Wednesday 27 May 2015

Inspiration round up: Five inspiring creative podcasts


 
 
So I know I am way behind with my project with week three of my 52 of millinery project. I have found myself a bit stuck of ideas  after the first two weeks but am determined to get two pieces  created and posted by the end of the week so I don't fall to far behind. In the mean time I thought I would chare a new inspiration post with you.

Now I know it's been a couple of months since I did an inspiration round up but this weeks round up is focussing on just one inspiring thing rather than a varied few. This weeks round up is focusing on some of the inspiring podcasts I've been listening too lately.  



Before Christmas I started listening to the Unmistakable Creative podcast that I mentioned here . Since I enjoyed it so much I have been having a  hunt to find other podcasts that I can listen too while I work and provide me with insights and inspiration that I can draw from. It's a great way to soak up information and be engrossed in something interesting whilst doing other tasks especially when I'm at home with only the cats for company!

 Here are five others that I have enjoyed listening too over the last few months:


1, Grown-Up-Gigs podcast by Michele Ward

This podcast started life as a feature on Michelle's Blog over on whenIgrowupcoach.com, then it was a spreecast web chat  and in this last incantation it is a bi-weekly podcast where she interviews people who have had really inspirational passionate careers. What I really love about this podcast is that it shows how varied that journey can be and how  people can start their passionate career at any time in their life. I always find Michelle's work super inspiring and I love listening to her interact with her guests.

Fave episode so far: Michelle's interview with collaborator Tiffany Han



2. Raise Your Hand, Say Yes by Tiffany Han

I came across this podcast when Tiffany interviewed Michelle Ward ( can you see a trend arising here? ) for one of her shows. Tiffany's podcasts are a mixture of interview's with creative people and episodes of her sharing her own personal insights into pursuing creative projects. I love the way a central theme I have drawn from Tiffany's episodes are how the best way to get going on a project and find out if it will work is just to start it. ( sounds way simpler than it really feels!) Tiffany has a really relaxed feel to her podcasts and it always makes me feel like I'm just sharing a conversation with really inspiring people.

Fave Episode so far: Tiffany's interview with Jen Hewett

3. Creative & Thrive by Jess Van Den

Jess's podcast is relatively new but run along side her great blog sharing an insight, advise and knowledge of how to set up and run a successful craft business. Jess's own story is really interesting and she has a wealth of knowledge of how to set up a small creative business and in particular running a shop on Etsy.
 
Fave episode so far: Episode 6: Jess's Q&A
 
 
 
 
 
4. The Lively Show by Jess Lively

  I've only been listening to Jess's show for the last few weeks and it quickly became one of my firm favourites. I love the variety of people she interviews and the range of advice given from how to build a passive income for your business to  career tips from a NASA Aerospace engineer. Jess comes across as so positive, bright and open that all the episodes I have come across have been a joy to listen to.
                                                        
         Fave episode so far : Jess's interview with Mimi Ikonn
 
 
5.  Can I Park Here? by Nache & Astral
 
 
 Can I park Here? is my most recent find in the podcast world. Set up by Nache and Astral of Find a Fashion truck their  weekly podcasts are an insight into starting a business have great topics like "Everything can be found by googling it" or the slightly more sombre " Battling Anxiety and depression whilst trying to build a business. I think there fresh, chatty and honest approach will certainly land this one as one of my firm favourites. Also  they have introduced me to the fantastic idea of a  Fashion Truck ( a mobile boutique fun from a converted vehicle) I have images of a Millinery filed VW camper van already
 
Fave episode so far: Episode 7 -The ladies chat to Jason  Caston about success and growing your business
 
Right well that's my top five podcasts at the mo- I'm sure there are a ton that I have yet to come across so I'll keep you updated on any others I find
 
Before I dash off here are a couple of non creative podcasts I love too
 
health and well being - The Jillian Michaels show- I find Jillian's podcast  really funny but also very informative
 
Running -  Jog Tunes - this is a great podcast that matches the length of time  and speed that you want to run with a variety of songs to help you get through your run- I've just started training for a half marathon and I know this will be super helpful
 
Meditation -The meditation podcast- this is a series of different podcasts to help you build a meditation practice. I  often go through phases of wanting to meditate and these podcasts are really good to assist this as otherwise I just end up going to sleep !!
 

Wednesday 13 May 2015

52 weeks of millinery - Week 2

 
 
So on to my second week of my 52 week millinery project and this week I have created this blue felted button fascinator.
 
A couple of months ago I had a serious liberty fabric craving and  treated my self to  a few small pieces off ebay. The piece that I have used on this fascinator is called Strawberry Thief and was originally a print created in 1883 by William Morris.
 
 
I adore bird motifs and knew that I would be able to create something lovely from this fabric.
 
The hat block I used to create this piece is pretty much my favourite hat block at the moment , it's so simple yet versatile and it creates a style of hat which is really wearable.
 
 
 
Well I couldn't let Margo the Poupee have all the fun of modelling the hat so here is a picture of me modelling the end result too.
 
 
Sorry for the terrible selfie, I usually try to avoid taking them all costs but couldn't help myself on this occasion. I really think the best part about making a hat is when you get to try the end result on!
 
Overall I'm pleased with this piece, there are definitely design elements I would do differently and I would like to use a better background colour or texture on the felt. Well I've got 50 more weeks to experiment on so I'm sure designs will develop as time goes on. xx
 
 

Tuesday 5 May 2015

52 weeks of millinery - A new project!


Hello my lovelies, Hope you all had a super bank holiday weekend.

I'm excited to announce last week I started a brand new personal project. To create a new hat or head piece ever week  for the next 52 weeks ( yep a whole year ) and share pictures of it each week here on the blog.

Now the idea came to me when I listened to an episode of Tiffany Hann's podcast - Raise Your Hand. Say Yes with Jen Hewett and they talked about Jen's project 52 weeks of printmaking. It really captured my imagination and gave me a solution to tackle one of my aims at the moment - how to consistently create more hats or headpieces and stretch my skills millinery.
I kept thinking about this project a for a few weeks, trying to decide if I could really achieve creating and posting a completely new hat or head piece each week on top of  my costume work commitments and my day job, but the idea just wouldn't budge. So on my birthday on 22nd April I decided that my birthday present to myself would be to commit to starting this project the very next week.

So here we are at week one and I have gone back to an idea that has been buzzing around my head for months






I posted about my love for pompom trimmed millinery here and since then I have been meaning to  create my very own creation pompom fascinator and so last week I made the time to get down and do it.








It was really inexpensive to make, I used sinamay I had left over from some millinery projects I worked on before Christmas and the wool I had picked up months ago just because I liked the colours.
Over all I'm pleased with my start, I wasn't a particularly ambitions project but it was fun and it feels good to have realised an idea that I had been thinking of for such a long time.

Anyway it's now time to get cracking on this weeks millinery project, as well as planning out some other posts that will be coming up soon,  oh, and I'm starting working on one of the productions for our local theatre festival this week too, so it's going to be a busy one! Hope you all have a great week xxx