Thursday, July 30, 2009

Aliens on the Brain

I never knew that the creative spark could be so infernally fickle. The last few weeks of my life have been spent battling an innate sense of 'I must be doing something wrong because I can't think of anything creative, and I can't make anything worth my time' and some horrendous weather that's got my sinuses all in a pother.

For some reason or other, however, I've had aliens on the brain for the past week, and it seemed as good a starting point as any to start experimenting to see if the creative block would finally go away.

And inspiration I found indeed, in the form of Janice Berkebile's beautiful pod rings and kanto lanterns! Her classes can be found here, and pictures of her amazing work.

Thus was born the Alien Pod Bloom Thingy. It's my first time attempting to weave wire, and it came out atrocious in places, which required some creative rescuing. I'm sure there's an easier way to form the blasted pod that doesn't require a centre bead to shape which keeps falling out and rolling into remote corners behind the computer. It's a start though! Here's hoping the ideas slowly start coming back or I'm sunk.


Alien Pod Bloom Thingy: 18ga, 20ga and 26ga artistic wire, faux pearls, Czech glass seed beads.



Note to self: Do not attempt to string too many pearls onto one side of a deformed pod, and seed beads really are the way to go for non-bumpy decoration.

I'm also working on what I've facetiously nicknamed the Caterpillar Ring, but that's going to take some modification, given I have no idea what I'm doing, sort of.

8 comments:

Mei Tan said...

Shuku, this one is cute. I hope your creativity will return very soon. Mine is coming back rather slowly but its coming :)

Arion Yeow said...

So you killed the poisonous psychedelic mutant tumours maggot to make a pink alien floral hat? :P

I like the hat better than the maggot. :)

Shay Stone said...

I can't believe that is your first attempt at a weave! It's great!! I love the name -- especially the eloquent use of the word "thingy" LOL!

I'm with you on the loss of creativity. This has been a hard spell for me as well. Hopefully your alien will pull you out of it:)

Shuku said...

Mei: I'm so glad your creativity's coming back! Yes, I hope mine hurries up a bit so it starts talking soon...

Arion: I did not kill the Alien Pod Ring. :P But am glad you like the Thingy.

Shay: Isn't 'Thingy' a lovely word? It's so versatile! I had to use it somewhere in this piece, it just mandated it. And I hope your creativity manages to sneak back slowly after a break - many hugs, and I am looking forward to seeing much more of your lovely work. So inspiring!

Mystic Indigo said...

I love it! I have had a bit of a creative slump too..but I know they pass...I just pulled some new stuff out of my tumbler a few minutes ago and breathed a sigh of relief...sometimes all work and no play makes the creativity genie pissed...

Kenny Mah said...

Egads! When will these alien pods unhatch and we get invaded by pod aliens? :P

P.S. Miss ya. Hugs!

Deryn Mentock said...

Well, I think your thingy turned out wonderfully. Weaving can be a little tricky the first time but I like how you added the "lumpy" beads...texture is good!

Swati said...

Oh this is beautiful!!! Really really beautiful!!