Red Thread Circles

 Around this time last year, Linda Allen and I began talking about teaching an Apothecary class, a process pioneered by Jonathan and Shiloh for ' turning tragedies into remedies,' using life experiences as fodder for creative process. In addition to teaching Intentional Creativity, we are both licensed to teach our own classes based on Apothecary.   Linda thought of offering our class based on the idea of being 'healed enough' to observe those old traumas - not not needing to dig to deeply, rather, building on them as compost in which to plant our seeds of the future.  " After dealing with past traumas and designing remedies, after recognizing what your triggers are and finding your strengths, after digging deep and deeper to find your authentic self, now what? There are only so many times you can go over these things. When you find yourself healed enough to go out and enter the world, what do you need in your medicine basket? How do you navigate and continue to m...

 We had a great RT circle call today, where we worked with a fusion of the Color of Healing process I learned in a massage workshop in 1983, and apractice from a recent PRISMA practioner session with Dr Mary McChrystal I and added neurolines at the end! Several of the participants had recent surgeries, some had chronic pain or other Health issues, and one had a massage earlier in the day, which always leaves her sore! We Began with a body centered meditation and breath, noticing our bodies and areas of discomfort. Focus of the opening reading was Joy, and our RT inquiry was to share name and land acknowledgment, then something that brought joy/ they were grateful for. Then I introduced the practice: Color of Healing 🌟 with eyes closed, choose the first color ⭐ Draw simple 'gingerbread style body outline first, then areas in pain/ needing attention 🌟 With that first or another intuitive color, drew a reverb/ energy field around the body.   🌟 African energy Heale...

  Happy WIP Wednesday - what are you creating? Recently we've been having fun creating cards, or painting stones, or .... for brightening someone's day.  We began offering Virtual Circles as a pivot from the in person gatherings early in the summer of 2020, and an early circle was Thinking Cap .  Some of us had done the process during a Guild members call, and we chose it for our August virtual   Red Thread Circle  offering. Thinking Cap 2020 What image comes with the phrase "put on my thinking cap?" How do you access information and your intuition - do you have different access channels? Are there different caps for different purposes? What feels unique?  What similar to others? I love our circles - we've had women from nearby Oregon, to Florence, Italy, Ireland, England, NZ, and even India! It is always a treat to see how our muses interact and inspire each other.  For Thinking Cap, we began with a couple of readings from my co-host   Linda Alle...

  When someone joins our circle for the first time, it can be for many reasons - but generally there's a sense of wanting to meet with others ( especially in these times of limited personal interaction!) They may have felt the call to set aside time for creativity, may have lots of art supplies, or just pens and paper! Some are very experienced with arts and crafts - others are new explorers - All are welcome! Can we do a RT circle Grammie? The blurb on our MeetUp group reads, " We are a group of women who meet to access our own internal guidance system through Intentional Creativity®, a process which incorporates writing, visioning, sketching and painting to help us each develop a deeper sense of self awareness. Event hosts are graduates of Color of Woman, Motherboard or RT Guide programs, and o ccasionally we will have a guest host from another mindful creative practice. We each bring our personal medicine basket of practices and experiences; our gatherings and offerings r...

 I discovered Neurographica about this time last year, (read about that  here ) and have played with the form ever since. This fall, Aline Smolyansky posted an invitation to her 'Neurovember' challenge, a 'soft' invitation to post daily - or frequently - throughout the month. Neurovember Cover Page A couple of months ago, I broke my right wrist (!! Slipped on a patch of mud!) and after surgery with a GREAT doctor, and being fitted with a splint with Purple Velcro - was slowly able to write - and then draw again .... one of the first forms I 'tackled' was my trusty Neuro-Noodling!  Two months post surgery, I'm pretty much up to speed writing, playing harp, painting - Woot!  The general theme of NeuroVember is The Joy of Being - and the first week's prompts are: Joy Wisdom Happiness Vitality Knowledge Creativity Personal Theme Hands and Autumn Leaves Art challenges are a good way to get in a daily drawing (etc) habit, to get 'unstuck' if you'...

 When preparing to teach a class, I generally make notes in my journal of what I plan to include, and I have a set of prompt cards to help keep the flow. A fan of things 'tiny,' I  was intrigued when I happened on a call with the lovely  Denise Daffara  on working in little "zines" ... but had missed the instructions, lol!  So after the call, looked up how to make one, and was enchanted!  Calendar and Zines in process Who doesn't like tiny booklets? And with the central slit, these fold into a cover and several pages - perfect for a little collage session, or a planning booklet!  Double Calendar spread, paint and collage We made zines at our next  Red Thread Circle  - I used a double spread from this large biodynamic calendar to create a fun booklet. I liked some of the black and white illustrations of candles and beeswax, so worked around including them, and some of the text. The small blue Zine was made from another calendar.  Acr...

 One of my favorite Intentional Creativity®practices is creating cards!   Creating a set of Soulful Story Cards was the first Red Thread event I offered, and we often create several cards in a circle. I've written about several ways to use our cards, and there are so many ways to create them!  Materials:  Watercolor or mixed media paper, thin cardboard (I use watercolor and mixed media paper from pads)  Watercolours or acrylic paint, acrylic ink, shimmer watercolors, Neocolor 2 crayons, Inktense pencils, calligraphy or micon pens, brushes Scissors, edge trimmers Items for collage, gold paint, glue or medium Set your intention for your cards Paint your background - playful, happy colors! If using watercolor paper, spray and drip color into it for a wash. If recycling thin cardboard (chocolate sleeves or tea boxes)  use white paint or gesso to prepare your surface, then paint with acrylics. While your paint dries, write out the 'old stories' that hold yo...