Hello my lovely and charming travelers of this world,
I´ve spent some time with Queen Forest Mum and little Michael, enjoying the sunshine on the countryside and working on a book made out of handmade paper (you´ll get to see that one soon. Ever saw paper made entirely out of zucchini?)
Once you start to look for unicorns, they are everywhere. It is as if they have just waited for me to get interested in them again. Even before the official start of class, so many are touched by it. The topic is highly inspiring. There really is something magical to it and I can´t wait to get it discovered.
So one afternoon when we were having some buttered pastry we saw it. The horn.
Everyone had a try being a unicorn. Life is not about being serious, it´s about discovering who or what you could be, trying if you like it and then developing it further. Of course, this developement ended quite abrupt in our tummies. Still: a nice 5 minute journey can bring so much joy to your life.
May we never get too grown up for this.
Class opened on March 7th and will be open until May 21st.
3 months of unicorn magic for 65$!
Who does not love unicorns? They seem to be part of the female way to adulthood and they join us as we are little girls in the form of posters, toys, figures and in our dreams. There is a special connection between women and unicorns that men seldom have understood through the ages. (and unicorns have been around for a very very very long time!)
Why else was it impossible to capture a unicorn without the help of a young woman? Unicorns have a true love for pure-hearted women and girls, the creature falls asleep on their lap and dreams of a never-ending friendship, thus making it possible for men to capture it.
But we don´t want to catch it and pen it in. We want it to be free and become our friend on its own will.
Every woman has her very own special unicorn and in this class you will discover its nature, its character and where it has been since you decided to grow up and get the posters off your wall.
You will learn to draw, paint, and illustrate unicorns, develop the style of your very own personal friend and bring it back into your life.
Before you start with all the unicorn projects, there will be all about the history, drawing the figure, learning about composition and background and really get your hands on proportion, shading, highlighting and body movement of the animal. (think about Da Vinci´s sketchbooks)
There are 4 major projects that we will do together:
1) The Unicorn Bible: This will be your own personal illustrated book. Learn how to bind it, how to make paper look old and aged, how to illustrate unicorns with a pen in the old fashioned way and how to make a layout for every page. I will teach you calligraphy and how to make those beautifully adorned initial letters, like the monks in mid-century times used to do. The Manuscript will have a leather book cover with golden decorations and your own personal title to it.
2) The Talisman Wreath: As the unicorn is a guardian spirit to women, it needs something to protect and that would be your home. The place where you feel safe, where your art grows and where you hide. Nothing bad should come here and that is why we will give your unicorn the chance to help you.
We will bind a wreath out of natural materials and mix it up with glass beads, metal and all sorts of stuff. In the middle you will have a special unicorn painting, settled into a mosaic-like embellishments. You can bet to get a lot of positive comments on that from your guests and visitors!
3) The Unicorn Steampunk Necklace: We will collect all sorts of goodies and treasures to combine into a beautiful steampunk piece that will go with you wherever you are.
4) The Giant Piece: Together we will create a large unicorn painting in remembrance of the pictures that we used to put up on our walls when we were younger. But this won´t be kitschy 80´s pinks and yellows with a blue unicorn in the middle of the universe (with a huge moon in the background). The aim is to have a really beautiful unicorn portrait, smooth and soft colors, a masterpiece to complete our journey. Learn how to use crackle, color pencils, guache, water colors and acrylics for this painting along with modeling paste, gem stones and glass tiles.
This class is for beginners and intermediate students. Every project will come with a pdf and videos that are yours to keep. We will have live chats, painting cam (painting together is fun! I can put up to 6 students on cam simultaneously).
Beginners will have special sheets for tracing, so you´ll learn it the same way that Michaelangelo and Da Vinci did. Advanced students will have a lot of fun with learning more about proportions and intensive shading. We will work on the classical appereance of the unicorn, as well as the more horse-like version.
All together the class is about discovering why unicorns and women have this special connection.
Very magical, very touching. Be that young girl again!
