Corita Kent’s Art rules

 
 
You have probably seen these before, but for me it was a true revelation. I got introduced to Sister Corita Kent‘s art rules by Aslinn Adams, a talented artist and author of Nature Trails 2014 (a natural sketchbook exchange worth visiting!). And I was smitten. Not all the rules apply to my personal situation, but there are a few I simply adore. My current favourite is Rule I – Find a place you trust and then try trusting it for a while. It fully embraces the purpose of my creative awakening this year as I tend to try one thing and switch to another very quickly without giving it any chance to soar into something great.
I copied all the rules on my sketchbook using my brand new calligraphy set as an easily accessible reminder, but all the rules can be found here.

Fabric canvas art

I cannot remember how I came up with the idea of making fabric canvases. The first time I experimented with this technique was before Olivia turned 1. I was looking at making my own party’s invitation cards and tried gluing some fabric to a piece of cardboard. And that was it! I liked the process and the end results, although I didn’t use the card at the end, because I couldn’t figure out a way to scan the image properly and get it printed out on time. But that is a different story.
During the past year, I had another go at it, this time using a canvas as a background and introducing gel medium in the final process. I failed twice; first time I used too much gel, second time I tried a matt gel that didn’t quite work.


But, as they say, third time lucky, I finally managed to produce something I was pleased with. So that so, I gave it to my friend’s baby girl as a present for her first birthday.

The process is a bit messy, but fun, and I’m planning to write a short tutorial on how to make a simple fabric canvas soon.

This is something I enjoyed doing very much; it combines my love for printed fabric and my inability to sew properly. And it gives me a good excuse to keep buying pretty fabric.

As I made two identical canvases at the same time (I like to work in tandem!), I’m putting one up for sale in my Etsy shop.

My tiny creative corner


I have always dreamed of having my own space to create. A place where I could have all my books displayed, all my supplies organised by type and colour, where my sewing machine would always be ready to use, where I could leave all my on-going projects on a desk without having to tidy up every time, a place with lots of storage units and a big desk where I could do some proper painting. Well, this is still a dream, but I’m working on it.
In the meantime, I tried to make the best of what I have available, meaning just above 1 square meter of space stuck against our living room wall.
The space is tiny, but is well organised with minimal furniture (thanks IKEA!): a white desk and a very useful drawer unit, a readapted and painted wall storage unit and a black swivel armchair.

The desk area is where I do all my crafting, painting, writing (obviously!), so I try to keep it clear to avoid having to tidy it up before starting any work.
Unfortunately it doesn’t always work and most of the time the desk is covered in clutter.
For the past year or so, this working space has been neglected big time! It has become a place to dump stuff waiting to get sorted, making it a living mess and an unusable surface. Without mentioning the fact that my 2 year old was extremely interested in what was going on on the desk and as soon as she was able to pick above it, we had a few accidents…including inking her hands with black permanent ink!
So, to go with my word for 2014, CREATIVE, I thought it was time to gift myself, once again, with a creative space where to explore my word and live all the mess of my living room behind.
I cleared the desk and organised, more or less, the storage space.
Halfway there
Loose pens, pencils, colours, scissors and cutters are stored in three black containers, while I keep some cute cards, mails and generally any unclassified stuff (including my hand cream!) in a wired basket all hanged on a rail mounted on the wall. This turned out to be a great workspace saver.
The white wall storage unit contains a bit of everything. My on-going pocket/small sketchbooks and all boxed paints, pencils, pastels, etc are stored in the left hand side. The middle section has two storage boxes which contain all my stamps and inks and some more colours. The right hand side houses sprays and varnishes, and a pencil holder where I keep some highlighters, pens and pencils that Mr G is allowed to use (as the rest if off limits).
The top of the unit houses a few boxes, containing generic stationery, my sewing tools and craft supplies, refills for my printer, some jars with all sorts of buttons and some artwork.
My sewing machine and a wicker basket with all my knitting tools and on-going knitting work are kept under the desk.Together with some imperial sheets of watercolour paper.
The drawer unit is my favourite. It has 5 drawers and each is designated to a specific activity:
minibooks; painting tools; cards making supplies, including lino printing, embossing and die cutting tools; fabrics; notebooks and sketchbooks. 
Additional fabrics and painting supplies and all my books, magazines, reference materials and sketchbooks are not so neatly displayed on the bookshelf, but I’m working on that too.

I love this space, I love sitting in my chair and feeling creative, I love that when I’m at my desk the rest of the living room is behind me and I can concentrate on what I’m doing. It feels like I’m in a completely different world.