creative jewish mom

Now In Bloom In My July Container Garden!

Container gardening is the next best thing to gardening in actual soil, and for busy folks it may just be the best of both worlds. I'll admit my containers could use a bit more love, but I'll wait until the weather cools down a bit. July in Northern Israel can be quite dry and hot, which means that not all the plants in my container garden are at their happiest, while some are quite happy, like this plant, above, which I just discovered is Salvia, which is  draught resistant and therefore loves the summer weather, though of course I am watering it. I have grown this same plant, in another location and it became a huge bush, until one butcher of a gardener decided to over trim it and it never grew back, sigh. So now, I'm growing two newish plants in a large container, and just love it.....can't wait to see how it fills out. Okay, lets take a look at some of the other plants that are currently flowering, in my sub-tropical container garden!

A Peek In My Sketchbook: Drawing Florals From My Own Photos

Here we are, another peak in my sketchbook, because I have to admit, I have been making a serious practice of it! So much so, that even my daughter, who knows better, asked me what I'm going to "do with all this". Ha ha, it is just a bunch of sketchbooks, not a pile of paintings, which I need to create next! And in any case, a sketchbook practice is not supposed to be for anything other than exactly what it is.....namely a place where you can do whatever you want without having to please others or worry about what you're going to do with it! Having discovered how to correct things I don't love, without ripping out the page, I am now addicted to filling page after page......and having finished my small sketchbook, I've now started on one that is literally twice the size, and the large pages are glorious, though of course much more time consuming.  I think this sketchbook is around 9" x 12", and I've already filled almost 27 pages in 15 days, so I'm gonna keep on doing just that.

Okay, enough blabbing, what I really wanted to talk about is that personally, after sketching florals and botanicals using tutorials from all over the place, I realized that I really can't call any of the drawings my own and that I needed to draw from reference photos that I've taken, and for the florals, photos of flowers in my very own container garden. I do love drawing flowers from tutorials, but truthfully, using photo reference creates something much more true to life, and even better when it is your photo, since then you can truly own it! Keep on reading to see the photos I used as inspiration for this sketch .....and more of course!

Mixed Media Florals And Botanicals For Your Sketchbook

Mixed media simply means using a variety of art supplies together in one art piece, namely pen and paint, pen and collage, ink and pencil, etc. Mixed media is a great way to add color to your sketchbook drawings, though depending on the thickness of your paper you will need to do this with some forethought. My sketchbook is really just for drawing, meaning the pages are relatively light weight and cannot handle markers or watercolors without bleeding through to the other side. (One can always fix this by gluing together pages or gluing a page on top of the bleed.) But not to worry, there are several ways around this and many products that you can use to add color to your sketchbook, even if the pages aren't watercolor paper. Believe me, I've been doing this now for months and the results are great. Best of all, once you start using mixed media your sketches can come alive with color and pattern and even a little texture! And as I've written previously, using paint or gluing on little scrap of paper is a great way to fix sketchbook mistakes and create something unexpected from those mistakes. Okay, lets explore the idea of using mixed media in a sketchbook!

How to Create a Digital Footprint as an Artist

Art is a wonderful medium enabling a person to not only express themselves but also use their talents to make something that can bring joy to others. One of the amazing things about art is that it allows an artist to make something brilliant out of basically nothing. Being an artist of course can be very challenging, and the term "starving artist" was coined for a reason: making money from your art can be very difficult, and yet one still needs to buy art supplies to make more art, so artists would say, forego food, in favor of supplies. In today's world however selling art and using art skills to earn a living has become a different game altogether as an artist can essentially present their work to the whole world via a website and social medial, and find other ways to make a living such as teaching art online, or creating made-to-order products from a product design company.

Where does the concept of a digital footprint fit into this picture? A digital footprint refers to one's unique set of traceable digital activities, actions, contributions and communications manifested on the Internet or on digital devices. The strength of that footprint is what ultimately determines how successful an artist will be at getting their work out there. This article is a quick guide to creating a digital footprint as an artist, so have a look and give it some consideration, after all the world is waiting to see what you've been up to! Note to self: stop dreaming about being an artist and work on your digital footprint!

