Studio Journal

The second lesson of the Studio Journal by Sharon B arrived yesterday. It is as good as the first one!

This is the weekend, and a very hot one. The kind that makes you sleep on the couch after lunch, and find any excuse not to move... But I had to be honnest, the real reason I could not get myself to move was that I felt guilty to spend time on something my education considers useless: creating! Silly me, I'm 50 and free to do what I want, so let's go.

I saw in many articles about journaling that a white page blocks many persons. I never felt that way. So when I saw that Sharon started the lesson with hints at painting the blank page, I did not think much of it. Although I think journal, studio or arts journals, are prettier with background. But I'm not creative (see above), can't draw, etc, so up to now my trials at journaling were on blank pages. But to start me moving, I decided to start with this painting. Would take me a couple of minutes, so why not? Those are my two painted pages, one with clingon, the second with salt.
First surprise, that looks good, much prettier than the blank page! And I did it!
In the meantime, I had gathered clippings for the first color exercice about the color of the day, and now the opposite page looked dull. So I painted it too. The clippings represent the plums I have prepared this morning to make jam. Yellow plums, with sugar and pepermint. Hence the yellows and the little hints of green.

As Sharon suggested, I searched fabrics and threads that would match the clippings. In a previous course, Sharon suggested to keep threads and fabrics by color. What a great idea! Just one box to open instead of browsing through the entire stash! And this I found. In fact, the fabrics are little leftovers, so I won't have enough to make a great quilt. That's not a problem, this can become an ATC.
That was the second surprise: yes, collecting bits of paper can lead to textile creation. Maybe not today, but when I want to make a post card or an ATC and lack inspiration, these pages will be there waiting for me. With some indication on where the threads come from, and even the recipe for the jam :-)

To end this journal session, I went back to the first exercise of the first lesson: writing down the reasons to keep a studio journal. The painted pages were just waiting for that: I've enjoyed those few hours very much...