24/60 -The Undefined

This group is hard to pin down.
I'm not even sure if anyone of them is finished

23/60 - Warrior Tribe

                                                Small but fierce

 

I think the daily practice might be working for me.

I haven't worked on this in a year or more until tonight!

 

22/60 - Shibusa Tribe

This tribe is a bit undefined and I was having trouble naming it until I heard from neki (thank you!). She nailed it. Shibusa.

21/60 - Thicket Tribe

A very in-the-moment group

20/60 - The Three Sisters

They are very small, small as my fingernail, and very adventurous
a small tribe unto themselves.

19/60 - The 'Verse Tribe

From top left clockwise: Northern Star, Perseid, Nautilus, The Wandering Princess
 

18/60 - Gathering

Tonight I'm tired.
 I spent the last day and a half on a production run of  tie dyes for next weekend's craft show.
Since my brain is muzzy I simply spent some time gathering all of the last couple of years stones together and looking at them.
At first it s quite a jumble.
Then they start to group themselves.
Some seem to be more closely related to one another than others, small tribes if you will.
Some seem more present than others.

17/60 - Wandering

Not clear yet where this is going...
No time for clarification either, I have tie dyes to make and a booth to reconfigure.

16/60 - Perseid

Thats more like it!
I liked the ideas (stitchwise) that I had been exploring with this one before, but I wasn't sure it was gelling so I stepped back and reapproached it with a bit more of a plan and now it is a little star.
one of the Perseid meteors come to rest. 

15/60 - Rethinking

Just wasn't quite satisfied with this one so I am making some changes.

14/60 - So Far

13/60 days

Yeah that looks more like it ...

12/60 days - Keeping On

Working with an Ace bandage wrapped around my hand is not optimal,
I have a wrenched knuckle on my left hand and need to keep the joint as immobilized as possible or I am in pain. It is also throwing a wrench into other plans to redo my craft fair booth. I'm determined to get a little something done on the stones each day regardless.
I don't want to start over at day 1 again!
Today I added a row of beads which I like much better than what I did before. Its giving me some interesting ideas...

11/60 days

Aaaand today I hurt the other knuckle.
God damn it.

10/60 days - In the Details

So I am a tenth of the way there now.
I still have to make a conscious effort to go to the studio and work, yet I do think it is getting a little easier, more natural. I wonder how long it would take for the habit to work to become totally ingrained?
For now it is enough to get myself here each day and put a little time in.
Add one detail, maybe two...

queen anne's lace in seed

 I'm drawn to details, the scale I'm drawn to is small, even intimate. I had never really thought about what size I am most comfortable working at before I read Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit*
Its funny how uncomfortable I am with being drawn to this.

milkweed

 Somewhere along the line I came to believe that small meant less,
less important, less effective, less serious

coleus

Yet when you really focus in the details have huge drama
Drama that can be held in your hand.


* I should say tried to read I have never gotten all the way through it, something about the tone triggers me in an unfortunate way, setting off all of my "you'll never be an artist" voices - not the books fault, its full of great stuff, but there it is

9/60 days

weaving on stones

working like this is beginning to feel more natural to me...

less forced.

8/60 days

beginning with a gradient.

7/60 days

sometimes its about exploring a new technique,

a sampler stone.

this one has the beads strung in a herringbone stitch

something to play with a bit more on another stone.

6/60 days

Bare minimum of effort today, I gave myself a fat knuckle while doing some repairs and need to ice it to get the swelling down.

5/60 days

A simple start on a busy day

4/60 days

Sometime last year I began this one. Today I added some beads. I think of this one as if it was a gypsy, dressed in a motley collection gathered over time. It is an egg-like piece of pink granite that has accrued  layers of different colors in no particular order, it has an air of worldliness and adventure.

This is a new one, a nearly perfect circle Balanced in Tension, another Warrior.

I have spent some time over the last year trying to decide what these stones are. How to describe them...
They are equally made of what is present in the found stone and what is added by me.
There is a sort of discussion that takes place as they are created, between me and the stone.
They embody ideas and personalities, as small "beings", mini-archtypes.
They have stories and some are very dynamic interacting with me in the studio
 I've come to think of them as a personal sort of Kachina.
from Wikipedia:
"A kachina can represent anything in the natural world or cosmos, from a revered ancestor to an element, a location, a quality, a natural phenomenon, or a concept. "

This is the way they function and the best way to describe them that I've found.

3/60 Days

First Warrior, Boldness, steps forward to meet the challenge.

2/60 days

 

day 2 was a bit of a bust result-wise, will try again tomorrow...

1/60 days

The theory is 60 consecutive days to create a new habit...