Shaking Down

Things are shaking down. You know that feeling, where things are very nearly in place, but you know there's still space for them to settle? I've been waiting for things to settle. There are already new things on their way--new, exciting, nervous things--but everything else is becoming quiet and making way. Things are getting comfortable.

1. I finally got around to taking some pictures of my art room. It's not exactly Pinterest worthy. It's messy and lived in, and full of paper and paint. And by god, I love it. 

2. Remember these classes that I was nervous about starting? They're finished! I may have been up until midnight on Friday finishing the last of my coursework, but I am done done done. Next up: a Foundations of Design class that I'm really excited about. Bring on the summer sessions.

3. Projects. I made a sidebar button for them, but so far, it remains empty. It's because when I finish something, I never remember to take pictures of it before shipping it off to the person it's for. The small projects I've been able to complete lately have all gone on their merry way. I've made a mental note to get better at keeping track of my projects. Which is to say...we'll see how that goes. One day I'll get good at this blogging thing.

4. What better note to end on than a Jade Guardsman? None.

I'm excited for the new things. I can't wait to tell you all about them. 

Creative Spaces

A clipping from my grandmother's jade plant, on the art room windowsill.

I've been thinking a lot lately about creative spaces.

My environment is very important to me. Where I live, where I work, where I cook...atmosphere is everything. It puts me at ease. But it definitely takes me a long time to settle in and make a place feel like my own. 

When I moved into my new apartment last August, I was so excited to have an extra room to devote exclusively to art related endeavors. I couldn't wait to roll up my sleeves and get to work, painting and cutting and pasting, without any worry of having to clean up after myself or take over the dining room table with my projects. But as the months rolled on, I slowly decorated the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom...leaving the art room untouched. I didn't want to work in it because it was a disorganized disaster. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't functional--every time I went in to try to work on something, all I could think about was what to hang on the walls. 

Yesterday, I finally decided it was time to give my art room a little TLC. I moved the furniture, hung some things on the wall, and finally attached my desk lamp to my make-shift work table. I put away piles of crap, and paper, and magazines--and suddenly, it felt like a place where I wouldn't mind spending time.

Blogs these days are just exploding with tours of creative spaces. (For instance, did you see Shipley & Halmos' workspace featured on The Fox is Black this week? Heavenly.) I love to see where people work. Sometimes, it's a chair and a table in a corner; sometimes, it's a two floor art studio suite. We all have our own idea of what a work space should be.

I used to think it was silly, that I had to create an environment to work in before I could create anything else. But it seems I'm not alone. Search for "offices" on pinterest--you will be disappointed that you do not have access to at least ten of the spaces you see, I guarantee.

What is it about these spaces that makes us want to roll up our sleeves and get down to business? Are you the type that could work in a cardboard box, as long as you had the right tools? Is your dining room table covered in paper scraps and glue?

I'm still not 100% happy with my apartment space, but every day it feels more and more like home. Like a haven away from the outside world. Having that kind of stability to return to every day makes me more likely to be able to sit down and create things not only for myself, but for other people. 

Hopefully I'll have some pictures up tomorrow of my new creative digs. In the meantime...where do you get your creative groove on?

Giving In to Technology

Tumblr. Instagram.

These are things I never thought I would use. It's bad enough that I kind-of sort-of have a twitter that I use once in a while. But tumblr? Get real, that thing is for fankids to post their fanfiction and fangifs and fanroleplays. And instagram is just a cheater's way of taking pictures (says the girl whose camera has been lying dormant for...oh, maybe a year). Tumblr and Instagram were just fads junking up the internet with...junky junk. Using either of them would totally ruin my street cred.

Or so I thought. Because then I found people who were using them both as a serious tools. Photographers who wanted to capture and share every-day moments quickly and thoughtfully; art bloggers and writers and all kinds of people. I thought...man, maybe this wouldn't be such a bad idea.

And you know what?

It turns out that it's a totally flipping awesome idea.

I signed up for Instagram on my iPhone, linked it to a brand spanking new Tumblr account, and voila! I suddenly have a totally new creative outlet that fits in my pocket.

I can't believe I was ever so blind.

For some reason, I have a hard time accepting this technological wave our generation is riding on. The only reason I got an iPhone in the first place was so I could combine my iPod and phone into one device. I own a handful of apps, that don't even hold a candle to my 12 year-old sister's library of 473,642 (a rough estimate). I'm quick to scoff at social networking sites. But I should really start giving in and riding the wave because...it's pretty freaking neat.

Now all I need to do is find a widget that will load thumbnails of my tumblr pictures in the sidebar of my blog...

In the meantime, check it out at http://ferociousostrich.tumblr.com/. Follow, tweet, tumble...do that thing you do, kids. I'd love to see how other people are using these tools to keep their creativity flowing.

((That first picture is from my living room, filled with paper lanterns. Thanks to Elizabeth from E Tells Tales for giving me the idea, and for directing me to Wit and Whistle to learn how to make them. Well, re-learn how to make them. I’m pretty sure I knew how to make these when I was a kid, but I never would have thought to use them as lanterns. Bravo.))

Dinner Plates

Who's in love with Anthropologie's new Experimental Glaze Dinnerware? This girl.

They imported the line from a factory in Portugal, and it was inspired by plates the factory had used and discarded for testing glazes. I know, I owe you guys posts on all kinds of stuff, and Anthropologie is every new-age girl's home designer wet dream, but give me a break--how could I not post about these? 

Lucky me, I've been to Portugal. It was only for a weekend, but it was long enough for me to fall slightly in love. These plates remind me of a stretch of buildings in Lisbon that were covered top to bottom in blue ceramic tile.

They remind me of late nights by the port, eating steaming bowls of rice and shell fish. They remind me of the blue blue sky, heavy with ocean smells. They remind me of learning Portuguese from a taxi driver who didn't mind at all that we were Americans who spoke mostly Spanish. Lua: Moon. Obrigada: Thank You. 

Sometimes, good design is about function and form. Other times, it's about memories and day dreams.

The question is: How can I get a job that lets me fly to Portugal to scour factories for beautiful dinner plates? 

Baby steps, jules, baby steps.