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Who or what inspired your creative talents ?


Stacey6163

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It is obvious we are a creative bunch , in many areas not just minis, so where did your talents/interest come from ? :artist:

I grew up on a farm, lots of chores and hard work, and learned quickly to never say I was bored , as that would result in being sent to pull weeds , clean the barn , or other unpleasantries . My Mom was always sewing, baking ,doing embroidery, and her favorite leather working ( she would make purses ,wallets and belts that the local bar would sell) , and taught my sisters and I . Once in awhile we could do one of these instead of going to the barn . :D Later on in life my mother in law taught me one of my favorite crafts , crochet , though all have taken a back seat since delving into the world of minis. :bangin: I would be lost without my crafts. :D

So who sparked your creativity ?

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My mother's mother's family were needlewomen as far back as anyone can remember, and my maternal grandfather (an amateur furniture maker of great talent) had two sisters who were artists. I can't ever remember a time I didn't have crayons, scissors or fabric in hand. When I was six or seven, mother taught me to crochet and grandma taught me embroidery and needlepoint; and my friends and I used to get together to sew clothes for our dolls. My father, I learned later, was a woodworker; so I guess it has always been in my blood to create.

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My paternal grandfather was a furniture maker. My maternal grandfather was a general contractor. My dad had a woodworking workshop in our basement. If we wanted to spend time with Dad, we built things. He had us using the full size lathe by the time we were six. (I shudder to think about it now, but we all managed to escape unscathed.) My mother and aunts on both sides did all sorts of needlework and taught us.The high school I attended had a strong art program, back in the day when art was a part of the curriculum. In college I majored in art education but really loved the sculpture, printmaking. jewelry making and other craft classes.

It gladdens my heart to hear about the young people related to forum members who are being encouraged to enjoy minis and/or any kind of artistic expression. If it doesn't happen at home, it may not happen at all these days.

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Great question, Stacey. We all enjoy our love of mini's and connected talents so much. Did we become this way in spite of it all or because of someone special? I can definitely answer this one.

By the time I was 5, I realized my home was more attractive than everyone elses. My Mom is the PERFECT homemaker. Alas, when it comes to crafting, I also realized by the time I was 5, if it needs mending, HIDE IT from Mom! She sewed pockets and zippers shut, you name it. I gave her a set of beautifully tole painted geese. She repainted them in left over house paint to match the house. Yea, they looked nice, but still.... Thank God for Grandma! Also at 5, it was at Grandma's I was taught to sew on the real sewing machine. Oh joy, oh bliss! And I learned to paint rocks. And make whatever I wanted. My Grandpa's print shop was next to the house. In the 60's, I had at my fingertips, what is now considered a nice scrapbook store. If it could be made out of paper, I made it. And my Grandpa gave away cases for business cards. Evidently it was me who convinced him to sell the cases and give my sister and I the money. I remember buying a mop and broom for my dollhouse with some of this money and using it to mop my Grandparents porch.

Learning to be creative happened at Grandma and Grandpa's.

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Good question because no one else in my family that I know of makes anything. I know that my musical abilities came from my parents but its a mystery as to where I got the rest of it. My mother use to admonish me to stop making a mess because I was always cutting, gluing, coloring, constructing something all the time! This is an interesting question!

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I was born with the ability to draw, which when I was young led to watercolour painting, and is now channeled into landscape photography. Runs in the family, as I have 2 great uncles who made their living as commercial artists. I still draw, but most of my paintings windup in the circulair filing case!

My grandmother put a needle in my hand (not literally!) at age 7. She and my mother taught me how to embroider and sew, I taught myself to follow a counted chart. In grad school, we were graded on how we dressed. I was poor, my classmates were not. I would go to Joanne's Fabrics and buy craft cotten and make my clothes. had waist length hair back then, so I would make scrunchies to match.

I got good enough that I made grad/prom dresses for my niece and a dear student.

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Wow Barbara that is inspiring! My sister can sew and quilt like crazy. I can crochet, paint, mini and anything else but no clue as to where I got the ideas. I like to try everything even though I am not very good at some of them ! :p

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Well, my mom also quilts and made my sisters wedding dress (she had to put together three different patterns to get what KK wanted). Mom and I made all three of my bridesmaid dresses...and the supersitition came true for me! Mom was also a trained singer and played piano close to a standard where she could have taught. I sorta played piano, and am a trained singer, however I still cannot sight read my way out of a paper bag!

