[warm-up, creative parenting]

Did you play this game as a child? It bears repeating and is a great thing to do with your own kids. It’s non-competitive, free, interactive and instructive, for adults as well as children. Plus, if you bring a creative slant to it, it can be an experience that teaches about the close relationship between smell, memory and creativity.

THE GAME:

Place a series of smells under the noses of blindfolded people and ask them to name them.

Best played in the kitchen.

That’s it.

However, it’s not as easy as it would seem to be. Sometimes the smell is as familiar as your own name but the word for it will not come. This is probably because in order to do this we have to utilize two separate parts of the brain. The part that identifies smells as familiar and known—and the part that puts a word to that familiar and known smell, ordinarily with the assistance of sight.

It would be a great game to play at a Halloween party since this holiday is already so much about masks and the senses. Make it part of your “Haunted House” and have the kids identify a few ‘bad’ smells along with the good or neutral.

If you’re just playing this at home, talk to your kids about the brain and memory. Sit down with them and do a quick free-writing exercise just to see what the non-verbal sense of smell has aroused in your c-minds. If your children are too young to write, let them dictate their stories.

You can also use some of your game smells as the basis for art work. After you’ve played the Smell Game, tell your kids they can make art with the ingredients. Explain that this art work may not be as lasting as if you were using paint. It might be a good time to teach them words like “transient,” “ephemeral,” and “fleeting” and to talk about art and artists who make art that is intentionally so.

Smell Art Ideas:

Sprinkle jello on a paper and let them use their fingers to make art (this is a great sensory-rich way to help them learn to write their letters and numbers, but save that for another more structured time ) Enhance the smell factor by letting them dip their fingers in lemon juice first!

Dip paper in strong tea, coffee, fruit juice.

Use berries to make dyes, paint with them!

Finger paint with (a little) peanut butter. (Maybe even jelly, too?)

Put glue on the paper and use aromatic spices as you would glitter.

Take one item—how about a lemon?—and do a whole picture out using all parts of the lemon.

And, this is a whole other article, but don’t forget: edible art! Pancakes with food colouring, popcorn ball people, rice cake worlds.

LINKS

Here’s a lovely website
http://library.thinkquest.org/C0110299/html/index.php made by three young people about the brain and the mind, including pages on creativity (take the How Creative are you? quiz), the senses and memory.

The Ephemeral Arts - check this one out. it’s all about ephemeral arts on the Indian sub-continent; here’s another link to the same site, one that gives examples of these kinds of art. Use them with your kids!

Stayed tuned for my own Ephemeral Arts article. Coming soon!

Have fun and never forget that anything you can do with kids and creativity, you should be doing for yourself anyway. Tapping into our childhood well, keeps creativity flowing strong!

[-quick tip, practice-]

A Quick Creative Practice
~simple habits can have profound impacts~

Keep a tablet and a pen or pencil on your bedside table at all times!

DREAMS
If you wake with a dream still in reach, jot it down immediately. If you want to fall back to sleep, don’t worry about transcribing the full dream. If you write the most important words and images you’re likely to remember the connecting links later.

SOLUTIONS
Those transitional times just before falling asleep or waking—especially from a nap—are rich times for problem-solving and inspirational ideas. Having paper and pencil nearby will allow you to capture these gems that might otherwise disappear from your mind as the world crowds in.

SKETCHES
The tablet isn’t just for words. If you’re like me, you’ll sometimes *see* images that need to be painted or drawn. Make quick sketches before they too are lost to time.

[-writing, exercise-]

Writing takes activity. You have to write the words down on the page. Everyone knows that. But what’s going on inside as you make that effort to put a story together? Think about the issue of control and how it does or doesn’t work for you. We tend to think of energy, activity, the doing part of it as the most important. But consider another viewpoint. Here’s what Brenda Ueland says about it:

Willing is doing something you know already, something you have been told by somebody else; there is no new imaginative understanding in it. And presently your soul gets frightfully sterile and dry because you are so quick, snappy and efficient about doing one thing after another that you have not time for your own ideas to come in and develop and gently shine.

In this spirit, here’s a daydreaming exercise to foster the idea of letting go so that you can dream something up rather than just jotting something down.

Sit in front of your computer. Look at the keyboard for a few moments. Put your fingers on the keys and type a sentence. Type ANYTHING.
For example:

your thoughts:
• I am typing a sentence.
• This is a stupid exercise.
• I hate this.
• What am I doing this for?

whatever comes into your head, no matter how weird:

• Dogs with feathers would create nests in their sleep.
• Wallpaper hides cracks and peels when it’s old.
• My teeth might crumble before I die.

the most random nonsense you can come up with:
• Jumbled crossover blinks always allay floods.
• Accessing liverwurst can be the answer to pink socks.
• Everyone jousts because the ghostly phone didn’t ring.

Now here’s the hard part. As soon as you’ve put the period on your sentence, delete it.

As fast as you can, type something else.

Delete that.

Keep doing it for at least ten minutes, more if you can tolerate it.

Now begin your writing for the day.

