Question for y'all

[Alicia Edwards]

Okay, here's a question for y'all. How do you deal with that idea that you had and you just couldn't pull off? Maybe you ended up doing a "lesser" version? One of my 4 X 4 song lyrics pages, actually it was the first one I made because I'd been plotting and scheming on how to make it - came out this way.

(I am a child of the 80s, so you've been warned.) If you aren't familiar with the song by INXS called Mediate, you can see the video on You Tube. This is the clearest version I found, and it's after another song. So move the slide bar to 3:08 to go straight to it. So this is what I wanted to do. Take a screen shot from the video and attach a pouch where the cards are being held in one of the guys' hands. The plan was to do that with a transparency so one could see the words behind it, but each word would have a tab on top so it could be pulled out and changed. Some of you also might recognize this as a Bob Dylan thing, but he's not my cup-o-tea. I finally came to the conclusion that this piece was too small to do this. So I ended up with the cards attached in random spots on the page as if they had already been thrown. I like the way it turned out, but it's kind of floating around with me still.

So what do you do? Do you let it go? Do you recreate it on a larger scale to accomplish the original vision? What's your thought process like when this happens?

Here's a pic of the finished page:

[Christy]

I think this happens a lot. For me I either have an immediate idea or I don't. When I do have one and it doesn't work it does drive me a little nuts. But I try to set it into the 'subconscious' and usually it does show up later (and the way I wanted it) in other projects. Lately though if I don't have an idea immediately then I play. Just pulling out stuff, and laying things out and such and interestingly enough those are the items I enjoy looking at the most and they are the easiest to create.

[Alicia Edwards]

Maybe they will be dry by then Sharon! :)

[Sharon Bruner]

Hey, Alicia, I just had one of those ideas that did not come to fruition..............I REALLY tried to use Judy Scott's Rust Technique to make a "water" page.........once I got the inks on it just would not dry....had to do another technique for the 5X5 monthly pages.........oh well, it'll be 100 degrees around here in about a month..........maybe I'll just lay them out in the sun and come up with another project for them..................LOL

[Alicia Edwards]

You know, I actually did give it a shot on this one before I moved on. It was impossibly small and I wasn't sure how I'd do the hand at the bottom of the cards. So there were other issues besides size. I think after having articulated my thought process dilemma (let it go, make it bigger, etc.) I feel better about leaving it be. I think you are right, Marilyn. Something similar will probably pop up in the future.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

[Marilyn Weyman Kegg]

Hmmm... just saw the photo after I commented. You could have made it the way you wanted but impossibly small. To get the legibility, you compromised. I like what you ended up with. Yes, you could do that idea larger if you really feel that you want to make that piece work as you conceived it originally. What you need to decide, I think, is whether it is that important to you.

I can't look at these trades as major works of art because they are not. If I did, I'd never be able to send them off! How would I feel if I poured my soul into these and got back kiddie scribble on a Post It? (And yes, I have received something on that order in the past from this group.)

If this idea continues to be important to you, then you are clearly not finished with it and need to create it on a scale that makes it work. If you go on and forget about it, don't worry. It might pop up in another creation later!

[Marilyn Weyman Kegg]

I don't usually see it as a failure, per se. It's just how that project evolved. Some of that happened with my songbook pages too. I wanted to do a handcarved stamp and a hand-cut stencil as part of that project. I didn't like how the stamp turned out and couldn't find the linoleum block I would have possibly found more to my liking for the Beatles' logo on the sun shape.

I wanted to cut a stencil for the song title on the front of the pocket, but the final design didn't have enough balance between positive and negative space to make that viable.

In the end, I stencilled the logo and used a transparency for the song title, which I had considered using over the stamped logo in the original idea.

Projects evolve. I think that if you go with the flow, eventually you will get to use up all of your ideas in a way that works and that you like. I've had some of the same problems with the artists pages for the monthly swaps. I'm working through them all.

[Lyn Richardson]

I think your page came out GREAT for that song, Alicia. It's one of my fave songs, too - LOVE INXS.
BUT ... if something doesn't gel right away to the way I think it should, I keep adding and subtracting - it was the same with my pages for that book. I originally had another song in mind, then along came the Boss and his Girls In Their Summer Clothes video and I knew THAT was the song. It took me about 6 drafts before I came up with the finished product, which is exactly as I wanted it to be.

[Sharon Bruner]

I do the same thing, Alicia. Sometimes I never get back to it...............sometimes I use part of the idea in another project or make a larger project out of the whole thing. Maybe you should do a wall hanging for your studio.

[Stacie Williams]

First- that's my fave INXS album, on my music player & I listen to it regularly ;-) Second- I really like that page. Third- when that happens to me I just put it aside for a while. Sometimes months, until I figure out how to do just what I want to do. Always better with fresh eyes. Seems like you already feel like you need it to be bigger. I figure....don't scrap the idea, it'll work somehow. And one day I hope I'll figure it out......meanwhile it site on a table or in a box.