Responses and Determinations

Wow. Lots of interesting responses to yesterday's post about my return to the library and decision to attempt NaNoWriMo in November. A lot of support and interesting perspectives. My friend who is a published author of books for children and young adults was totally supportive telling me to write what I felt, that all of the rest would follow. On-line friends helped out with YA forum links and confirmation that 50,000 words is not out of the realm of a YA novel at all. So I think I'll forge ahead with my research and see what happens with that. If I can't get the plot ironed out in my head, at least the salient points of it, I won't do this, but if I can meld the research and the plot in my head and outline, I probably will.

Writing this story will be a means of exorcising some ghosts for me. I'm not necessarily going to be writing this for publication as much as writing this because I need to get this written. It's a plot bug that crawled into my head several years ago and has kept on growing and growing until it simply has to be excised. The least painful way for me to do this will be by writing it. But as with all historically-based things that I have done, I have to do the research.

Writing anything is like a roller coaster ride, the elation of the storyline that sits there and begs to be told are the uphill portions, the actual process of writing it though, the angst and the annoyances, well those are the downhill portions. You need both parts to have a successful ride, and in many ways it is the downhill parts that you live for. I found a marvelous quote today that I will share with you. "The test of an adventure is that when you're in the middle of it, you say to yourself 'Oh, now I've got myself into an awful mess; I wish I were sitting quietly at home.' And the sign that something's wrong with you is when you sit quietly at home wishing you were out having lots of adventure." - Thornton Wilder

Progress and Brain Sparks

So, since my enamel disks are so close to conclusion, I spent my "lunch" working on designing the setting for them. I think I made some good progress on that. The setting needs to be sturdy so that it can handle the strains of being used as a cloak boss, needs to hold the disk securely, needs to be decorative - not just functional, and needs to have an attachment feature on the back that will allow it to be attached to the cloak. I have been mulling this over for more than a month and have decided to make a pin-style structure instead of sewing the boss onto the cloak. This will allow me to switch sides from the embroidered side to the satin side, and it will also allow me to remove the boss easily so that I can launder the cloak. But because I want a pin, I also have to make sure that I design the setting so that no undue pressure will be placed on either the pin back itself or the cloak fabric. It's a fun challenge and I think I've figured it out. Now to make sure that I am finished with the enamel work and then I can start scribing and sawing out the silver, turn on the torch (gotta love fire - yippee!) and get the front and back soldered together.

I also was a good girl yesterday and set up all of the doctor appointments that I should have set up four months ago. My December/January is now filled, but I was able to get early morning appointments for each of the appointments and that makes me very happy. The only question is whether I will have a conflict with any dental appointments (since I didn't check my main calendar when setting up the appt. Guess I'd better check that out when I get back to the shop in a few hours. Hope you have a productive day today - I would like you to look back on your artistic production for your Friday as happily as I have looked at my day from yesterday.

Tuesday - A Continuation

So, I ask you - the faceless reader, the other side of me - did you do your best to pass through positive thoughts and actions yesterday? Did you go through your day dancing from the joy of spending another day interacting with others or with your art? Did you do at least one really nice thing for someone? If you did - great! Fantastic! Let's do it again :-) If you didn't - why the heck didn't you? Whether you are being nice to yourself or to someone else, or allowing some joy to come through your work, these are positive ripples in the world. Right now the world is on the edge, and positive thoughts and actions are all that are keeping us around. So, work on the positive today!

I love music. I have always been disappointed that I have not kept up with my music, but my days shifted to the visual arts instead of the auditory. But I love music. And when my art is working well, I am usually humming or singing softly (or loudly if I am alone in my studio). I think that music also can come through your work because music is the foundation of the universe - the vibration that inhabits all things is music. So, if you are rippling through life in a positive way with music in the background....are you dancing? Why not!? Make your art dance today to celebrate another day on this Earth.

Sleep - Feed Your Brain

Human beings, and most of the creatures living on Earth, require sleep. Sleep allows the brain to wander down pathways that we never imagined possible. There are many discussions about whether people dream in color or black and white, whether or not they remember their dreams, and what their dreams correlate to in "real life". But I am a proponent that dreams are simply another reality, one that I haven't been visiting often enough (I'm very sleepy today).

I dream in color. I rarely dream about people or places that I already know. I have a great love of structures - buildings of all types and floorplans play a major role in my dreams. Color plays a large part - a sunset over a gloaming magenta sky looking at a drop-off pool against the sky is one vivid image from more than 20 years ago that is still a treasured memory. A variety of buildings - some friendly, some much definitely less than friendly, are also treasured memories. The colors and concepts sometimes come through in my artwork. I do find that my art tends to be structural in the underpinnings - I find it next to impossible to work in the totally abstract. Think about your own dreams. Not necessarily the specifics, but the general concepts. Do these come through in your personal art? Maybe you should explore those avenues for a more personal expression of yourself through your art.