This exercise does three important things:

1. It loosens your mind by making flighty associations and spurring imaginative juxtapositions on the page
2. It clears the mind of the top layer of dry, tired dirt so that the underlying fertile soil is available to you
3. It provides practice in letting go of words.
   This is a valuable lesson for a writer because we all tend to love what comes out of us. Our words are our babies and we don’t like to make them disappear once they are on the paper. But we have to know how as well as when to delete. This will help.

[-photo essay, fiber art-]

by Nancy S.M. Waldman

Patchwork quilting is an exacting process. There is a great deal of planning, measuring, precise cutting and piecing. Some of us are cut out (ahem, *sorry!*) for that and some aren’t. Or perhaps it’s a discipline that we enjoy at some times and not others.

At times we may just want to be spontaneous, playful and get quick results create with our textiles.

Here are some examples of a kind of stitchery that requires none of the planning and precision of quilting, but that can give stunning results.

There is no one name that sums up this kind of work. It includes raw edge collage, surface stitching, whole cloth manipulation and fabric weaving. The idea is to make a new textile by combining more than one kind of fabric by layering the elements and using surface stitching rather than hidden seams to make them one.

Here is an example of a simple and quick project. It is a placemat made from three fabrics woven together and surface stitched until it becomes one. Below, you see the base fabric cut into wavy strips.

A strip of fabric was left uncut at one end. This edge was basted onto a piece of interfacing the size of the finished mat.

The two alternating fabrics were also cut into wavy strips.

These were then woven into the base fabric. Don’t worry if all the corners don’t meet exactly. You can remedy that with your overstitching. Pin or lightly hand-basted the strips to the interface backing to keep everything in place while it is being stitched.

This one is top-stitched in a wavy, random pattern in both contrasting and matching thread colours. In order to add durability to a project that will have to stand up to fairly frequent laundering, there are vertical strips of zig-zag stitches in various colours.

Once the stitching is finished, it’s backed and the edges finished and in a afternoon’s work, you have a lovely new placemat for your (or someone else’s) table.

This kind of weaving can be done with straight edges for a more traditionally patchwork look.

Decide beforehand what kind of surface stitching best matches the fabrics and results you want. They can be contrasting colours or ones that blend in, or both. They can be random or follow a deliberate pattern. The patterns can be angular, squared-off or wavy. Use plain or decorative, zig-zag or straight, single or double stitching.

This table cover was also made using this technique —but taken to extremes. The fabrics are swatches from decorating sample books. They were cut into random slits, woven in random directions, over-stitched and sometimes re-cut into strips and re-woven. The table base that this was designed to cover has curved sides and front and this technique worked beautifully to be able to mold it to the precise shape needed.

This is rather old and has been washed several times. The fraying, raw edges are more pronounced, but the whole piece is quite sturdy.

Another fun alternative is to cut slits in the middle of a piece of cloth, weave other fabrics into it and over stitch the whole thing. Here’s a more delicate “shabby chic” pillow top that uses this technique. This pillow was one I had purchased years ago. The front was made from old linen and lace. The linen fell to pieces a while back, but the lace and structure of the pillow was intact. To refurbish it, I cut slits in the white lining and wove in strips from old handkerchiefs. These were then top stitched extensively.

In addition to the weaving, other bits of fabric can be appliqued to the surface design. As long as your raw edges are securely stitched, it will hold up well.

This small lap quilt I made for my niece, emily, shows this technique as well as the interspersed woven sections. I divided the whole cloth of the floral background fabric into thirteen squares (3 rows of 3, 2 rows of 2). Strips were cut into those areas and then interwoven with other floral fabrics and top stitched to secure all fabrics. Appliques of additional fabrics were also added and surface stitched.

Raw edge collage is also wonderful for representation or impressionist fiber art as well. Here is one from fiber artist, Suze Corte. It’s titled, Coming Apart at the Seams and uses vintage quilt scraps, fabric, buttons, lace, threads and a shard from a china dish—all with raw edge technique.

© 93-07 suze corte, all rights reserved

Stayed tuned! We’re going to be showing you more of this kind of fabric collage work in the months to come.

For more instruction in all these techniques, you might be interested in
On the Surface, by Wendy Hill.

[-short short fiction-]

by Indie

© 2004 - 2007 inde all rights reserved

The vicious pirates Peg Head Jones and his offspring Baby Face Barnacle were terrors from Costa Rica to the Caribbee and as far north as Cincinnati. In ‘98 they jumped the early-morning line at an inland Toys R’ Us, making off with a swag of first edition Barbie dolls just ready to hit the shelves, worth more by this time than the combined income of the top ten supermodels. Their daring escape down the Ohio, Missouri and Mississippi on a leaky raft dazzled the media, and their subsequent daylight disappearance into the Gulf was legend. Now they roamed the rain forest path in search of their stash, ears attuned to the myriad patterns of sound indigenous to South Sea islands: the tinkling waterfall, the exotic song of unseen birds, the hushed murmur of natives far off in the distance.

“Matey, be ya sure this were the spot?” Baby Face Barnacle looked up at the taller pirate.

