New Artist Collaboration Lockets Will be In My Polarity Locket Shop Soon!
Thursday, November 10, 2011
why it's ok to be wrong .... and not in an "i'm ok, you're ok" stuart smalley kind of way either
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
(maybe it's the only way to be amazing actually)
And this should be easy because life is not a contest and no one wins and no one gets famous (for more than a second) and no one is ... well, no one is ... right actually, but somehow (like most of the really important stuff) it isn't easy.
Sometimes trying to be right feels like the smart thing to do, the less risky thing, the safer thing ... but maybe it's not really any of those things.
And maybe eliminating the criteria of what is "right" and making the only criteria what brings us joy - what we love to do or what we have never done before - can keep us in the present moment - the only place we are ever in the presence of something greater than ourselves.
The place the magic happens.
Being wrong is a risk - we could look stupid, we could lose something, we could ... well we could really blow it, maybe big time.
(although when we get real with ourselves what we have to lose most of the time is more about ego and less about any real loss)
And being always right or being smugly right or doing work that is right or righter than someone else's work -
maybe work that is different is more impactful than work that is better - we would probably never say someone was the best potter or seamstress or metalworker because what would that mean anyway?
but we would remember the potter or seamstress or metalworker that showed us something different or made us feel something different and I am not talking regretsy kind of different, but if that's where we need to start to get to amazing then wth let's go with that
or making right in any way a criteria for our creative work is fear based.
It is also that inward polarity that takes our focus from the outside world and puts our attention (and intention) on ourselves and what we are going to get - attention, applause, money, etc, rather than what we are going to give - which is our amazingness, passion, enthusiasm and talent to the world!
(which will inevitably lead to attention and applause and money and most importantly happiness and I offer a complete money back guarantee on all of this - as I do with all my posts actually, of course, I pay out in milkbones - which are like dog money - this is a dog blog after all)
Being right is sometimes about looking backwards to prove where we've been, to prove that we know better - the risk of being wrong isn't about where we've been or about where we're going ... it's just about the now.
The place we have to be as makers.
(and this is not a post about the lessons learned from failure - the real value in failure is that it builds the stength in us to take more risks!)
Yup, it's a process. Yup, it's work. Yup, no one can tell you where taking a risk will land you and yup, it may be on your ass (that's why most of us have extra padding there), but not to risk being wrong when there is even the tiniest chance of being amazing is maybe the only real risk anyway.
* everything will be ok print by PrintedInc
Holiday Upcycled Gift Countdown Week # 7 - STEAMPUNK - Faucet Necklaces
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
These beauties are made with 2" faucet knobs (one old and one not so old that I sanded to distress) and lots of cool doodads I picked up in the discontinued bins.
These will vary depending on your aesthetic and supplies, but the basic idea is to glue a doodad into the center - for both of these I had to do a little damage breaking off the attachments on the ends of the center doodads (one is girly bling and the other is tomboy blang just like the girls I am giving these babies to), add some heavy chain that has big rings (you need to be able to open the rings over the faucet knob ends to attach - maybe bring the faucet knob to the store with you) and some extra doodad dangles.
(and yes, the words "doodad dangles" just needed to be said by someone somewhere sometime ... seriously)
The results are some serious faucet awesomeness I am calling "the farrah".
(DISCLAIMER 11/9/11 - in a little twist of synchronicity I walked into a Barnes and Noble to waste a few minutes waiting for a take-out order at the Chili's next-door and discovered that GreenCraft magazine has a very similar tutorial this month to this one - so even though I searched google images and Etsy for anything too similar prior to posting this and truly did not see this magazine first - I just wanted to add this disclaimer because if the tutorial is in a magazine it is almost for certain some artist is making this for sale somewhere so I just wanted to be extra sure to mention that this tutorial - as almost all tutorials you will ever come across - is for personal use only and not intended to make items for sale)
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