Step 2: Pick a project and FOCUS

I have a notebook where I jot down my ideas and sketches when they strike me. I learned that technique from Leonardo Da Vinci. Or maybe it was from an article in Cosmo about dream interpretation. At any rate, I have about 80 craft projects I want to try out. Some of them are variations on old tried and true crafts. Some are more experimental (I wasn't kidding when I said I need caulk, bouncy balls, and a carpet remnant). I know that if I don't pick one and just start, I will lose my mind. But which one? To figure that out, I had to ask myself the following soul searching questions:

What is important to me?

Why do I create?

What do I enjoy?

What is that smell?

Who am I?

What color is my parachute? (ooh write down "parachute toy" in notebook)

I realized I am a techno industrial kawaii granny chic mod baroque minimalist craftician. So does that mean I do the papier mache project or the embroidery project? Or the one that will revolutionize jewelry making as we know it? I'll do the papier mache project. Why? Because I already have a box of papier mache mix in the cabinet. I won't even THINK about the embroidery project that is burning a whole in my heart I want to do it so badly. Nope. Don't have embroidery thread or tiny snaps anyway.

I am committing to the papier mache project. It's going to be a pull toy. A swan boat. A swan boat pull toy. There. I have never EVER said what I'm making before it's done. I've been thinking about trends, and I've decided that swans are the new birds. Hey, wait, they are birds. Anyway, my point is that rather than following trends, I am going to hereby set the new trends myself. Swans. And Greece. Greek keys. And yachts. Anything nautical, astrological, mythological, or related to Jackie O. Those are the new trends.

Ok, where was I? Oh yes, a while back I read this story about a female black swan who fell in love with a swan paddle boat. Isn't that inspirational? Talk about falling for the one you can't have. I think she read too many Candace Bushnell novels. But aren't swan paddle boats funny? Like a gaudy attempt by man to recreate something beautiful from nature, and it turns out sort of over the top grotesquely cute? And swans fit into my Greek trend. I've always loved the myth about Leda and the swan. Or maybe it was Semele and Zeus that I loved. Oh well. Whatever.

On to google images to find reference photos of swans. What did people do before google images when they needed to sketch something? Sit out in nature? With the bugs? Eeww!

And then I had to decide how to do the wheels. This hung me up forever. I always do wheels like this:

but decided that this time I wanted the wheels to be tucked up under the swan, if that makes any sense. I had to re-engineer everything. Made a wood armature based on my sketch. So here it is so far. Please don't laugh. It's going to get better. Hopefully. If I can stay focused. Papier mache now. Embroidery later. Don't have embroidery thread or little snaps anyway. Focus focus focus.