Summer School

We don’t have summer schools over here but the idea of learning something that interests you during the lazy summery days is very attractive to me. So, with Sandy’s nudge (read: she found this in the first place) I decided to jump in and take a ride with surface design.

In the next six weeks I’ll be getting three briefs to work with and design a pattern for. The first one is already printed out and being slowly worked on in my head. We have to make a pattern to use on summer wear with emphasis on swim wear and the theme is Retro Geometric. Quite fun I must say.

I’ve never done anything like this before so I’m looking forward to this challenge. I just hope I’ll be able to keep up with it. Do wish me luck :)

Artists Around The World - blog hop

I’m coming back with a special post which is now officially part of the Artists Around The World Blog Hop. A blog hop where creatives from all over the world share their answers on four given questions.

I was invited to this hop by lovely Gracie Howle who is a fellow cat and tea lover and an awesome artist and ATC cards trader. I will introduce you to three amazing lady artists at the end of this post.

If this is your first time here, hello and welcome to my blog pages. My name is Nina, I go by the nickname nini and I do all sorts of artsy things. If you’d like to see or know more about me, please visit my pretty web site or have a look around here. I hope you’ll like what you’ll see.

Now let’s see the questions:

1. Why do I do what I do?

It’s because I feel the need to. If I don’t get to be artsy or crafty for a while, I get fussy and disagreeable and I miss something. The feeling of accomplishment I get when I finish a project that I really liked doing and that I feel proud of, is a special one and I can’t get it anywhere else. Even when climbing outside or reaching a peak after a few hours of hiking.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

If from nothing else, it differs in the energy it oozes out. I can’t work on anything if I’m in the bad mood so if you are getting an art doll from me, she will be full of loving and lifting up energy and you will be able to feel it. Or so I hope. And this goes for all the things I like to do.

3. How does my creative process work?

I’m a bit weird here as I rarely do things just because. It looks like I can’t make stuff for me alone so hopefully, I get a commission of some sorts so that my best creative juices can start flowing in and I begin to cook up a storm. If not, I get myself into challenges that involve deadlines because let’s face it, if there is no deadline, one procrastinates too much and ends up making nothing. Or nothing worth talking about.

So, after I know what I’m after I just do it. And this goes for all of my things. If it’s an art doll, I sketch her out first, draw sort of a plan in 1:1 size and start with making her. Of course I may tweak things a bit later on but once she is in my mind she needs to get out of there.

If I get an idea about photo series it’s pretty much the same only I don’t sketch things out first and if I need to make an ATC card (and I do, at least three every month) I sketch out my ideas and make them. It’s so much fun to send them to people I don’t even know and to receive theirs in return.

4. What am I working on now?

Right now, four ATC cards need to be made. Two with a theme “Bugs” and two with the theme “Permission To...”. I have ideas for the first pair but not yet for the second one as I find it extremely tough - which is a good challenge indeed.

Another big thing, and I mean BIG, is me working on offering my works in two shops. One will be on Etsy and the other one on my web site. There’s still a lot to do in the “behind the scenes department" but I’ll get there. Do check back if you like this sneak preview:

I shall be offering postcards and greeting cards first and they will feature some of my beautiful Polaroids and Miss Lilly the Fox (OOAK art doll). As you can see, the Polaroids are printed in their original size and gorgeous as the originals ;)

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Well, these were my answers. I must confess I had my reservations about doing this but now that I have I am really glad I did. It’s surprising to read how easy flowing everything can be :) One just needs to be honest with oneself!


Next Monday, I invited these three creative ladies to take part in this blog hop:

• a wonderful conceptual photographer from Northern Indiana and a very dear and special person to me - Tara from Tara Denny Images - Tara's answers
• freelance illustrator with a very gentle soul whom I got the chance to meet in Netherlands - Esther from Esther Lankhaar Illustrations - Esther's answers
• another on-line friend and freelance illustrator from Thailand who’s merry illustrations brighten my Facebook timeline every day - Pavinee from Merry Day - Pavinee's answers.

I’ll refresh this blog post with links to their answers when they publish it. I hope you’ll check out their answers too.

Thank you very much for reading. I appreciate every visit and I hope you’ll be back again.

With love,

nini