Nature

 In honor of Earth Day, I am reposting an early blog about creativity and nature. 

One way to encourage your creativity is to spend time in nature.  It doesn't matter where you go or what you do, just make sure you are away from concrete and asphalt.

Talk a walk in the park.  Work in your garden.  Go on a nature hike in nearby woods.  My favorite place is the local zoo.  I love to walk the trails and watch the animals.  Its design helps me feel isolated and I forget I am in the middle of a city.  No street sounds, no city smells.  Just the animals and trees.  Just nature. 

Nature heals.  There is a psychological theory that the more we move inside to buildings with central heat and air with windows which don't open and surround ourselves with all the modern conveniences and technology, the more mental illness we will suffer.

   Nature keeps us grounded. It slows us down, focuses us.  It moves and blooms and grows in its time, not ours. If we want to watch a butterfly, we have to do it now not when our cell phone call is over.  Nature fuels our core of energy, our creativity.

 Nature inspires.  I bet there isn't an artist now or in history who hasn't painted, written, danced or sung nature.  Nature shows that there are endless possibilities to everything.  In nature there isn't one bird, flower, or tree but a multitude.  There isn't one color green or purple but infinite shades of each.  One never lacks if one is in nature.

If your creativity is slow in starting or has stalled altogether, spend some time in nature this week. I know it helps me; I have a feeling it will help you. 

 

© 2016, 2023 – Cheryl Fillion

April celebrations

 

 I have been doing blog posts on holidays for a couple of months now.  It is fun to see what people around the world celebrate.  This month I have two.  I just couldn’t decide. 

The first is actually the whole month of April.  It is National Poetry month.  That alone should tell you what I am going to recommend.  Yup, poetry.  Do you read poetry?  If not give it a whirl. 

If you are not sure you will understand poetry, start out with some children’s poems. If you don’t like the structure of poetry, read some freeform poetry.  My favorite poet is Emily Dickinson.

Have you ever tried to write poetry?  Try it.  Know that all the words don’t have to rhyme but that might be a lot of fun to try.  Here is an experiment to try: go to a page in a book or newspaper and randomly pick out 5 words.  No fair picking only words you like.  Then with these words write a 4 line poem.  If you want to start easy, go with a children’s book or the funny pages in the newspaper.  You don’t have to publish it.  You don’t even have to show anyone your poem.  But as a line from a commercial once said, try it, you’ll like it.

The other holiday is April 22, Earth Day.  This holiday was created in the 1970s when the environmental movement was just getting started.  It is one that has special meanung to me.  I recycle and reuse (and reuse and reuse) but it is a holiday when my dad would send me a Happy Earth Day card.  He always tried to find some card with a nature scene on it and make it into his own Earth Day card.

So on this day do something nice for the Earth.  Take your cans and bottles to the recycling center.  Plant some flowers (and if your ground is still frozen, plant some flowers in a pot).  Paint or embroider a picture of a natural scene.  Or take a walk and watch nature (and then come home and write a poem about it.  Ah, you knew I would get these two holidays together.)  Maybe even continue my dad’s tradition and send someone a nice card with a nature scene on it.

So                    Roses are Red

                        Violets are blue

                        Celebrate Earth Day

                        And poetry too.

 

©2018 , 2023Cheryl E. Fillion

 

 

 

April celebrations

I have been doing blog posts on holidays for a couple of months now.  It is fun to see what people around the world celebrate.  This month I have two.  I just couldn’t decide. 

The first is actually the whole month of April.  It is National Poetry month.  That alone should tell you what I am going to recommend.  Yup, poetry.  Do you read poetry?  If not give it a whirl. 

If you are not sure you will understand poetry, start out with some children’s poems. If you don’t like the structure of poetry, read some freeform poetry.  My favorite poet is Emily Dickinson.