THIS CLASS IS ALREADY CLOSED.
*All course materials are copyrighted by Natalie Neumann. Using my course material, network ideas, layout, syllabus and content is inappropriate. The Vanillery Garden retains the right to expel any student without refund who does not comply with school policies.
*REFUNDS- If you pre-paid for a class, and you cancel before the class begins you will receive a 100% refund.
No Refunds will be offered after the start date of any workshop.
Wow, thank God it´s friday! And after last week´s pause, we are back with Featured Friday! This week we have provoking beauty Leanne Shawler!
Tell us a little more about yourself!
I am a part-time church communicator, married, and a published author (out of print mostly, although my pseudonymous work is still available online). I've written all my life but in the last six months, aside from journaling, it seems I am moving on to other ways of being creative. Right now I am dabbling with a bunch of different art forms and seeking my voice, in much the same way as I discovered my voice in writing: by practicing it! My spiritual journey as a Christian is moving along and right now I am learning what it means to go deeper in my faith and be more in communion with God. That's also getting connected with my art too.
Where do you live and what is outstanding about your home? I am fortunate to live in southern California, especially considering that I was born and raised in Australia. Aside from being desert instead of nice and humid (I am writing this while home in Australia) it is not so different. I am in the process of decluttering my home but still have a ways to go, especially in the study!
What is your daily schedule like?
My daily schedule is, well, not daily. Primarily, I work part time at my church and outside of that I am trying to find a balance between prayer, art and tv, not necessarily in that order! I think that is why I like journaling so much as it can be done quickly. Mondays are my own and outside from running errands (I take my little shopping cart that I lined with daisy fabric and walk to the grocery store) it is my art day. It might be anything from painting to embroidery to altering clothes to well, whatever. I've developed a strong fondness for mixed media collage.
How did you get to be the person you are now? (jobwise, artistic development, new influences, etc)
Big question!! Like everyone else, I am a mixture of genes and environment, from family to school. I am still finding my way when it comes to artistic creativity, but I've always loved history and finding a story in that history and am finding this is occurring in my art as well. My faith is also being told in my art, even with mermaids!
What is your creative process like when you start a piece?
I am still finding my voice so my starting point in my creativity is often someone else's, especially when I am learning a technique. The challenge is making it my own, in other words finding my voice. I have no idea if I am close to that yet or not. I suspect not. It's early days for me yet, but at least I know that the "finding a voice" is a process and it'll come.
I sometimes get an image of a piece of art in my head and that becomes my inspiration. I also have a good idea of what I want to use but often it's experimenting with how things look.
Where and how do you work? (small kitchen table, ordinary desk, are you rather tidy or do you love the chaos?)
I am fortunate enough to have my own craft room where I can be as messy as I like and close the door on it, especially when there's a piece in progress (which because I work part time is a frequent occurrence and means I have to sustain the vision over a period of weeks). I have a little basket of journaling goodies that I'll take out to the tv room and work. When a piece is done, I will often clean up the room and put things away, sometimes discovering stuff I forgot I had!
What keeps you motivated to be creative?
Motivation comes when the idea is so compelling that I spend every minute working on it although often it's thinking and planning and visualizing in my mind. I've also made a calendar where I write out what I want to do that month. I am not remotely religious about following it :)
What are your favorite mediums or tools to work with?
I don't have any particular set favorite mediums or tools, except perhaps Alene's tacky glue. That is amazing stuff! I like using Glimmer Mists, tea dyed fabrics, and purple is my favorite color.
What would you like to tell people who are just getting started in creating art and finding their own way?
If you are just starting out with art, play. You should be doing it just for you, not to make a business out of it or a career, although these things may come. Discover who you really are, what's important to you and then playtime will eventually unveil your unique "you" and at that point you can decide what to do with your art. I am refusing to give myself any pressure that I must do this or I must do that, being careful to respect copyrights of course, what I will do with my art will eventually become clear to me. (right now I either keep them or give as gifts) All I, and you, need to know right now is that the creative self must be fed and expressed and given space to breathe and be.
