The College of Collage

Reference clipping collage for the cottage interior. The bedroom feeling is on the right, hearths in the middle, interior beams ceilings and wood plank floors on left bottom, and texture and lighting detail mixed in.

Today was FANTASTIC! This, this is how I should lead my life as much as possible. I went straight to work on my paid graphic job's surprise revisions first thing this morning. It took me a few hours to complete and I was ready to work on my stuff by late afternoon. Prior to the 1/2 L. Intensive I would have put off my graphics work for days or weeks and/or taken all day and all night to accomplish less.

But the real schoolin' I got today, the thing that proved the most difficult, was how much determination it took me to REPEATEDLY and to OFTEN say "no" to all the 1,000 little "just do" side projects in the workshop. I began with a powerful need to straighten up the confused dusty shop rather than dive into Halfland in the midst of such neglected clutter. I bagged and listed all the little craft project ideas that would have been fast and fun in my mind to have done. That was the thing, I think I may have experienced MY FIRST DAY OF SELF DISCIPLINE!!? I kept consciously choosing to make Halfland my priority all day. I was amazed at how many times the road divided!! For those of you who have always possessed self-discipline, you will think me foolish for just getting a taste of it now. I've had to prioritize in order to get projects done before, just not with such sustained deliberateness. This was very educational to observe.

I had the paste out, doing a quickie scrapbook page that I couldn't set aside with good humor. Not one to waste a loaded brush of glue, I started collaging the cottage interior clippings. After I saw them, I realized it was absolutely the right next step to do as so much of building the cottage involved the beams and window alcoves. I continued to collage other envelopes that seemed likewise key to the cottage, including doors and windows, the porch, wood pile, window boxes, and lanterns, seen just below.


Jeffery inspired me to get started on the Birds in Hats supporting characters. This is their little collage.


This one shows the types of various wool roving, looms, and weaving structures that Rana character will use on her cottage porch.


I'm going to bed now so I can get up and jump on the cottage and start in in earnest to construct the sucker. I'll go as far as I can with finishing the layout of it, especially since the wood has shown up.

I pulled out the Tarn (crow woman) materials today and plan to condition some ancient modeling clay and get to begin sculpting in her in the afternoon.

Sunday I may want to scoot out with a friend to a home center to collect some blue or pink polystyrene to carve the cottage walls and a bag o' plaster with which to slather them, the walls--not the friend.

We'll see how far I get when the WHOLE day is truly cleared for this work.