Gates Of Jerusalem Collage Art

The "Three Weeks" on the Jewish calendar is always such a challenging time, as on the one hand it is a mourning period, which intensifies for the last 9 days, and on the other hand it is summer vacation! There is no listening to music or playing musical instruments, and joyful occasions that can be planned, like weddings are not permitted. This year we are in a serious time warp and difficult time in any case, so processing it all seems less difficult, but usually the idea of no swimming during the 9 days just when kids would be going to camp might be hard to process. That said, one can certainly do crafts for hours on end, and this gates of Jerusalem collage art project is a great one for the whole family. And shhhhh, it is actually a bit addictive so you may just have found something to keep everyone busy for hours on end, wouldn't that be amazing? And best of all, when you are finished you'll have some meaningful art to hang on the wall, and enjoy for years to come. And of course, you can take my idea and then do your own spin on this, which would be the most wonderful way to go about this project. So gets those creative gears turning, collect a bunch of paper scraps and little receipts and tickets and even gum wrappers, and go to town. And another shhhhh, this is actually really therapeutic as well, so try to encourage collaging plus deep conversation or soul searching of some kind, to make the end result even more special. Okay, lets make some gates of Jerusalem collage art!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, thanks so much for joining me here! I hope your summer is going well and you are taking advantage of longer days to get out and enjoy nature! My evening walks have been amazing, and even though walk is mostly on the same trail more or less, I find something new to enjoy each time, not to mention all the dried weeds I've been collecting to make 70's inspired home decor! My sketchbook wanderings are consistent and still bringing me so much satisfaction, and now at long last I realize why someone would want to be limited to a book, because it is actually the opposite, not to mention that then you have a record of what exactly you were up to! Last week's features are full of great ideas to get those creative gears turning, so have a look and then get off the computer and use that precious time to develop new skills, and even better upcycle something you have hanging around the house, or use up art supplies that have been in your life for waaay too long! Enjoy!

Morning Glory Vine In Bloom In My Container Garden!

I just love morning glory and of course the more flowers in one's container garden, the better! A year and a half ago I was in the Ukraine and picked up a bunch of seeds for as I recall something like 7 cents a package, and just before Passover this year I quickly planted a bunch of seeds in containers that had empty space at their bases. (Next time I'll soak the seeds and then start them indoors earlier.) Surprise, the only seeds that produced plants were the morning glory seeds, and it is a good thing as my built in planter now holding just two rose bushes was looking very very empty. As you may have seen I built some rustic trellises from sticks for the morning glory to climb on, and now yippee I have tons of blooms to enjoy every morning! Yes it did take 3 months to get to this point, but at least we'll be able to enjoy them for at least another 3 to 4 months. I am not sure whether the morning glory vine will succumb to the winter weather, or not, and next year I'll get an earlier start. It took a good seven weeks to get tiny plants from my seeds, so need to start in February! Gardenng, whether in containers, or in soil is such a joy so give it a try!

Process Art Collage For The Three Weeks

Process art is all about the making of the art as either therapy or a way of loosening up, or both. The end result is not what counts, but rather the process. I do want to write about this a bit more, but my daughter is waiting for me to help her with her photography homework, so lets just say that this bits and pieces collage is a great project to do today, on the 17th of Tammuz, while you think abou the importance of the day, especially on a personal level. Do it with your kids and have a conversation, or do it with yourself (as I did) and use it an an opportunity to work through anything that has been bothering you, it works! And best of all, we will actually be using this collage for another project, so don't toss it, just stay tuned for an update early next week. While you are doing this collage you may want to keep Jerusalem, or the destruction of Jerusalem in mind. I had the gates of Jerusalem as well as the destruction in mind, together with some little things from my life currently. Ah yes, and no excuses friends, this uses all kinds of stuff you can dig out of your purse or pick up off the floor of your studio! Okay, lets make a collage!

Remembering Jerusalem: Family Crafts For The Three Weeks

The 17th of Tammuz, the minor fast day which marks the beginning of the period of mourning for Jerusalem that is referred to as "The Three Weeks" is on Thursday, so lets add some meaning to this important time with some creative crafts! For those of us who live in Israel, and for whom the idea of the destruction of our Holy Temple in Jerusalem is easier to grasp, the crafts can be a great way to delve deeper into all the issues that surround this mourning period. This year with all the craziness in the world working through emotions with art and craft is a valuable exercise for everyone! For those living outside of Israel, I'd say filling the house with crafts for the three weeks is crucial to stress its importance.......so let's get crafting. Below you'll find more than enough links to keep you busy for at least three weeks!

A Peak In My Sketchbook: How To Draw Doodle Clouds

A sketchbook is a great place to explore all kinds of things, and when I came across some cloud doodles that I wanted to try out myself I realized that this drawing exercise would also help me with my paintings of clouds (which I need to get back to, sigh) which I'm still struggling with just a bit. Of course doodling clouds is so much easier than painting them, so give it a try and fill some pages with doodled or sketched clouds, just looking at them is relaxing! And if you don't have a sketchbook, go ahead and draw on a piece of paper, the main thing is to draw, got it? For a closer look and a brief explanation of these drawings, keep on reading my friends....