“I’d swear on a keg o’ potato rum!” Peg Head swaggered, rubbing the back of his head with a piece of sandpaper. “I lefts a sign by th’ tree what says ‘Schefflera actinophylla’ and thar it be.” He pointed to the inconspicuous, white marker in front of the tropical trunk.

“But we dug an’ dug’ an’ nuthin’ but a duster it were. I says we’s goin’ ’round in circles. I got more deja vooze than a skippin’ gramophone.” Baby Face shook his head, more puzzled than a parrot in Pittsburg.

“Har, me lad! Somethin’ be wrong, but I’ll be a pied Peter Pan if I kin get me ‘ook in it,” Peg Head answered, and glanced about from side to side, hoping to catch sight of something definitive.

“Ay, we be wanderin’ for hours and ain’t got nowheres. I says we–” The sound of footfalls on the path interrupted Baby Face. He looked up suddenly. “Argh! It be that crazed dog of an islander again. Let’s you an’ me scar him off!”

Baby Face Barnacle put on his mean look and Peg Head Jones snarled, but the approaching native seemed unconcerned. “Look here,” he said, “you two are beginning to frighten the guests. I’ve told you already, no digging, and now you’re making faces at everyone. This is your last warning. Remember that you’re in a conservatory!”

Inde, © 2005 - 2007 all rights reserved

Please see Inde’s other contributions to The PCQ: Hacker Baby, The Great War of 2015

Inde’s blog, The Synchronicity of Indeterminacy, is an experiment in creativity with daily posts of an original one-minute short story inspired by a found photo. All stories are fictional. The idea is based on the Indeterminacy recordings by John Cage, pairing one-minute short stories with random sounds. His daily stories can be found at: indeterminancy.blogspot.com

about the writer:
Inde is an American - originally from Cincinnati, Ohio - living in Europe since the 80’s. He enjoys avant garde, dadaistic, and surrealistic art, literature and music. He has a special love for comedy. Inde holds a masters in psychology and is employed as knowledge engineer, designing natural language dialogue systems. He’s lucky enough to be married to a wonderful muse and has a son 10 years of age.

Published by the permission of the author in the October 2005 issue of The Practically Creative Quarterly, theme: collections

and, just for fun:

[-art, doodles, essay-]

What is a doodle? Read the rest of this entry »

[-practices, tips-]

a Quick Creative Practice
~simple practices have profound impacts~

Need Inspiration? Learn something new

Choose either a fairly simple skill - for example, how to do stencilling or beginning knitting - or - choose a skill that will take time and effort and one that you have, therefore, been putting off your whole life - like playing an instrument or learning a language. Either way, you’ll reap unforeseen benefits far beyond what you’re learning.

Question: “Do you know how old I’ll be by the time I learn to play the piano?”

Answer: “The same age you’ll be if you don’t learn to play the piano.”

Start now. Your efforts will be rewarded.

Learning something new inspires because:

• * it ignites the mind, firing up sluggish brain cells
• * new skill sets have bearing on what we already know in ways we can’t predict - for example, working with sumptuous wool yarn might provide a new connection to painting or composing
• * it reminds us that we are creative beings capable of continual evolution.

Originally published in the July 2005 issue of The Practically Creative Quarterly, theme: space and spaces

[-practices, tip-]

a Quick Creative Practice
~simple practices have profound impacts~

Schedule Creative Time

Of course you know this, but do you do it? If you don’t schedule time for being creative, no one else will. Whether you are overly busy or have lots of *free* time, your day will fill up with anything but creative pursuits if you don’t get it on your list. Literally write it down on your calendar, day book, computer, palm pilot or whatever you use to organize your life. Be specific and be serious about taking the time you saved just to be creative.

Originally published in the April 2005 issue of The Practically Creative Quarter, theme: inspiration

[-quick creative practice, tip-]

a Quick Creative Practice

~simple practices have profound impacts~

Write Down All Your Ideas

Writing it down does several important things:
• • keeps you from forgetting
  fleeting ideas, no matter how inspired, are easily forgotten
• • gets it out of your head so you can evaluate it
• • gives it validity and weight,
  the idea is no longer only an idea; it has reality because it’s on paper and can be seen
• • can begin to compare with other inspirations you’ve written down
  visualize how this idea might combine, enrich, work in ways you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise
• • saves it for another day
  maybe it’s an idea whose time has yet to come

Originally published in the April 2005 issue of The Practically Creative Quarterly, theme: inspiration

[-tip, practices-]

simple practices have profound impacts

Most of us tend to work better and - more importantly, finish! - if we have a deadline. If you don’t have a *real* one, try this as a mental trick.

Seek out a real world or an online individual or group. Set imaginary, but realistic, deadlines for yourselves and then urge each other to stick to them.

You’ll be surprise how much it helps even when the deadline has no consequences associated with it.

It’s also amazing how much it motivates to know that someone *out there* cares whether or not you keep going!

Don’t be discouraged if you have to try several groups or people before you find the right rapport. Discovering like-minded people is worth it, so keep looking if you haven’t found them yet.

If you belong to a group that helps in this way, post a comment to let others know.

For writers: NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month
For artists: Illustration Friday