My cousin owns a quilt/fabric/sewing machine store on Vancouver Island, which was voted by a quilting magazine to be the best in the Pacific Northwest!

Being the only leftie in the family, any and all attempts to teach me to knit or crochet...left me crochety!

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I used to draw and make up stories ever since I was a tot. My father could draw very realistic horses and that was it. He grew up on a farm in a small village and his world was populated with horses so he learned how to draw them. My mother couldn't draw or paint, but she had a wonderful critical eye. Whenever I knew my painting was off somehow, and I couldn't figure out what was wrong, I could give it to her and she'd see the problem right away. Then I could go fix it.

Mama preferred gardening, though she did do crochet now and then if she got into the mood. Her father wrote plays, he was a propagandist when that wasn't a dirty word, working to promote his ancestors' cultural heritage which was in danger of dying out. Mama said she only knew him to draw one picture in his life. He had a serious illness which kept him in bed for several weeks. He drew a picture of a forest as it would be seen through the eyes of a frog. My mother said it was a very well done drawing, even taking adding into the perspective that a frog's eyes are on either side of it's head.

Mama's mother and her sisters used to get together and do decorative white on black silk needlework. She also liked to make fancy company dishes like fish aspics decorated with wafer thin lemon slices to simulate fish scales.

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I come from a long line of artists, architects, and creativity. Being an only child I usually had to entertain myself and I don't ever remember being bored. I used to make up, and build, various board games and then go get my friends to play them with me. I started sewing for my dolls at a very early age, with the help and encouragement of one of my aunts. I also designed new clothes for my favorite doll. At one point I took apart a toy car (belonging to the neighbor boy) and made roller skates for my doll. She could stand by herself, so I balanced her just right on a sloping driveway and she "skated" to the bottom. :) Sewing was my passion throughout early adulthood, then I got started on miniatures - and haven't looked back.

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A lot of my ancestors were very creative people, so if it's genetic then that's where it comes from. I've written stories since I was about five years old, painted, sewed, and crafted since 7 or 8. My dad can fix or make anything, and when I wanted something he'd say " draw it up for me so I can see what you want."

But I never learned to cook. I wanted an Easy Bake Oven when I was 7 sooooo very much, and my mom got me a child sized singer sewing machine instead (I've still got it :) ). So after much disappointment, I played with it and started designing clothing for my troll dolls (aging myself here). One craft led to another. My fascination with miniatures has been for as long as I can remember.

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Not sure where the creative drive came from although my mom took up oil painting in her 70's. Otherwise neither parents did any sort of crafts when I was growing up.

But I always was interested in dollhouses and miniatures and for 20 years or so had promised myself that "one day I will build a dollhouse." Then my youngest sister died unexpectedly at age 54 and it hit me hard that the future is not promised to anyone. Within a month I had bought a dollhouse kit and started it. And never have looked back.

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I was always musically talented and I did attend a school for the arts. The only thing I can remember is spending a lot of time as a kid making little houses and furniture for my dolls from boxes and whatever else I could find. I remember cutting up the Sears catalog for wallpaper and making paperdolls for my houses.

Somewhere in my family tree there must have been a creative gene right? :bear:

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Getting dropped on my head too many times when I was a kid. . .

Actually, I don't really know. Some of my earliest memories were of myself drawing pictures, but my parents claim I was always drawing on something since I was at least 3. By age 7 my dad had introduced me to musical instruments and model kits. I guess he was artistic too. His "canvas" was our yard. It had flower beds like the ones you see at Disney (where he worked at the nurseries). I like making things, and houses are like works of art that affect our daily lives in RL, so it was inevitable that I was going to build one or two.

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Being expected to amuse myself with the materials at hand riggered playing with scraps, empty containers, pieces of wood and bent nails. One grandma crocheted, one knitted, Mom sewed (as did the 2 gramdmas) one grandpa was a millwright; one a cabniet maker. My dad was a sports caster and writer who built those balsa wood WWI plane models sometimes. Just lucky they all let me make messes with crayons, potholder looms, clay, glue, wax for candle-making.

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