Friday, July 13, 2012

Piddling....


Pid-dle [pid-l], verb (used without object), to spend time in a wasteful, trifling, or ineffective way; dawdle (often followed by around):  He wasted the day piddling around.  verb, pidd-dled, pid-dling. 

 


Today I piddled.  I am not ashamed of it.  Basically that is because I don't think piddling is ineffective in the end.  It is just a part of the creative process, at least for me.  If I piddle, seemingly wasting away minutes and hours experimenting with materials or arrangements of treasured scraps, it will pay off at some future time. I don't mean with this little experiment I am about to show you! You will have to wait and see what else is to come! But for now..........

Left Over Experiments from 8th Graders
 I started out with the scraps above.  Then I added some rubber stamping.

Altered Scraps, Stage 1

Next I rooted around in my many bins of "stuff."  I came up with some bird themed postage stamps from my father's cast off stamp collection- a gold mine!

Bird Postage Stamps


I really liked the varied textures the bird images had to offer more than the birds themselves.

More
So I ended up altering the bird stamps.  Sorry, Dad.  I couldn't resist!  But I was pretty unhappy with where I was going.

Needing Improvement

I dawdled long and hard.  

Back to Basics


Searching...I realized what I liked from the start was ALL the colors as a group in the collection from the 8th graders. 

Done Dawdling

This is what I ended up with.  It was a good way to spend a rainy day. 

"So you see, imagination needs moodling-long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling, and puttering." - Brenda Ueland


8 comments:

  1. Welcome to blog land.
    I like your piddling. The colors are beautiful. I just found some stamps in a resale shop today; can't wait to use them.

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    1. Thank you for the welcome! And thank you for the "like," too! I love postage stamps! They are mini works of art and such interesting statements about their countries. What will you do with yours? I hope you will share your project with everyone!

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  2. The end product was the desired destination, from the scraps of inspiration in colour. I think there is nothing quite so relaxing and productive as "piddling". It's one of my favourite words because I find it holds so much potential and possibility. Sometimes we know where our piddling will take us...other times it is just a joy of discovery as we move along.

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  3. Sherry, you said that so eloquently! Thank you for your insight. So well put! I like piddle better than dawdle. Piddle sounds more positive to me. I suppose one can dawdle productively just the same, but I say piddle power is the way to go!

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  4. Piddle Power ... I like how it rolls off the tongue! :D :D :D

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  5. Snap, it can become a new "ism!" :-)

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  6. Hello Marilyn, I am visiting from your friend Snap's blog. Welcome to blogging! You sound like the art teacher I wish I had as a young person. I enjoyed reading your posts!

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  7. Hi Pat! Thanks for visiting! Sounds to me like I would enjoy having YOU for a student! :-) Maybe someday that could happen in the motherland! Ah! Dreams to work towards!

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