Tag Archive for ‘inspiration’ at Inspiration Junkie robayre.com

Tag Archive for 'inspiration'

Happy Weekend

Published

on October 7, 2011

. 0 Comments

Oh yeah, it’s the weekend! As a way to celebrate I’m sharing some fun links of things I’ve come across on the internets.

This message above was created using straight pins on paper, but can you imagine how impressive it would be straight onto a wall… HUGE?

I’m loving this trend where people are coupling old pictures with the new to juxtapose the difference over time. There are a lot of places out there to find collections, but here are a few one two three four

My sister sent me this link to a tutorial on the 3Rs. You can make your own, OR buy one in her Etsy shop. We’ve been shopping and looking around for something to replace the chandelier in our “dining room” area. I’d like a big statement piece. A year ago I was absolutely obsessed with the Ikea Maskros. See one in action at Heidi Kenney’s home here. But since then I feel like they are EVERYWHERE and Ikea even knows it because when you go in, they have them hanging EVERYWHERE as well. Now I worry that it is overdone and I want something a bit more unique.

Even before seeing this tutorial I decided that I was going to build something of my own and have already constructed a drum base shape to cover. I thought this fortune teller technique would be cool to cover the drum. Every year Matt and I create a kusudama paper folded Christmas ornament, so I figured we’d have fun creating a light shade together. While looking at that etsy shop I found she already had the same idea, check it out here.

Airmail tape, ‘nough said.

For my birthday my sister bought me the Paige bag from Fabric and Handle. I can’t wait for it to arrive. You see the snaps on the handles? They allow you to lengthen or shorten the handle according to your needs.

One last image to hopefully inspire you. How lovely is this sidewalk chalk art by camila.leon on flickr?

Have a great weekend!

Mailart365 160-166 PINWHEEL MANIA

Published

robayre

on October 4, 2011

in Cool Links, General Update, Mail Art and My Artwork

. 2 Comments

I have a new pattern I’m loving and it’s the pinwheel. It started out earlier this year when I was seeing this pillow by Fine Little Day all over the craft/art/design blogosphere.

Seriously. I was obsessed. The things I loved the most about it was the use of a wide range of colors, AND that the color application looked very handmade. It didn’t look like a store bought and manufactured design, it looked like someone just colored on this pillow with some markers.

Next I saw this awesome garage door on pinterest. How can a person not smile while driving by this house?

Then a couple weeks ago I saw this post by Elise Blaha. This girl is awesome, if you don’t already follow her blog, do so now! Turns out I wasn’t the only one inspired by the pinwheel. She made this lovely painting above, WITH a tutorial on how to make your own to boot! I think I will be making one of these shortly for our new home. (I love to say that)

The pinwheel is so cheerful I think. This week I present to you my pinwheel mailart, tada!

I’m starting out with my favorite, which was also the last card I did in the series this week. I painted all the yellow and then had the idea to draw in a floral pattern like some of the vintage fabric I have. The solid yellow is watercolor and the flowers are colored pencil. I’m so in love with this, don’t be surprised if I do a whole series based on this idea for next week.

Thinking about it, it makes perfect sense, the fabric inspiration and the pinwheel. The pinwheel pattern in a very common quilt pattern. My mom is a quilter and I was regularly taken to quilt shows as a child. The pinwheel pattern inspiration really touches on this art, design and quilt kind of a thing for me.

The three above were the last three I did.

And this is where I started, with the variety of colors and the apparent texture in mark making.

Fun, no?

I made the cards using a variety of colored pencils, water colors, dry pastels, sharpies and highlighters.

I hope you enjoyed my cheerful pieces this week!

inspiration cycle

Published

robayre

on March 28, 2011

in Artists and General Update

. 3 Comments

I was tickled to see this postcard by Julie of O-kami (below) pop up in my flickr contacts the other day.

She said she was inspired by me, and I can only imagine she meant specifically this postcard below

which I created after being inspired by the piece below by Irana Douer

cool, huh?

The Craft Begins

Published

robayre

on December 21, 2010

in Artists, Cool Links, Fun, General Update, life and Projects

. 1 Comment

A bit ago Bri (The Craft Begins) offered a great opportunity on her blog: an open call to designers. She is working for a silk screening company and they are looking for original designs that they will print and produce for you. Read more about it here. How great is this? While I have several handmade silk screens at home, what’s better than letting someone else take care of producing, marketing and selling my designs on shirts. I’ve actually sent in some designs already, and although there are no guarantees, I’m still excited to get feedback and follow her company and see where they go and what things they produce.

