Archive for Artist Inspiration
Pinteresting?
Okay yes. I’ll admit it. I am slightly addicted to Pinterest. What is Pinterest? It’s a virtual pinboard that allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things we find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.
I love browsing to find new ideas for patterns color combinations to use in my art. I find so much inspiration there…
Are you using Pinterest? How do you like it? Pin any Rhodia lately?
Time is running out! Call for Entries for the 2012 Rhodia Journal Swap: “Favorite Things”
Last call! Interested in participating? Read on, then fill out the form below by tomorrow Jan 18th. We’d love if you would share this opportunity with your friends! Questions? Please submit via comments. Continue Readering »
Official Call for Entries for the 2012 Rhodia Journal Swap: “Favorite Things”
It’s here! Time to roll our our first ever Rhodia Journal Swap: “Favorite Things.” Interested in participating? Read on, then please fill out the form below by Jan 18th. We’d love if you would share this opportunity with your friends! Questions? Please submit via comments. Continue Readering »
I bet you’ll want one…
Perhaps you remember my friend Alex. He’s the one that’s been stashing Rhodia in various geocaches around central Pennsylvania. Same Alex whose cajon I painted. He’s been making and selling a ton of these paracord bracelets and when I saw him start to add these various colored “ribbons” in the center, I asked if he could make an orange with two black ones which would make it look like the Rhodia logo. Viola!
Interested? He’s charging $8 + shipping. Message me at stephanie@rhodiadrive.com with “Paracord Bracelet” in the subject line and I will forward to Alex.
Interested in a 2012 Rhodia Journal Swap?
I am currently participating in two different sketchbook exchange projects and it got me to thinking about starting a similar “journal swap” project. 12 people, each provided a large dotWebbie, would fill a specified amount of pages in the journal then mail it to the next person on the list. A theme would be chosen for the project and the participants could fill their pages however they choose – random thoughts, poems, art, collage… Along the way, the participants will scan/snap/upload project photos to a group Tumblr blog for all to see. After each book has cycled through the hands of all the participants, the book you started is returned to you – now filled with all kind of interesting stuff!
Is this something you might be interested in participating in?
I will post the specifics for participation after the new year.
Road Art
I met artist Don Colley at NAMTA’s 2011 Art Materials World conference and trade show. He was demoing at the Faber-Castell booth and happened to walk by ours during a break. His work with colored pencils was so life-like it could practically walk off the page. 
Don had used some of our larger datebooks for sketches because they lay flat. I promised to send him a Webnotebook to sample, and asked him to let me know if he liked it.
I got this email from Don the other day: “Hi Karen, I recently finished drawing in the sweet little orange leatherette covered Rhodia web notebook you sent me. I took it on tour with me this Fall and got some fun pages. Thanks again for the little book, it was well suited to cross country travel in planes and on buses. Happy Holidays.”
Please visit Don’s website – Buttnekkiddoodles-Drawing from Life in Chicago and Beyond.
Thanks, Don! Hope to see you at NAMTA 2012 in Orlando! 
My New Space to Create!
After making the decision to leave my “day job” 3 years ago to lead a creative life, I worked at home amongst many distractions. My snoring husband, hollering bird, the lady across the street that (screams) sings Donna Summer’s greatest hits over & over…
I helped to write a book sitting at a computer in my kitchen (we eat in the living room) and then later graduated to working in the bird’s (tiny) room on a desk that belonged to my husband when he was in grade school. Continue Readering »
Etsy Find: Gecko Cover for Rhodia #12
From Anne’s Etsy listing: “A bright green gecko slithers down this great little notepad cover. It’s designed to fit a Bloc Rhodia Pad No. 12 and also has a pocket in the back for loose little papers. When the notepad included is full (or empty, depending on how you use it), simply slip it out and replace it with a new one — the durable cover will keep on going!”
Anne B. designs and makes pocket protectors, book covers, wallets, trays, and more using vinyl fabrics, especially oilcloth and sparkle vinyl. Sturdy construction, meticulously stitched appliques, and awesome extra details make her stuff unique, durable, and very vinylicious.
