At work, both employees and students are encouraged to take Gallup's StrengthQuest If you are unfamiliar with StrengthQuest, it is an on-line assessment , when completed you'll receive a customized report that lists your top five talent themes with suggestions how you can use your talents to achieve success.
My top five strengths are Individualization, Activator, Positivity, Arranger, and Learner. People who have the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.
I am definitely that Learner; I am always looking to explore and experiment with new techniques and I have PILES of things I want to delve deeper into. Below is a stack of magazine articles that I have saved of techniques that I want to learn more about. The problem is that I am not always willing to experiment on a larger piece of art; my schedule doesn't allow a lot of time for do-overs when experiment fails.
This summer I have found a way to go after my inspiration; I have made time to experiment and created an Experiment Journal.
If I want to keep the actual article from the publication, I tape the lower half of two pages together to create a pocket (the green tape above).
Remnants:
Going hand-in-hand with learning is my passion for creative magazines. Over the next few months, I will share some of my favorite magazines. One of my favorite magazines is In-fusion, an e-mag from Dale Rollerson who owns The Thread Studio in Perth, Australia. I have learned a great deal from Dale and her magazine is the same. It is a quarterly magazine; each quarter there is a theme that ties the articles together, this quarter's theme is "Liquorice Allsorts Edition(and it is yummy).
When I am saving articles, I have a folder for my Experiment Journal.
The most important change that I have made is that each Friday afternoon is my experiment and play day. I play with small-scale pieces while making notes of trials and successes.
Now, I have a visual catalog of techniques that I can incorporate into my work.
Do you like to experiment? Where do you get your inspirations?
Remnants:
Going hand-in-hand with learning is my passion for creative magazines. Over the next few months, I will share some of my favorite magazines. One of my favorite magazines is In-fusion, an e-mag from Dale Rollerson who owns The Thread Studio in Perth, Australia. I have learned a great deal from Dale and her magazine is the same. It is a quarterly magazine; each quarter there is a theme that ties the articles together, this quarter's theme is "Liquorice Allsorts Edition(and it is yummy).
You can subscribe to her magazine from her website, thethreadstudio.com. She has a taster on her website that you can check out: http://www.thethreadstudio.com/catalogue/infusion/taster.pdf. I encourage you to give it a try, it is well worth the money. Below are a few of my experiments inspired either by an article in In-fusion or an on-line class:
What is your favorite magazine?
NEXT TIME: If you are wondering about the two techniques showcased above, stop by next week when I show you my teabag creations using Tombow markers.
Have a great week! Kathy
An experimentation journal- what a great idea.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Karrie!
DeleteYou never cease to amaze me! Love watching your creative talents!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lynne!
Delete