Joy: Sorting Buttons

Doodle over the past couple days between customers at work....

I get a deep sense of gratification (which definitely provides joy) when I reorganize and sort bits of my studio stash.  I did a significant amount of cleaning and moving around shelves and the warp winder in my studio a few weeks back and managed to find more jars and tins of buttons than I realized I have. 

A stack of tins on the ground (I believe these were my Grandma Helen's, possibly also Grandma Marge's), jars from working retail (ending up with buttons in my pockets when I got home), boxes and things from who the heck knows. 

Since cleaning, these disorganized buttons have been on my mind as something I can get into "when I have time."  Not that I have excess time, but I hit a point in my weaving where I need to dye some more weft so I wound some skeins and started the soaking process.  I still needed to be in the studio so the button sorting took over the sewing table.

Dye Bucket

Collecting things is a bit of a problem for me, I don't need or want more stuff, but....there's always that but... what if it's perfect for a future project or to match another button on something I'm mending? Really it's no matter, I enjoy the sorting process. Touching each button reminds me sometimes of where I was when I got that button (either in life or travels) or, more importantly, what I do have in my stash. I get to oooh and aaah over things I already have and had forgotten about. It's like when I swap or organize anything in the house "I forgot I had one of those" or "That would be really pretty for project [fill in the blank]" and, my favorite, "That's where that went!"

These old tins. They make me wonder how many decades old they are. The above particularly old rusted tin has dirt on and in it from the ages.  I'm finding some cool old logo buttons ("Lee" "Finck Detroit" "Van Wert Excelcior"), a Chicago Police one that's dented, crumbling ones that I have to pitch, a tiny doll leg, metal pieces, snaps, bullet casings. This sort of box is a treasure trove for my practice of mindfulness and consideration of each piece picked through. Save or keep? Sort elsewhere? How old is this? I wonder what that went to?

I've enjoyed the week of thinking about this blog post and it seeping into my doodling. I always want to draw more, but I'm never sure what to draw.  Posting about the joy of day to day things seems to be giving me drawing direction too. Weekly art practices have really lifted me up so far this year, I highly suggest it.

Ballet Turtle Drawing

(Final image for card)

My niece's first ballet recital was last weekend and I really felt that the ballet cards I did find were lacking...  So I decided to make one myself.  My turtle, Crush, was the inspiration.  He gets up on his rock under the sun or the light and stretches out into what look like ballet moves to me. 

He was sitting up on his rock last week and I snapped a photo then just sketched the below drawing from the photo.  My drawing background from college is a lot of scientific illustration classes so I tend to draw realistic. I decided he needed ballet shoes to finish it off.

I often miss drawing, my hands are usually busy making something instead of using a pen or pencil.  This was a nice opportunity to to just unplug into a little bit of drawing while I grab on to my very random inspiration. 

Between the sketch and the colored-in Photoshop version I'm not sure which I like better.  I tried to put pink or purple in the background on the final version but blue just seemed to fit the best, maybe becasue it feels a bit like water. I post about the cats most of the time, but Crush's tank is in my office and we hang out in the mornings while I have my coffee and journal or get my computer-work done. It's hot out today so I'll probably take him outside to play in the yard while it's nice so he can get some full sun.