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learning about color (a daily practice)

David Burdeny

David Burdeny

Do you ever feel like you just can’t figure out what colors go with what?  Being great at color is clearly a special gift, but we mortals can learn to find our way with a little help. Consciously looking at wonderful combinations of color is a way of training the eye: a practice. And an easy way to start practicing is to visit  Studio Horn, color master Eve Ashcraft’s quirky personal blog about “Design, Art, Absurdity, Obscurity, Good Shopping, Farming, Wild Life, Urban Life, Domesticated Animals, Humans, Color, Architecture, Photography, Ideas and Happiness”.

Ashcraft, who has consulted about color for Martha Stewart, Architectural Digest and Benjamin Moore Paints, to name a few, has a regular post theme called “Today’s Color Palette“. read more…

12.08.09 | comments (1) | in inspiration, inspiration blogs + sites, learn, reimagine, resources, sightings, walls + windows |

origami’s cosmic potential

On December 8th, PBS’s Independent Lens will air Between the Folds, a film that chronicles ten fine artists and theoretical scientists who have forged unconventional lives – often abandoning careers – practicing the unlikely medium of origami. They use paper-folding to explore new ideas about science, mathematics and creativity. Judging from the trailer, the film is about a great deal more than this simple description and worth marking on your calendar. Writes Director, Vanessa Gould:

“At its heart, Between the Folds is a film about potential. The potential of an uncut paper square. The potential of a wild scientific idea. The potential to see things differently... read more…

11.09.09 | comments (1) | in art, inspiration, inspiration blogs + sites, learn, paths + processes, people, projects + play |

tool for improvising: embrace mistakes

defer-judgment-orange

Today, I found a comment at the end of my post about deferring judgment. It read:

“Is it too judgmental to note that in the U.S. “judgment” is the preferred spelling?”

OMG!!! The sign I had spent forever trying to make was spelled wrong (“judgment” is spelled correctly elsewhere in the post). It is NOT too judgmental to alert me to errors, as I rely on several friends to do; I am typ0-prone. But, there is a story behind the mistake, and as with many mistakes, some redemption. read more…

10.29.09 | comments (3) | in learn, paths + processes, principles |

tinkering schools for kids and adults

Gever Tully started a Tinkering School for kids, an exploratory curriculum designed to teach kids how to build the things they think of. By exploratory he means setting kids loose in a shop full of tools and materials (with supervision) and encouragement to “fool around”.  In his wonderful TED talk, Tully describes the “deep internal realization” kids have from the experience, which happen to be the same ones you get (at any age) from improvising:

“that you can figure things out as you fool around”…
…nothing turns out as planned – ever…
…all projects go awry…
…success is in the doing (failures are celebrated and analyzed; problems become puzzles)…”

As I watched Tulley’s talk, I thought: I want to go there! I want a tinkering school for grownups! read more…

10.13.09 | comments (6) | in how-to, kids, learn, principles, projects + play, resources, tools |

creating your (urban) homestead

urban-homestead-book2

I am a farmer trapped in a city-person’s body, torn between love of urban and yearning to grow vegetables, keep bees, preserve food. I know there are a lot of us around.

Why should it be either/or? Although I’ve been figuring out country ways in my small city apartment for years, a new book has opened my eyes to possibilities I never thought of, and gives the wherewithal to do them. read more…

07.10.09 | comments (3) | in food, garden, how-to, inside, learn, outside, resources, resources books + zines, strategies |

sewing advice for beginners

sewing-artists-cards

I have a lot of sewing projects I’d like to do – making pillow covers our of sari fabric, aprons out of gorgeous linen, for example -  but didn’t know where to begin. So I asked my friend Lydia, who is the absolute best and most gifted textile person I know.  (She’s masterminding some projects that I’ll be posting, with patterns and pictures for d-i-y. ) Here’s Lydia’s advice for beginners: read more…

05.23.09 | comments | in how-to, learn, resources books + zines, solutions, tools |

a kids’ drawing program for adults

Bob Staake, creator of the charming children’s book Donut Chef and dozens of New Yorker cartoons, draws with a mouse using an ancient version of Photoshop. This video speaks volumes about the virtues, and humanity, of computer-generated art, and how fluid the process can be, once you loosen your head up (which this video will do). It instantly had me yearning for an accessible, fun drawing program. read more…

02.02.09 | comments | in kids, learn, media, projects + play, tools, why not? |

 
 
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