A Creative Blog Hop

Welcome to Magpieheaven! Today I'm spreading my wings and doing something a bit different! My good friend, Kerry from Kezzy Art asked me to join her and other craft bloggers in sharing what inspires us to create in a creative blog hop! Please check out Kerry's blog here. She has been a great inspiration to me since I started craft blogging: she's wonderfully experimental and bold with texture and colour and she'll have a go at making just about anything!

First she asked me to say a little bit about myself.

 I used to teach English Literature in schools and colleges and I've always loved books - I like to weave stories into my blog posts whenever I can.

 I now tutor 'A' level students. I started crafting seriously, by which I mean really immersing myself in mixed media projects, about two years ago. I had made cards for friends, but after buying some PaperArtsy stamps from a little shop near the British Museum, I visited the PA blog and - wow - I discovered textures and paint! Now my family - Matilda 20 and Isaac 23 and long-suffering Mr Magpie have to wait until I've cleared  Frescos, Distress Stains and teetering piles of corrugated card from the table before we can eat. Our 15 yr old cat Daisy likes to help me with projects, especially anything involving ribbons and fibres!

You can see here that Daisy is so eager to begin the next project, Matilda has to restrain her!

What am I working on now?     

I can't show that, as it's a design piece and top secret, but my most recent project has been a little family of art dolls for Mary Jane Chadbourne's online class The Imaginarium, The Anthology of an Art Doll. What a great time we've all had over at The Artful Gathering creating dolls! I used power tools to create my own shapes.

Why do I create what I do?    

That's such a difficult question! I think my creating is a bit like my Magpie's Nest! I love to gather all kinds of things that give me joy and put them together to make something new! I love songs and stories too. I hoard them in my imagination and then sometimes express them in what I create. This is an ATC inspired by Joanna Newsom's song Cosmia.

How does my Creative Process Work?   

 I suppose sometimes I start with an idea inspired by a story, a book or a song and other times I start to mess about with some paint and texture, and a song, story or book comes into my head and things just take off!

How do I stay Focussed and Motivated?   

I would say that inspirational artists like Lynne Perrella -

The Natural World -

My Family -

The one on the left is my son -

and the inspiration of stories and plays keep me motivated. I also love to visit other blogs and see what my crafting friends are up to. I've tagged these amazing bloggers who will be telling you all about their creative process and hopefully providing you with lots of inspiration. Why not stop by the blogs of these really creative friends of mine on September 8th and find out all about what and why they craft?
                                              Deborah Wainwright - Lylac Spark Creations
                                               Dianne Marcoux - Magpiedi Magpiedi