What are you working on right now?
Right now I am on vacation, but I have some workshop projects to finish: a silver paper heart box (silver Bella '09) a fabric book/journal (April 2010), a dress to finish altering, all of the Mori Cupcake projects to start(!!!), Suzi Blu's La Sirena class to finish. Then there's the massive to do project list. In the last month, I did finish my first La Sirena painting, an embroidery sampler, and a travel journal. So that's not bad!
----------------------------
Thanks a lot for that wonderful interview, Leanne!
Look, how very cute, MistyAprilsArt made me a video response to the Genius House tutorial:
How cute is her little Genius?!? Thanks a lot! ^____^
These days are just busy as crazy, but I can tell you: the unicorn class is going to be great!
I can´t wait to get the trailer done and tell you more about it!!!!
In the meantime you could leave me a funny and cute voice message here: http://vocaroo.com/
Just click on "record" and then "post on the internet". You´ll get a link that you can leave in the comment section! I´d be very happy to hear your beautiful voice!
Most of us are very passionate about their art, projects, hobbies, furry friends or everything that we feel is our gift and that we like to do. For me it is working on the Vanillery Garden, drawing sketches, painting and writing or journaling.
The thing is that all of this needs energy, a lot.
And my stomache doesn´t work the regular way, or maybe I´m just that into things that I don´t notice, but I am hungry withing seconds. There is no build-up phase.
It´s there and boy, IT´S HUGE!
Need. To. Eat. Something. Fast! Then it comes to pure survival feelings, eat whatever is there, whatever doesn´t take too much time.
Luckily I know myself and I set up the things in the fridge in a way that avoids unhealthy eating. Everything organic, nothing too fat, not much sweet stuff.
Still, we need to take care of ourselves more. Stop what you are doing (even if you love it so much, you deserve a break!), breathe, make yoga (10 minutes, for heaven´s sake, that can´t be too much time), munch a little bit on some banana or bread and then get back to work. Not only your body will give you a big thank you, but you´ll improve the quality of your work and your life.
Today I had a big organic ripe grapefruit and it was so delicious. Sweet, a little bitter, a little sour and filled with sunshine. So so very yummy!
What did you have?
I don´t know. I never like peer pressure. If society wants me to buy a bunch of flowers and act all lovey-dovey, you can bet that I don´t and do the exact opposite. What is this? Valentine´s Day seems to make more people feel miserable than happy. Even those who are in a relationship. And boohoo, how dare you be happy on such a day when you are single? Your life is a shame!!!
I mean: REALLY?!?!? Something is wrong here...
This day should be about focusing on how much love you have for yourself. That is in direct proportion to how much love you can give to another person. You cannot genuinely know your partner when you don´t understand how he or she is capable of loving you, because you can´t love yourself.
There is drama involved.
The best post I found about this was on GalaDarling´s blog. I can´t put it in better words.
If you are feeling lonely or crappy about this day, feel free to vent in the comment area, I will cheer you up!
This is my decent list, most of the things due til Wednesday. I wonder why Mr. Dom Dom hasn´t smacked me against the wall by now. I don´t rest. It is something that noncreative people might find hard to understand:
Why would one like to be self-sufficient when you have to work all the time?
Well, first of all I have to say that for the major part it doesn´t feel like work at all, because this is what I would be doing anyway. Maybe not exactly in that form or working schedule. But I would do it.
I put this above everything, because this is the way I am. I would not be hanging out in a bar on saturday night anyway. There is no need for desperate facebook status questions like "Who´s going out tonight?" because I know who stays in. I am BLESSED with Mr. Dom Dom who is able to keep himself entertained with his own creative projects going on while I go berserk on new class projects or ideas. In my opinion I imagine it is hard to have a relationship where only one partner is creative, because the not so creative partner will always make you feel like you should stop working and that you owe them time.
