Merry Go Round

Jump on and join a group of artists/crafts-women as they link around the world and tell you a little about their lives in art and craft.

Our question for this month is:
If you had the time/money, what new craft or art would you like to try this year?

This is actually a good question for me to be answering this month...it might just give me that little push I need to get working properly again - if only I had more time!
On the approach to Christmas, I felt a strong urge to pick up a sketchbook and draw. The woodcutter will keel over backwards when he reads this - I haven't used a sketchbook for years! I know, deep down, how terrible that is...my college years taught me how valuable sketching is for your skills and inspirations.
I feel a slight shift is occuring in my creative hours of the day. My fingers itch to dabble again with monoprinting - I love the intensity of the process; the purposeful markmaking and the imperfections of the result. I can see, too, how the images could be transferred to fabric (thanks, Sara!), and in turn become something new - a pendant, maybe, or detailings of a collar - and reworked with stitchery.

I've been slowly nurturing a need to start making dolls, too. Mysterious, quirky dolls...dolls with few details, save for decorative ones. I'm thinking worn out ruffles; shabby threads; torn silk; dark, Miss Havisham-esque Dickens undertones. I want to experiment again with papier-mache, so I guess that collage elements will make a welcome return. It's funny, but writing this down makes me want to jump up and get on with it!!

One last thing...I really fancy making coronet drapes (you know the sort of thing - the wonderful fabric 'curtains' that fall from decorative mouldings above beautiful beds in historic manor houses), and cushions with details you feel compelled to reach out and touch...

History, theatre and dusty attic rooms - total inspiration for me. How far can I take it, I wonder?


Eight other women are sharing their ideas with us today. Please click on their links in the sidebar and have yourself a jolly good read - we're all in different time zones, so do pop back later if you don't find what you're looking for straight away. Inspiration awaits you!