Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Guest Judge: Destri from The Mother Huddle

This week we have Destri from The Mother Huddle as our guest judge.  She is a sew-er extraordinaire and is always sharing free sewing tutorials for all of us to enjoy.  You need to go and browse the Sew Be It section to see all of her skills...I got lost over there for a good while looking at all the beautiful handmade things.

I, personally, love her Central Park Swing Coat....


(See what I mean?)


Take it away Destri......

Hey friends, so excited to be here!  Let's get right to it shall we?  I was thinking I might share a tutorial for my post today, but with all the great designs coming out of this year's PR and P, I figured you'd have plenty of those to keep you inspired for weeks.  So instead I decided to share my thoughts on this weeks White Sheet Challenge.  I think it's brilliant, and here's why:

I read something, somewhere (you know how that is) that this particular artist only kept blank white paper out for her kids to write and color on.  She believed that the mind needed the white space to create his or her most "genuine" art.  The article went on to explain that you'll find your children's unique style of creativity best this way.

At the time I didn't have kids and I remember thinking the idea was a little far fetched to me.  Now that I have kids - I find myself intrigued by it.  So on a table in my sewing room sits a stack of blank white paper that my kids have free rein on.  Next to it is a box full of crayons, water colors, scissors, glue, and things of the like for them to use; next to that a box full of my scrap pieces of ribbon, trim, lace, and other little riffraff they can embellish with.

When my 4 year old daughter sits down to the table she usually starts with the crayons, but quickly turns her attention to the glue stick and box of scrap embellishments.  She'll glue on little pom poms cut from trim, lace, rick rack, and ribbon until the entire piece of white paper is filled. She always ends up with an eclectic, mixed media masterpiece.

When my five year old son sits down to the table he takes the same paper and makes it into something first.  Using the tape and glue he'll whip up a plane, ship, car, or anything else he thinks it ends up looking like.  Then he paints on it a little, or like the other day he made a wallet (kind of like an envelope) and decided to glue on a little tassel trim to the top.  He always ends up with something he sculpted from the paper, with very simple embellishments.

It's been so fun to sit back and watch how their own little creative style comes out starting with a white piece of paper.  If I were to put a coloring page in front of them, they'd just color it.  If I put a maze in front them they'd start at the beginning and draw a line through it until they reach the end.  But give them a blank sheet of paper and they have to tap into their unique way of creatively expressing themselves.

That is why I can't wait to see what comes from this weeks challenge - not just from the designers competing, but from the flickr pool too.  I think you are going to see everyone's unique style really shine through.  Some will sculpt, some will embellish, and I am guessing most will do both - but each will have started with a blank canvas - that white space that lets the mind think of all the possibilities.

So I hope this encourages some of you that have thought about joining the fun to go and get a white sheet - just to see what comes of it.

Thanks so much for having me and wish me luck with the judging, I think I'm going to need it!

Related Posts

4 comments :

  1. What a beautiful treatise on creativity and the power of white space. Children's minds really grow like flowers given the proper garden and tools, which you provided. Thank you for sharing your inspirational thoughts.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a beautiful treatise on creativity and the power of white space. Children's minds really grow like flowers given the proper garden and tools, which you provided. Thank you for sharing your inspirational thoughts.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Awesome post! I totally agree about this week's challenge, and I can't wait to see what everyone creates. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Loved these thoughts, Destri. We don't believe in coloring books either and I love to see what my girls come up with (Drummer just likes to eat paper). I look forward to seeing what everyone creates this week!

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.