Posts
This post is kind of a continuation on the theme of hunting for treasure. But also about the human need to be creative. My friend Monique is a jeweller and I really admire her beautiful, whimsical creations. I am fortunate enough that she is helping me make a ring from some carefully found bits of colourful worn glass I have collected. I have found a beach in Little Akaloa, New Zealand where for some reason, worn glass is abundant. I don't know how long it takes for a piece of broken bottle to be tossed about among rocks and stones until it is worn enough, and then to be tossed up onto the beach, where I have come along with my bucket and collected it. I don't know why there is so much on Little Akaloa's beachfront, perhaps because the bay is U shaped? So my daughter and I took another road trip a week or so back in a borrowed car on another hunt with creating in mind, looking for free treasure.
People all over the world purchase her pieces, Monique is so lucky that she can make a living from her work. But even if she couldn't, I bet she would still do it. It is instinctive. We all want to create beauty in our world. Jewellers strive to make beautiful jewellery, scrapbookers to make beautiful memories, web designers to make beautiful websites etc etc.
I try to compile beautiful freebies. I make my art elements with an eye to how they will work for those that use them, web designers, print graphic artists, digital scrapbookers, or anyone else. I have used them myself in websites I have designed. I designed Monique's website and used the same torn wrinkled piece of paper as the one in the image above, and the photo frames in the City Mission website.
I get ideas from everywhere. Photos with shadows which make them look like the corners are bent are all over the place at the moment, in advertising, and in several websites including this one for gist create, although theirs are different from the ones I make. I'm also loving torn tabs and bits of paper as I've made them, and Jason Julien is another using these elements in his design. I love the look of doodles, twirly mindless drawing while waiting on the phone or something so I've made some of these for my work, and I see other people carrying this idea a bit around elsewhere too. Another thing I am loving right now is card which looks like it has been cut out and with a light shadow behind, I have two little pink disks in the image above, and in my last blog I made one which looks like a sunflower drawing on manilla paper which has been cut out carefully. I was delighted when I found a website recently with more elaborate cardboard cutouts here. I'm not sure what it is all about, as it is in German, but I just love their cutout images. So are these trends, people who care about creativity, websites with art to treasure or all of the above?
Please download this week's freebie, for personal use only, here. And a special hello to Kimmee and Shayna: if you are reading this, thanks for your comments and happy creating - I'm sure your work will be treasured. xx
