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Mar 29, 2023Liked by Lindsay Jean Thomson

2016 I dedicated a junk room in our home to be a studio. In these past seven years, here are some of the projects I explored with various degrees of “success”…or not…

Wreath making/floral decor. What was I thinking? The silk flowers were way expensive and took up all the space. My fingers bled from the wire pokes and they hurt from trying to tie things together. And honestly? The day I told my husband the store bought wreath was one I had made was the day I knew I was not cut out for this.

You know those glass dome shaped things you see at flea markets? Insulators. I got the bright idea to turn them into pendant lights. And it worked. Over time my electrical engineer husband figured how to do that part of it, we learned to clean the train smoke off with oxalic acid baths, we used diamon drill bits and drilled holes with a drill press in the driveway into their domes. I made marketing materials. Months went by. Sold two. Meanwhile, I had amassed over 400 of those suckers sitting behind our shed in milk crates. Kept them for too many years. One day decided it was time to let that albatross fly. Sold them to a man in NC who drove the 5 hours to pick them up for $400. A dollar a piece. I paid less for each, so …. profit? lol

I’ve taken up too much time here already…sorry! Rest assured, there have been many more.

But here’s the thing — every single one of those failures gave me skills both physical and emotional, that I use to this day with everything I do. Those experiences made me who I am right here, right now.

Celebrate!

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I am on day 56. I started early. Did 30 days of elephants and am finishing up 30 days of giraffes. I am enjoying being with giraffes at the Phoenix zoo today. Hard to sketch when they don’t hold still😉🦒

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I dunno. Visual, creative design is important to me. I’m immersed. But everyday, like with #The100DayProject, I crave and move toward flexibility. A willingness to see creativity in more than me putting pen to paper, ink to paper, watercolor, acrylic ... etc. My 3 dimensional spaces reflect my creativity. My home. My garden. And yes, my drawings and paintings and tentative attempts toward “assemblage.”

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I haven’t been able to dedicate as much time to this project as I’d hoped because I’m in the process of moving right now. But I was able to publish the first story I completed 😄 You can read it here if you’re interested:

https://open.substack.com/pub/theheartofstorytelling/p/the-bear-hearted-girl

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