Stencil

The Jolie Roger

Ta-da! (Typing that made me remember Robert De Niro as the fey pirate from Stardust. Funny stuff.)

So this is what took me so long. Pirate flag of the musical order. The first template wasn't big enough, so I made another stencil. Then we kept forgetting to buy black fabric and spray paint. Finally, all of the pieces came together.

The instructions from the book were to make a stencil and use it in a later project. I was on my pirate kick already, so this came to mind. With a little arranging of musical symbols, this emerged. I finally decided to use the following: bass clef, whole notes, piano keys, and eighth notes.

I'll post pictures of the stencil, too, soon. Since it's technically two project days, I should document it.

The Best Clothes In All The Land

What do you think about this project? Isn't it special? Kinda like the emperor's new clothes...

Fine. There is no project. There's actually one project in the making that is soooo cool, but is also a bit more demanding supply-wise which translates into more time. Then there are the five or six I've brainstormed about in the book/journal.

I promise to post soon.

Arrrrrrrrrrrgh

For someone totally NOT obsessed with pirate stuff, I have kinda found a groove. I promise the whole year won't be this theme, but I'm enjoying it for now. Also, this is still only one day's instructions, technically speaking. But I got inspired by eye patches and couldn't help myself.

Do you get the joke here?

Fermatas?

Holding out indefinitely?

(sigh)

I'm SUCH a nerd.

Telling the kids...

So, I've told my students about my project; more specifically, my project-within-a-project that I hinted at in my last post.  They all laugh when I tell the details, so I hope my audience (tiny that you may be!) will enjoy it as well. 

Terror Of The Middle Seas

Arrrr, me hearties! I went pirate with this assignment. The guidelines were to "make something inspired by and/or that goes over an eye..." Ummm, eye patch! Only, in keeping with my theme, I made it a quarter note.

Now, what you don't know is that this is going to be part of a larger whole. You will probably catch on, but I'm gonna keep it a secret until it's complete.

Medium: felt, glue, paper, fabric, thread, elastic, and sharpie.

This is the book!

My goal today is to tell my blog that this is the book that I've been getting project Instructions from! It's by Noah Scalin, and it's called "365: A Daily Creativity Journal (Make Something Every Day And Change Your Life!)". Maybe I'll get a project up here tomorrow...

Guys Are Treblesome

Hahaha!  I like this title, even though the guys in this picture were very sweet to help me out.  One of the suggestions in my book says to make something using people.  Sooooooooooo, I did.  A giant treble clef on the floor of a choir room.  These kids helped me decide on the music symbol.  The only thing I regret about this project is not using a ladder to take the picture from a greater height.  If you have trouble seeing the clef, realize that the picture's vantage point is from the tail, furthest away from the top of the clef.  We had about ten minutes to make this happen, so it didn't give much time for artistic experimentation with vantage points.  Still, I like it.  It's fun.  I couldn't decide which picture worked the best, so I posted both.

Love Note

Challenged to write a love story in 10 words or less, with a bonus for illustrating it, this was was what I came up with. It makes me smile to realize this is exactly the type of note my husband would have made me in college.

Medium: paper, pen, and ten words. :)

Leaving Treble

I cheated. I did two projects in one day (Song For A Working Mother was the other) out of guilt and desperation that I wasn't keeping up with my daily project. You see, my drive to get straight A's didn't end with college. I guess I'm an "intrinsically motivated learner", to use education-ese, and it's psychologically torturous not to do my assignments on time.

This project was fell on the day that my guidelines said to take a five minute walk, make something at the end of it, and leave it for others to find. Piffle! It was 11 p.m., I wasn't walking ANYWHERE. So I went and made a treble clef on the bathroom floor for my husband to find.

Medium: pebbles.

Song For A Working Mother

So, I went back to work after my holiday break, and that's when I realized this had to be an Almost Daily project. This day's instructions were to make something out of paper without using scissors, glue, or a writing utensil. So I ripped a bag to shreds to make this. Let's just say it was very much past my bedtime. Medium: paper lunch bag.

Gir-half Note

Isn't he a cutie? The instructions were to make something inspired by my favorite animal...turned out way better than I had even hoped! Medium: left-over Christmas paper, tape, and sharpie. Oh, the fumes! I went in to feed my honey-child an hour after finishing this, reeking of sharpie.

Note For A Midsummer Eve

Here is a picture of my first project. Titled as this subject line. Medium: honeysuckle vines and leaves, with some raffia and twine.

My Almost Daily Music Project

Two hours of sleep and I was up again.  That's what my 365 Music Project was doing to me.  You see, you can't do a daily project and be 1.) the mom of a six month old (who wants to wake up to eat three times a night), 2.) the wife of an avid movie man, who loves me to join him in his viewing of new films (who am I kidding?...I love it, too), 3.) a full time working woman, 4.) a daily project girl, and 5.) someone who sleeps good at night.  You just can't.  Unless you're an android.

I want to be that creative person who does cool projects, but I need sleep; so I'm compromising.  Thanks to my husband's Christmas gift to me, I started this cute monster. (I'll credit the book and author in another post because the book isn't here right now.)  This is a Almost Daily Music Project, and I would love to share it with you.  Since I started it before I got my blog up and running, I'll post some pics of my first projects and a bit of what I remember of the process.   From here on out, I'll try to blog a bit on the day (or week) of my latest project.

 Why music as a subject for a year?

Weeellll, I'm a musician.  Music has been an integral part of my life since I was six, and I'm guilty of taking it for granted.  You know those couples who have been together for 30 years or so?  They are always falling in love with their spouse all over again right about 30 years together.  That's kinda where I'm going with this.  There are lots of amazing artists who make music sound cool, but very few cool images.  There are the occasional pieces of art incorporating music symbols, but I feel that music symbols in general are undervalued for their intrinsically beautiful form.  I'm a musician who wants to make my music take a physical presence of creativity as much as it does a aural presence of creativity.  In short, I'm looking to fall in love with music all over again.  I want my long relationship with music to be in that long-time-married-with-grown-kids stage.  Here's to experimentation! 

If you enjoy these, please let me know.  Sending my creations out into The Void is fun only if I get some feedback.  If you have suggestions for future projects or materials, send them my way!  I'd love to get inspiration from outside sources.