Creativity Quotes and Updates

Fast Updates:

Mythology posts will resume in December. But first, one more creativity post!

We had a blast at Discovery world and at Quad con! I am looking forward to scheduling more events for after the New Year.

*Spoiler Alert* This post contains excerpts from “LOST“

I had the pleasure of meeting Rebecca Casavant at one of the the comic con events that I recently participated in. I thought her puppets were amazing, so I asked if she could create a puppet version of the friendly but dangerous monster that Kiami becomes attached to in “Lost“. I think she did a great job! If you want to see more of her work, you can check out her website by clicking this link: ruppits.com

 

 

 

 

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Also:

readersfavorite.com will have “Rise”  listed as an available prize in the monthly book giveaway. If you are interested in winning some amazing books by great authors you can check out the monthly giveaway here: https://readersfavorite.com book giveaway 

Upcoming Event Reminders:

2020

Concealed Realms will be at the Quad Cities Mighty Con in Rock Island, IL. This Comic Con takes place March 14th and 15th at the Quad Cities Expo Center, 2621 4th Ave, Rock Island, IL 61201

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 Quotes on creativity:

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; It’s who is going to stop me.”- Ayn Rand

“Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing.”- Georgia O’Keeffe

Who? “You are your only limit.”-

“Good art inspires; Good design motivates.”- Otl Aicher

“When I am completely myself, entirely alone during the night when I cannot sleep, it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly.”- Mozart

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”- Carl Sagan

“The richness I achieve comes from nature, the source of my inspiration.”- Claude Monet

“The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before.”- Neil Gaiman

“Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.”- Leo Tolstoy

“For me, insanity is super sanity. The normal is psychotic. Normal means lack of imagination, lack of creativity.”-Jean Dubuffet

 

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Definition of Creativity:

Dictionary.com

noun 

1: “The state or quality of being creative.”

2: “The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination.“-  www.dictionary.com

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Creativity and Crafting Things – Amanda’s Staff:

Amanda’s staff debuted at Sci-fi family fun day last October. I wanted to update my display for the museum show.

I use various relevant props on my table at events including  antiques, creatures, crystals, and often an updated book of artwork that was created for The Blood Inheritance Quartet.

This event was a little different from the comic cons that I participate in and I wanted something new. I decided to create Amanda’s staff … but how?

Creating the cage-like piece at the top of the staff in order to secure the stone properly, took the most consideration. I’ll spare you from the messy details, but there were a few suggestions which I tried that didn’t quite work out.

This staff from The Blood Inheritance Quartet, first makes its appearance in “Lost” when Amanda creates it to help control her amplified shadow magic.

(To avoid spoilers, I will try to keep the following explanation as generic as possible.) The weapon may not be exactly how you picture it from when it originated… early on in “Endow” you learn that its appearance has changed slightly since the altercation with URD that took place in the Arcane realm.

 

A very brief explanation of how I built Amanda’s staff:

I started with a 60 inch unfinished diamond willow hiking stick.

First I cupped the top of the staff with paper clay and let it dry for a few hours.

(I chose paper clay because it is easy to paint and does not require any primer.)

Then I glued on strips of foam for the “branches” that wrap around the gem at the top. I used wire to stiffen the shape before I added paper clay around the foam. After this step, I let it dry overnight.

The next morning I added some more detail to the clay by spritzing it with water and pressing a few lines in the direction of the branches with a blunt pencil. I also added some clay “veins”.

After the clay dried, I asked a friend of mine to paint the staff using several shades of acrylic paint. She did a really lovely job.

First she painted the whole staff with a lighter brown color and let it dry. Then she painted on a darker brown color and wiped off most of it to allow for the darker color to set in the creases of the wood grain and clay lines.

Next she added a few more dark brown lines and some bronze highlights using metallic bronze paint. After the paint was dry, she coated the staff with Mod Podge.

Thanks Adrianna!

Once I had the painted staff, I attached the black diamond gemstone with E6000 industrial adhesive.

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Since it was my first time using paper clay, I was a bit nervous when I started this project. But I love how it turned out with Adrianna’s painting help.

 

Learn more about cultivating creativity process:

https://www.futurelearn.com,https://www.liternauts.com,https://www.fastcompany.com

 

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Check out these sites:

book ’em jano

Raimey Gallant

Horror World & Reviews

Buried Under Books

Magical World Web

Yessy Reviews

Ruppits.com

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