My crafty stuff and posts that encourage creativity in general!
This is the main blog for the person behind a number of sideblogs: see my pinned post for the list
About Me: 30s, she/they, queer, pagan, neurodivergent af, spoonie, just vibing
Call me Lily, I'm a disabled queer geek in my 30s, avid fibercrafter, idk what else to tell y'all. I've added a couple of my common tags to the bottom of this post.
PSA: If your blog is blank I'm just gonna assume you're a bot and block you.
I have like a billion side blogs, most of which are witchy/pagan (the main one being @tuiliel ) and one of which is like spoonie/queer/random/sometimes bunnies (@potsiefaerie )
So if I liked your post and you don't know who tf I am, you're probably looking for one of those two.
Or maaaybe my writing blog ( @nathaira-stern ), or my gardening/plants/pollinators blog ( @lily-gardens )
...or if your blog is 18+/kink themed maybe @a-sapphire-lily [Do Not Follow if you're a minor. People who know me irl and can be normal about it are welcome.]
Full public list under the cut.
@potsiefaerie - queer stuff, spoonie stuff, memes, a fair sprinkling of leftist politics
@nathaira-stern - reblogged writing advice, some of my old D&D campaign stuff, some of my AO3 nonsense, updates from several failed NaNo attempts, and occasional fandom meta
@lily-gardens - plants, gardening, nature photography, and insects and other critters
@radagast-the-snek - my Colombian Rainbow Boa, and some reblogs about pet snakes and other reptiles (and maybe amphibians)
@curiositea-cabinet - tea and tea related things
@7serendipities - blog for my witchy shop, which also has a website: www.7serendipities.com
@eyes-of-ra - Kemetic polytheism, e-shrine to Bast and Sekhmet, not as active as I once was
@vanadottir - vanatru e-shrine and my rune stuff and probably eventually seidhr stuff
@bright-and-cold - Hela devotional e-shrine, rarely updated
@thrudvangr - Thor e-shrine made as part of an agreement with him, rarely updated after the agreement was fulfilled
@nic-flidais - e-shrine to Irish goddess Flidais and her daughters, mostly aesthetic
@queens-of-sovereignty - e-shrine to a number of fairy queens, mostly aesthetic
@athena-columbia - e-shrine to a local cultus form of Athena, as patron goddess of Washington DC, rarely updated
[Also there's an 18+ nsfw/kink blog, so if that's what I liked of yours that url is @a-sapphire-lily . No minors!]
August 1: Happy-Go-Lucky by Patrick Dougherty (at Horseshoe Bay Farms)
This sculpture is made of 125 maple, oak, and ash trees 2-3 inches in diameter, and native brush (swamp willow) interwoven with the trees. All trees and brush were harvested sustainably from sites around Door County. I think it looks like something that could be found in Middle Earth.
"Learn the fundamentals first" seems like really sound universal advice, and as a former classical musician, I can vouch for it. You will have a more solid foundation for increasing complexity if you put in the time to study in a structured way. If you don't, you'll have a lot of shit to fix later.
As a former music teacher, I can also say that "learn the fundamentals first" is the death knell for a vast percentage of beginners, especially adult learners.
I've run into this with drawing several times, where some well-meaning artist has lectured me on needing to study anatomy properly or not use shortcuts like CSP brushes. And oh, believe me, I know. I know exactly how to learn an artistic discipline in a structured way. I just...don't want to!
The thing is, I'm not aiming to be a professional artist. I want to draw my gay little anime guys. I would undoubtedly improve at art much faster if I approached every gay little anime guy drawing as a study exercise. But I would also have quit drawing a decade ago if I couldn't just let myself enjoy drawing imperfect fucked-up little guys with whatever shortcuts I needed to body myself across the finish line.
With my adult piano students, my approach was always "What's your goal?" If their goal was to learn exactly one Elton John songbook to play at parties, then...that's what we did. We'd put tape on the keys to label the notes, and just fuckin go for it. Learning exactly one Elton John songbook is a good and noble musical goal, full stop.
Some of my students needed and enjoyed a more structured approach to learning; if they wanted to be able to play classical music, then yes, scales were going to have to enter the equation at some point. And yet others would learn the Elton John songbook, catch their white whale, and realize they wanted to explore more of the ocean. The scales were still there for them to learn!
Often the choice isn't between "learn art well" and "learn art imperfectly" - the choice is between "learn art imperfectly" and "don't do art at all." To which I say, learn imperfectly! Or, what the hell, don't 'learn' art. Just do, and enjoy the doing of it.
You have official permission from your local pretentious classical music snob: fuck the fundamentals. You can always unfuck them later (but only if you want to).
He's been doing mosaics like this for a while. (I followed up on the one in the top illustration some while ago, when I first ran into it online. I think I remember discovering that the town in Surrey where it originally appeared has removed it: no idea why.)
Came across this art installation, Liza Lou's Kitchen, at the Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC. It's a kitchen made of tiny glass beads, that artist Liza Lou did, taking 5 yrs. to complete, from 1991 - 1996.