I met Bri back in 2007 when we were both part of a group blog called Create A Day. She has always been a great friend and inspiration. Her birthday was on Sunday, so stop over at her blog and wish her a happy-happy birthday and then send her some t-shirt designs at bri@ragdeli.com.

And lastly, but still on a Bri theme, she recently posted a music video for Liftoff by Sigur Ros, and while I have that album, I have never seen the video for it before. We’ve both decided that we will dress like these kids from now on. The video inspired me to make the above mosaic and below mosaics using flickr photos by other artists.

Happy Friday

Published

robayre

on November 19, 2010

in Artists, Cool Links and My Artwork

. 3 Comments

I am not going to lie. I LOVE having Fridays off. My hours were reduced 2 years ago, now. It was supposed to be a temporary thing (3 months) but the print industry is not doing well and it’s just remained permanent. The lost wages stink, but the emotional benefits have more than made up for it. Plus, because I feel like it’s borrowed time, I am always super productive. If only I could be as motivated the rest of the week.

This morning I made my Friday to-do list and I decided I would start the day out by making 3 page spreads in my little book. The first one above, I used only scraps of paper that were already on my work table.

This week I read three fabulous interviews with different artists. I keep coming back to things that were said, and so I figured I’d bookmark them here. I guess the thing that really stuck with me throughout all of these articles is the idea that you can support yourself doing what you love. Your passions and creativity can fill out life completely, in all areas. Anyway, please read and enjoy!

Summer Pierre has been running a weekly “Artist in the Nursery” series where she interviews Artists who balance parenthood and their creative work. This week she interviewed the Beerhorsts, a family from Michigan who live a very unique lifestyle. I’ve been following their various family flickr accounts since seeing their “Wonder Wagon” last fall. It was fascinating reading Summer’s article, and getting more of a glimpse into their history as well as day to day lives.

The next two interviews were from Design Sponge. The first is with Savannah artist Cedric Smith. I love his advice for other artists to think of themselves as a business. Please take a moment to read the rest of what he says and see his beautiful work.

And the final interview is with Scott Avett of the Avett Brothers. I am so inspired when I hear about other artists who have many areas of interest, as opposed to only focusing on painting, or only focusing on music. He does it all. Please check out this fantastic interview.

Okay, now back to the rest of Friday’s To-Do list! If I don’t post again before the end of the weekend, I just wanted to shout out one more time about the Celebrity Scoop Benefit for my dear friend Nikki on Sunday 4-8 at the Haagan Dazs downtown Naperville, IL. Here is the facebook page made for the event. Even if you can’t go, I’d be grateful if you could still spread the word to anyone in the area. Here is her Caring Bridges page. Oh, and she is a lovely photographer too, check out her flickr page here. Thank you again!

Beauty Overload

Published

robayre

on June 10, 2010

in Artists, Cool Links and General Update

. 2 Comments

This blog isn’t called Inspiration Junkie for nothin’. I can’t get enough of the pretty things people make and capture.

Above is the most recent page from my “Favorites” collection from other users on Flickr.

I also like to collect pretty images on weheartit, here.

and tumblr, here.

Do you keep online collections of inspiring images?

wrapping paper inspiration

Published

robayre

on January 16, 2009

in General Update and shop update

. 1 Comment

A while ago I mentioned some vintage wrapping paper I found in a bag in my parents basement. This was one of those papers that had been folded up after the present inside had been opened (probably somewhere between 1978-82, and tucked away and saved for later use. It’s very old and brittle, but still vibrant in color. I love the painterly quality the illustrations have and when cut up into small pieces the textures and colors are absolutely gorgeous and work so well in my mixed media work.

You can see bits of it here and here and now here in some button sets I just finished. Here you can see a close up of what the artwork looked like before making them into buttons.

inspiration roll

Published

robayre

on November 14, 2008

in General Update

. 2 Comments

A few links of things that caught my eye:

Matt and I recently bought the Playstation 3 video game Little Big Planet. In the game you customize your character, a little knit sackguy. After that you can go on to customize and build your own levels to play and share with other online players. Last week I discovered this flickr pool group where people are creating their own real life sack guys based on their player characters. How inspiring is that? I want to build my own sackguy. He is the white one pictured above. He is wearing a red and white striped undershirt and undies, an elizabethan collar and bunny ears.