Have you ever tried to write poetry?  Try it.  Know that all the words don’t have to rhyme but that might be a lot of fun to try.  Here is an experiment to try: go to a page in a book or newspaper and randomly pick out 5 words.  No fair picking only words you like.  Then with these words write a 4 line poem.  If you want to start easy, go with a children’s book or the funny pages in the newspaper.  You don’t have to publish it.  You don’t even have to show anyone your poem.  But as a line from a commercial once said, try it, you’ll like it.

The other holiday is April 22, Earth Day.  This holiday was created in the 1970s when the environmental movement was just getting started.  It is one that has special mean to me.  I recycle and reuse (and reuse and reuse) but it is a holiday when my dad would send me a Happy Earth Day card.  He always tried to find some card with a nature scene on it and make it into his own Earth Day card.

So on this day do something nice for the Earth.  Take your cans and bottles to the recycling center.  Plant some flowers (and if your ground is still frozen, plant some flowers in a pot).  Paint or embroider a picture of a natural scene.  Or take a walk and watch nature (and then come home and write a poem about it.  Ah, you knew I would get these two holidays together.)  Maybe even continue my dad’s tradition and send someone a nice card with a nature scene on it.

So                    Roses are Red

                        Violets are blue

                        Celebrate Earth Day

                        And poetry too.

©2018 Cheryl E. Fillion

The Little Red Tomato

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I enjoy needle felting.  I also enjoy tomatoes.  Those two subjects seem a bit unrelated, don’t they?  Not if you needle felt little red tomatoes like I do.

If you want a little red felted tomato, you need to start with red roving.  Now you can make your tomato entirely of red roving but I like to start with a polyester batting base.  Why have nice red roving hidden in the center of your tomato where it can’t be seen?  I usually try with sculptured items to start with a plain base or polyester or wool batting. 

So gather a bunch of either wool batting or even cheaper still polyester batting (Yeah like you use in pillows.).  I usually start with a ball that is twice the size of what I imagine the finished item to be.  As you needle felt it, it will shrink down and become firm.  Roll it in your hands to start forming the ball you want.  Rolling it in your hand actually starts bonding the fibers together and then start felting.

batting

Keep felting until you get the size and shape you want with your ball. If you need to add more batting, wrap more  around the shape and felt it in.

batting shape

Once you have the base the shape you want, now comes the fun part, adding the color.  I started laying strips of red roving onto the ball base and just felted it in until it was all covered.

completely covered

adding red roving

This next step is optional.  Since you have a ball, it is likely to roll around.  If you want your tomato to stay in one place, find an area on the tomato and start felting over and over in that place (usually about an inch in diameter is a big enough area).  The more you felt there, the flatter the area will be so when you set your tomato down, it won’t roll.

Flattening bottom

All tomatoes have a little leaf and stem part that attaches to the vine.  So will this tomato.

Take a small amount of a green roving and place it on your foam.  It doesn’t have to be a lot – maybe 2” by 2”.  Make it a little bigger than the size you want your leaves to be.  Then place another piece of roving crosswise to the first piece and start felting.

                   

                                                                                      

leaf roving

leaf roving 2

                                  

felted leaf roving

Keep felting until all the fibers seem to be bonded and there are not any thin spots that you can see through.  Add more roving if you need to. You want to have somewhat of a square shape.  When you are ready, cut your leaves.  I don’t use a pattern but you can make one and use.  I take one side of my leaf square and cut out a triangle. I do that on each side so in the end I have a 4 sided star.  It’s OK if it is a little lopsided.  Not all leaves in nature are perfectly symmetrical.

cutting roving for leaves

cutting roving for leaves 2

finished leaves

Now with your tomato find the area opposite your flat surface.   We are looking for the top and felt a little indentation.    This will help the leaves and stem felt into the tomato easier.  Place the center of your leaf star over the indentation and felt it in until it is attached.  Some of the leaf points may stick out or up.  You can leave them like that (since that is often what real leaves do) or you can felt them to the tomato.  Just give it a couple of pokes at each point to attach it.

