Inspiration Friday

This Friday I spent time on two different projects inspired by people I know.

The first was inspired by a friend of mine that loves music and languages. She is fluent in Spanish and now we are learning Arabic together. She's about 36 years older than I am and she picks things up so quickly. I don't think it's really true what they say about youngsters being more absorbent of languages, at least not this youngster. I won't say I'm doing badly with it, but I know it takes effort on my part to soak it in.

My friend also plays the violin and lately she's been getting me to play. I quit orchestra after my freshman year, partly because I disliked our teacher, playing tests, our nun-ish orchestra dresses, and I wanted to replace it with an art class.

So for my friend, I am creating a violin pendant necklace out of polymer clay. I think I'll write her name in Arabic somewhere on the pendant as well, or make another pendant with her name.

The other project I'm working on is a caricature of my two instructors that I have for a 2 week course I'm taking right now. They are being our instructors completely free of charge, and they arre so genuine! So I thought to capture the fun personalities that they have in a caricature would be nice.

I will hopefully be posting pictures of what I end up with soon. :D

30 Day Picture Challenge- Jewelry Edition :P

If you're a facebook user you've seen or at least heard about the 30 day picture challenge.

If not here's a brief explanation.

The facebook user creates a new album (i.e. Monica's 30 Day Picture Challenge :D ). Then in this new album each day, for 30 days, they upload a new picture that follows the instructions for the 30 day picture challenge. For example, "Upload a picture of you and the person who you've gone through the most with".

So that got extremely popular, at least around the young people I have as friends on Facebook. I saw it, went through a few people's albums and decided "Neh. That's not for me."

I like to play by my own rules and yesterday while halfheartedly getting ready to go to work, I had an idea. BING! People are always suggesting that jewelry makers wear one of their creations each day. Why not take a picture and post it on my blog and fan page? I know it's going to be fun and get me motivated to make more jewelry. Plus I'll get more feedback from you guys. That's what this project is all about-- what you think.

See here's the plan.
1. I wear a piece of my own jewelry everyday (preferably a new piece of jewelry everyday...) for 30 days consecutively!

2. I photograph myself wearing it. Then I post the pics on FB and my blog.

3. For fun and to up the interest factor I will also be posting comments and reactions to this new project, in terms of what people are saying about my work. GOOD or BAD! I will be posting honest opinions.

That last step may sound like artistic suicide, but I think it is completely constructive. In art class we did critiques of each other's work on a regular basis. How can I improve unless I receive some constructive criticism? Anyway I've got tough skin and I can take it. And most people I've talked to about my work have something nice to say.

So please stay tuned. I will be posting the first picture of the 30 day picture challenge this evening! WOOT!

And who knows if I like this and you like this, I just might make the picture challenge a regular feature on my blog and facebook fan page!