My next link I’d like to share is a post about printmaking with styrofoam food packaging. I found this link on Craft Magaine’s blog. When I was in college I probably took enough printmaking classes to have a minor in it, but they didn’t offer minors in printmaking, or at least not for the degree that I earned. I know, I tried at the time. Anyway, with all the printmaking I’ve done, I’ve never printed using styrofoam. I feel like it was one of those missed life experiences that all kids have in elementary or middle school. Printing with styrofoam and pinhole photography from a coffee can/oatmeal box. And since I missed both of those rights of passage I’ve always wanted to desperately do them. Well, seeing this post only added to that desire. After printing with litho stones, etched metal plates, carved blocks of wood, and silk screens, I imaged the quality of styrofoam would be, ya know, ehh, but don’t these pieces look fabulous?

And now my last link for right now is another tutorial I found via Craft magazine’s blog. This post is for a two step tutorial on how to make Japanese kusudama, or an origami ball. I thought it might be really beautiful to make a whole bunch of these to decorate an entire Christmas tree. You can use old newspaper ads and they would be colorful, recycled and still just as beautiful.

This weekend

Published

robayre

on September 14, 2008

in General Update

. 5 Comments

chicago street, originally uploaded by robayre.

Saturday my sister and I decided to risk it and head into the damp streets of Chicago for the Renegade Craft show. We go each year and it’s something we really look forward to. I checked weather.com before leaving and it forecasted heavy downpour all day, except for a couple hours break where it just rained in the afternoon. We got there shortly after it opened and you could see a few booths were empty or still setting up. Several tents were leaking and most people had tarps over and around their tents. I was a teensy bit glad to know that I wouldn’t have to battle crowds and in all honesty, it was probably the best show I’ve been to so far. Best being defined by the wad of cash we both dropped. By the time we left the shopping crowd was beginning to grow and with everyone holding umbrellas it was starting to get crowded. Also noted: about every other girl there was wearing galoshes.

Maybe later this week I will do a post on some of the goodies I got at the show. That would be fun.

Yesterday was then one of those days where I got home drenched and experienced one of the world’s best feelings: Putting on dry warm clothes. Today, quite the opposite. I’ve barely left the house, It’s about 7 p.m. and I’m still in pajamas. I feel so grimy and worse than that, I feel so unproductive. I’ve barely stepped into my studio at all in days.

I’ve been going through this struggle where during the work week I tell myself “I’ll make time to work on things this weekend” and then the weekend hits and I can’t get myself in the mood to do anything then either, so I tell myself “It will be better to do it during the work week in the evenings.” and it’s just this never ending cycle of unproductiveness. Ugh, I hate it.

Sometimes I wonder if it is brought on by my personal need to be doing something always and never taking the time for productive breaks to go out and live and fill up on real life inspiration, etc. When I can’t get myself into the productive mood I just end vegging out in front of the tv or internet instead of perhaps going out for a bike ride or exploring in a park. One can only coast along for so long on empty tank.

Also, knowing that sometimes it takes a bit of time for me to switch gears and actually get into right brain thinking can be a chore on it’s own, especially after a long day at work. Feel familiar to anyone else?

edit: oh yeah, and just in case anybody noticed, I can say I feel like my well of inspiration is dry in this post and in the post directly before this say that the inspiration floweth over because . . . I’m a contradiction, oxymoron, I’m a paradox, as my brother says “Robyn, you’re so torn”. That’s me. Love me or leave me.

Projects vs. Sleep

Published

robayre

on August 25, 2008

in General Update

. 0 Comments

I’m so tired. It’s a beautiful day out, but instead of having a productive afternoon off, I’ll probably fall asleep on the porch swing. School is back in session and that means one thing, the local university newspaper is back in print and now I must work my weird day (going in at 2 am, off at 10 am).
This weekend I was feeling exhausted by my need to work on something, anything creative. I have felt lost for a bit without an inspiring project that consumes my every thought. That thing that can get me through the day, and helps me fall asleep dreaming about it at night. After feeling this emptiness for what seems like an eternity, Saturday evening I hit my personal library and found just the inspiration I needed. 1. from the Complete Craft, a cuff bracelet that was originally done in beadwork, but I will be adapting for my own style (you can see what I’ve done so far in the above picture, and 2. Just the perfect push for an art show this winter, thanks to Erin and the book Kaleidoscope.
But finally when I feel so inspired and just want to dig into my new projects, I feel like I can’t even see straight.
I. Must. Rest. Swing. Is. Calling. Me.

Inspiration Junkie robayre.com