The Rhodia No. 12 is a long-standing favorite of Anne’s. She’s been toting one around for over four years now, but only recently thought about making a swanky cover for it. While she totally digs the look of the classic naked orange Rhodia Pad, she thinks having a unique reusable cover is even more fun.
Check out all of Anne’s cool vinyl products in her Etsy Shop: annebvinyl
Art Journaling on Tumblr
One of my favorite blogs is Art Journaling – a photo blog on Tumblr. I can scroll through the images forever & ever… so much inspiration, so much feeling of connectedness through all the different peoples art expressions. When I started to journal, I’d occasionally draw in my books but now I do it a lot more- to the point of dedicating whole journals to the cause. I especially have fun painting and coloring the backgrounds in which to return at a later date when the creative bug bites.
Have you ever tried art journaling? If no, take a look at some of the images on this site and let me know if they leave you feeling inspired….
Want to learn more about art journaling? Check out these sites:
Art Journaling as a Creative Process
Web Planner Review from Sandra Strait of Life Imitates Doodles
Sandra Strait, author of the popular Zentangle inspired blog Life Imitates Doodles recently reviewed our new Rhodia WebPlanner.
(The WebPlanner) “has Rhodia’s signature silky smooth paper, and the overall look aims at elegance rather than flash. You’d think elegance would be difficult when some of the print is orange. However, combined with gray print, it has a surprising sophistication.”
Sandra – we just love your tangle designs in our Rhodia products! Please visit her blog for the full review – maybe even stick around and peruse her amazing tangle designs which are all accompanied with step by step patterns on how to create them.
Inspirational Habana
I save old magazines and now and again, I cut them apart. Pictures go in one box, words in another. Then one day I pull them out and start gluing them into one of my journals. What I end up with, is often more than I imagined possible. Beautiful, inspirational… Messages to help ground me when I’m feeling down.
This project was inspired by my friend Kim who teaches a Found Poetry workshop. You can see another piece I created here.
Meet Sterling Witt
It’s kind of an odd story on how I came to meet Sterling Witt. I’d heard of him because he had been nominated for a local music award, but he isn’t local to the Lehigh Valley or even Pennsylvania. Apparently there is a rule that allows any artist that has performed more than six times in our area to be eligible for a nomination for the Lehigh Valley Music Awards though I’m not even sure how Sterling, a singer/songwriter/visual artist from a small town near Kansas City, MO even found his way to the Valley in the first place.
I must have first seen something about him on Facebook then clicked a link to see what he was all about. His music is playful & catchy, his voice deep and soothing, but his art, his ART!!! AHHHH! I loved it immediately! Continue Readering »
New Tools: Koh-i-noor Woodless Colored Pencils
Our friend Gail Young recently sent me an e-mail about these Koh-i-noor woodless pencils which I have yet to try. Her thoughts?
- Soft but not smudgy.
- Blend beautifully. Continue Readering »
Art Journal Inspiration from Daisy Yellow.
Daisy Yellow blog has long been an exciting source of art inspiration for me. Tammy’s art, and the infectious way she shares it via her various projects and creative prompts makes it easy to jump right in and start creating. In the following video, Tammy demonstrates and discusses creating a two-page art journal spread in an Exacompta journal.
Pastel Chaos in the Exacompta from Tammy on Vimeo.
This second video shows Tammy flipping through a half-filled Exacompta sketchbook, and I’m sure you will quickly see one of the main reasons I am drawn to Tammy & her work.
Flip-Thru Exacompta Journal from Tammy on Vimeo.
Not familiar with the Exacompta sketch book? You can read my review on my personal blog.
Consider me inspired.
I started out wanting to write a post about calligraphy but as what often happens when I go to search You Tube is that I get distracted by shiny things and one thing leads to another… I ended up at the following video watching a man create calligraphy with his feet. Continue Readering »
