Red Thread Circles

  I love painting on wood!  When I was in my Color of Woman teacher training in 2015, we painted 5 large pieces, two on wood panels! I found our "Art Doc's"   tutorial on buying and mounting a hardwood panel super helpful. (But dang - those pieces are heavy!)  Intentional Creativity is a process of self reflection and discovery,  preparing the container is a wonderful way to begin! During Color of Woman, I painted both Taliswoman, " Songs of Light ," and Alchemist, "Firekeeper," on wood panels which my son-in love helped me prepare. I bought the plywood panels and 1x1" supports at Lowe's, then took them to Matt, who has the tools, workspace, and is handy. (And loves my art!) Hummingbird - Songs of Light He suggested using a little sanding block with fine sandpaper - and I watched a  tutorial  which recommended applying a couple of coats of GAC-100 (polymer, the binder for acrylic paint) before the gesso.  The suggested drying time for the poly...

 For this week's Red Thread Circle, we were inspired by a quote our SiStar Sepha recently posted on social media -  🌟 Glimmers  🌟  Ooo, yes! With Intentional Creativity, we discover we notice Glimmers more and more frequently!  " 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? ...." Seeking micro- moments of happiness - seeking Glimmers is a perfect antidote! So we gathered supplies (paper, journals, colors and our/ clippings) and sparkles (Shimmer watercolor, glitter) and brought some of our Glimmers to the page!  Journal page I picked a couple of flowers from my hardy  fuschias - Harlequin and White Knight's Pearl - and apricots I picked on the weekend. Along with a journal, I pulled out Neocolor II crayons, Inktense pencils, brushes and Pearl Tec Shimmer watercolors.  Playful Glimmers of Hope and Jo...

 I'm looking forward to the February Festival -  Resetting the space of your Living Altar,  which Katy  from our  Intentional Creativity  community hosts! I'm also a bit nervous, as I've been invited on board to help facilitate the group this year! You can join the group here Red Thread A decade ago, our IC teacher  Shiloh  issued this invitation:   " I would love for you to finish your painting if you haven’t, and then to clean your studio. Reset your altars. Make new room for the sprouts to come up through the ashes. You need space and time to see what’s coming up and what wants to be shared and prepared for...." Whatever your space and projects, giving time and attention to a reset often inspires us, and gives access to new ideas and insights.  The Resetting group description reads,  "think of this, what if your whole home was a sacred space? Throughout February, (we) will lead a month of consciously clearing spaces in your ...

 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...