indentation for leaves

Adding leaves

         

attaching tips of leaves

Now for the stem.  I am one who does not like to waste anything so I usually take a couple of pieces the cutaway of the felted green from the leaves and start to form them into a stem.  I start with two of the triangles and roll them together in a rounded rod shape.   Just as you did with the tomato ball above, roll these pieces between your palms to start the rod shape.   Once you have a good shape, start felting to make the roving look like a stem and also make it firmer.  You wanted it to be a little bigger at one end so it looks more like a stem.

finishing stem

starting stem

                        

Once you have it the shape you like, put the bigger end in the indentation of the leaves and start felting.  You might want to put your needle in on an angle to get through the stem and into the tomato.  But remember to pull your needle out the same way you put it in so it doesn’t bend or break.

attaching stem

Once your stem is secure (I usually pick it up by the stem and shake the tomato.  If the stem stays on, it is secure.), you have a little red (felted) tomato.  It is a great summer decoration or a wonderful gift for a farmer or tomato lover.

The Little Red Tomato

©2017    Cheryl Fillion

Nature 2 - Earth Day

This weekend one of my favorite holidays occurs.  Oh it isn't one that will be marked in red on the calendar - some calendars don't even include it.  And the banks won't close and the mail will still be delivered. But it honors a very important figure in our lives - Mother Earth.  April 22 is Earth Day.

A couple of months back I wrote about how important it was for us to get out in nature.  With the cold weather leaving, this weekend is your perfect chance.  Contact with nature increases our health, our mental well-being and our creativity.   It slows us down and focuses our awareness on something other than ourselves and other than the fast pace we are all living in.

If you get a chance, take a walk with Mother Earth.  Notice her beauty, her nurturing qualities in the flowers, trees, and animals.  Also notice what we do to her when we don't care - the pollution, the littering, and the tearing up of her form.  How we treat her is exactly how we treat ourselves.  When we don't care, we pollute ourselves with unhealthy things, we litter our minds with noise and busyness and we don't allow ourselves the rest and relaxation that would bring about calm and creativity.

Spend some time in nature this weekend and treat yourselves with love and kindness by extending that time to every day of the year.  Talk a walk, take a picnic, take care of yourself and Mother Earth

There is a patch of woods I know

where I walk

and look and feel.

It's along a road where cars

speed by on their way to

somewhere else.

Driving by you watch

the road and other traffic,

out of the corner of your eye

this wooded strip is always

green and never changing.

But if you walk it, as I do daily,

you see that nothing is the same.

That every day a new miracle appears.

One day you pass to see

tiny little branches coming

from the leaf strewn earth

Start of new trees, you think.

After all they resemble the cluster

of leaves above which shade you.

But then a day or two later this

tiny branch is home to

a yellow flower. You had

not even seen a bud the day before,

Yet here is a little cup of sunshine.

Yesterday there were berries --

deep wine colored berry clusters growing

on variegated vines along the ground.

Today they are gone. Probably

dessert last night for

a family of birds or mice.

Grass grows tall along the edge

of the road.

The grass stalks are the ones

that as children, we would place

between our fingers

and whistle.

Look closer and you will find

a thread vine twisting

the blade, hugging tightly the grass

like two long lost friends

not wanting to part.

Morning glories blooming blue in a

patch near a maple tree.

Are they wild

or did someone drop seeds out

a car window as they sped by.

What is this?

Back along the tree line

is a row of plants.

Prickly stems and leaves protecting

a cluster of buds.

I wonder what they'll look like.

Maybe tomorrow they will open

and peek at me.

As I turn and head for home

sure that I have seen

all the treasures my patch

has to give me,

I come upon a rare

stem of yellow asters,

daisy like flowers I've only

seen in white and purple.

I would have missed it had

I not turned around.

A car passes me, speeding

to an adventure unknown,

too fast to see my tiny

yellow asters.

Too bad for the driver,

for all they see is a blur of green.

poem ©  1999 Cheryl Fillion

blog © 2017– Cheryl Fillion