The big difference lies in how I can feel in such a situation. Do you owe or do you give? Does your consciousness tell you what you actually should do? That is not the freedom that I need. And even though my To-do-list might not look like the big freedom to you, I can tell you that it is the key to it. And if it involves staying up til 3 am in the morning to finish stuff, well so it is. This is an artist´s life and the way my universe works.
You are free to choose your freedom anytime. Don´t forget.
My journey to the land of mori girls started over 6 months ago, but the last 3 months were particularly intensive. I feel like I don´t want this to end after mori cupcake (and neither do my students) and therefore it became very important to me to write the essence of my discoveries down into this little book, along with some funny words (because lessons and rules should never be dry).
It is almost done. I feel a kind of sadness overcoming me, the same kind of sadness that you have when you´ve read zillions of pages from an excellent novel and you know that in a certain amount of time you will have to say goodbye. The mixture between happiness and melancholia is bittersweet. I am grateful to have this place in the Vanillery Garden, where very special women connect on a level that I only dreamed about. But my dream was rather dull in comparison to reality.
And the journey has just started...
The last two weeks have passed by like nothing. I feel like I have to improve my time management even more. When there is lots to do, the best thing you can do is just keep going and do it the best way you can. Nothing is to overwhelming, as long as you keep on track.
There´s a new TV show that we have been watching during dinner and it was about the best voting show on Austrian Television, going back in time to the 70´s.
I wonder what happened in the 80´s that fashion went downhill in that way?
The shows back from the 60s and 70s had the most delicious hairstyles and costumes. Even these ballet dancers that they had and the fact that it was quite common for moderators to sing their own jingle...
The 80s were revolutionary, no doubt about that, but hardly (apart from Joan Jett) made it through that time looking good. And the 90s were a recovery from the 80s, heading for jeans and tshirt, nothing too obvious. Ah well, enough fashion talk.
Today I made a little bookbinding for the mori cupcake class. It is entirely handmade and has cool secret pockets. Still unfinished, you will get to see the rest tomorrow.
Mr. Dom Dom and I were making errands today. 6 hours of running, looking, taking, judging, putting back, taking something else and same thing over and over again.
We bought things for our fishy fish and Ms Kokoro too and spent a lot of time in the petshop. Well, it isn´t acutally that small petshop that you would think. It´s almost a zoo. I wonder why they don´t sell elephants and zebras. But they do have wonderful aquariums.
This one liked to play hide and seek with us. Everytime we went out of sight, he came to look for us and as soon as we came back, he went right back to hide behind that small stone. Such a character!
I need to be away from the city sometimes. And even a stroll through a park gives me back so much energy. I feel like the trees are bending down to wisper into my ear. "Everything is fine. You are where you need to be." It´s difficult to stay focused in all the rush. There is something to the smell of resinous wood that nothing else can quite replace. There is no doubt about the fact that mori girls and boys need the forest.
Even if we didn´t have a PlayStation3 by now, I would need it for this game!
It is adorable! The game offers so many lovely features and every level has at least 20 different matryoshkas, each with a unique ability (from flirting to burping, slapping, cooking oatmeal, every imaginable task can be done!) Right now I am a big Pied Piper calling my rats to come to the kitchen with me, because I have to find 5 different ways to ruin the caviar for the rich people on a luxury liner.
Makes me want to grab some wonderful items like these:
I will have to make a mori girl babushka doll drawing! Inspiration!
I went shopping for my mori girl, so we could do beautiful accessoires!
My love is endless for natural materials like pearls, wood, etc (I have a thing for the Paula shell! But I don´t like using it too often, I don´t want animals to die just for the sake of ending up as a piece of jewelry.
Still I think everything will turn out very beautiful.
Here you can see the raw material:
If you had told me that I would fall for ANY kind of jewelry, I would have laughed at you. The only thing I could imagine wearing was scarfs (and I still love them!) but now I yearn for having tons of flowers and gemstones in my hair. You will be amazed about what we will come up with!
Nothing for the fainthearted!
