I enjoy the process and the final product. It takes my mind of mindless scrolling of Instagram or any other social media binge-watching that I am prone to do during weekends. Now I need to figure out what workshop I need to take up next. So until my next discovery, Happy Creating! 

Art Journaling - Another new hobby

Now that you all know that my list of hobbies is increasing every day, here's the new one that started last week - Journaling! I noticed a page on Instagram that caught my eye - Kimey's corner. I was curious to try it out myself and then I wanted to make it more fun by sponsoring it for my entire team and getting them to participate in this workshop with me. We had 90 minutes of fun while doing this. It helped get rid of stereotypes that men may not like such activities. I am glad I did not keep it a girls-only event! Here's my first one with all elements we were taught in the workshop. Having a school-going child is good for this activity as you end up having a lot of scraps of craft material at home all the time and it is perfect for use in journaling. This first one though had most elements from the starter kit that Kumudhini had shared with us. What was even more exciting was that even with very similar kits, each of us created a completely different spread. Now, the question is, did I continue with new spreads after the workshop?

Yes, of course, I did! And in a week, I have filled up 3 more. I am not very patient so they might not be the most beautiful looking, however, I am super proud of myself. As the saying goes - Be brave to be bad at something new! 

Here's spread #2 : Picked up words and images from an art-related kit that my son received as a birthday kit. Made it into an Art vs Artist theme. 

Spread #3: Showcasing gratitude with my origami hearts that I made while in Japan 10 years back. The left bottom text is Thank You in Korean because I am totally a K-Pop/K-Drama fan - 고마워요 (go-ma-wo-yo).

Spread #4:  A motivation to myself to write more often and a reminder to myself that if I will, I can do it! Here's another 10-year-old Origami pencil that I made. I am yet to get to a more organized approach to make these look better. 

While I pick up new things to do, I needed a reminder to get back to writing. Something that is my passion and the best way to let my emotions speak loud and clear. 

So until next time, Happy Creating! 

 

I have too many hobbies! Not complaining!

 

Jan 2021, I had 0 hobbies. I was either working for the office or at home. All that changed with a simple conversation with my cousin on an amigurumi doll. She nudged me to try it myself and a couple of weeks later I had started crocheting seriously. Then I started making scrunchies from leftover blouse material and started gifting them away, of course using a bunch of them myself as well! The best part of scrunchies vs normal hair ties - Scrunchies can be spotted anywhere and no matter how hard you try, they do not get lost or thrown in the bin. The converse is true to normal black hair ties. I am glad I can make them for myself now and it is an amazing gift for friends and relatives. Next, my realization that I probably do not suck at art! I remember during my school days, we were presented with a choice - Art or Music. If you know me, you'd know that I cannot sing to save my life! So art it was. My friend Purvi and I marched straight into the art class. We were greeted with an overflowing class of 8th standard boys across the 3 sections and my art teacher. We were politely asked to go to Music class as it was more suitable for girls as opposed to a boys-only art class! I have always been a good student and I did as I was told. Over the years, I never wanted to pursue art because of that experience. What I did in music class was lip-sync along with my friends who were sincere and great singers. And so, after over 20 years, my 6-year-old son made me realize my love for painting and crafts. So, now I have multiple hobbies to pursue and I am loving it. I did miss out on my favourite hobby - writing for a while, but I am back baby! 

Until next time, Happy creating! 

Building on my Art wall

 

This is going to be a repository of my growing collection of wall art. Making my home workspace more vibrant and relatable. 

Art in a book

This January, I started crochet. I also wanted to try a daily art attempt to improve my artistic abilities.One small step at a time, right? I cannot draw out of imagination,  so I look at references and try to recreate it with my limited abilities. Day 4 art is from @harrison.how on Instagram. Simple ways to draw complex images. I am using this amazing brush pen from Camlin. 

I am totally feeling the sense of accomplishment after making every single piece of art. And the byproduct of this is my writing frequency has increased drastically.

So watch out for my painting series. I am unstoppable right now!

Happy painting until next time.