TICKLING THE MUSE

I love puzzles. I have loved doing jigsaw puzzles with my children when they were small ~ I have enjoyed having a big puzzle set-up at family gatherings for everyone to work on over the course of the holidays ~ and one of my treasured memories will always be seeing my grandmother, now 98, continuing to work diligently, despite her failing eyesight, on her puzzles every Sunday afternoon at my mother's or on the ongoing project always "in play" at her apartment....yes, I love puzzles.

It was great fun to discover a special site today that not only "tickled my muse" but also tickled the "child" in me (or perhaps that may be heart of my muse...). Art Puzzles, from Susan Reynolds' Studio, provide you lovely "art canvasses" which become jigsaw puzzles online at the click of your mouse. A terrific escape and wonderful way to "feed" the muse and the brain at the same time.

So, pour yourself a cup of tea, relax, select your favorite print, and click away - but watch that timer... :-)

TICKLING THE MUSE

I have to admit I'm enjoying this new weekly feature as an excuse to take a break and "play" a bit - who can argue with that!? As I was blog-hopping this past week, I found and bookmarked this site which I knew would be perfect for today's "tickle" and indeed it has been great.

WORDLE creates "beautiful word clouds." As the site explains, Wordle "is a toy for generating 'word clouds' from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends."

I experimented with WORDLE today, using first my blog http address ~ simply typed it in and a "wordle cloud" appeared and then I started "playing":

Next up was my Artfire shop http:
Finally, I wanted to try my hand at WORDLE's free text entry so I entered words that I would associate with SignatureSterling in general and then "toyed" with that cloud for a while - quite happy with how that turned out!
So, grab your words, your website, and stop by WORDLE ~ get tickling!

TICKLING THE MUSE

Last Tuesday, I started a new blog "practice" designed to promote my "artistic energies" or what I call ~ "tickling the muse." Now ideally I am doing this in different ways throughout the week - for example, I'm learning to play golf and my instructor, aware of my "creative, artistic bent" and background is approaching it by telling me that I need to find the rhythm and tempo of my swing...spending time outside in this newly springtime weather is always refreshing to my mind...quiet time with Abby, considering the miracle of new life and hearing the wonderful newborn noises inspire and renew me.

But, yes, on Tuesday, specifically, I'll be searching online for special sites that might be helpful in "tickling the muse" in an "outside the box" approach. Today, especially as one who is not a "traditional artist type" (as in can't draw a straight line and struggled with traditional "art" classes in elementary and junior high school...), I encourage you to visit the National Gallery of Art's site for "kids" of all ages - designed for online painting creations.

There are many options - select different pattern, brush designs; use an auto color option or pick your own colors; once you've made a "painting," apply special effects; or try the "auto" painting creation and see what "pops up." Each of your masterpieces can be framed and saved, printed...and certainly something will inspire you later if color and design is something you use in your work. Most of all, have fun and laugh with joy - after all, that's what tickling the muse is all about!

Peace...

http://www.nga.gov/kids/zone/brushster.htm

TICKLING THE MUSE

As I begin to study "The Artist's Way," this week, I considered that one way I might commit to "tickling" my creative muse on a regular basis was by every Tuesday (Tuesday ~ tickling...see, sometimes there is sense in my nonsensical randomness...) intentionally seeking out and sharing new (or perhaps, tried and true) ways of jump-starting the creative process ~ thinking outside the box ~ heading in a different direction ~ or seeing potential creations with new vision.

Today, I returned to a site I was first introduced to last fall through our Artisan Beaders Street Team Fall Color Palette Challenge ~ colourlovers.com. There you can see already created wonderful assorted palettes and patterns or create your own, sometimes even creating your own new color!

Knowing that I wanted to focus sometime this week on a new "Pretty in Pink" piece, I headed in "that direction" and first began working on a color palette with that title:

Now as it turns out, the center color was a "new" color and needed to be named in order to be included in the palette (and now forever in the system) :-), and so "Gerbera Pink" has bloomed.

Then I wandered over to the "patterns" and simply browsed through using "pink" as my keyword search to find some favorites that might add some further design and color inspiration for me as I'm working later this week.

My muse is already gearing up and anxious to "play" with these colors and ideas....it will be interesting to see what appears later in the week as a result. Stay tuned!