I was looking forward to this weeks SIMON SAYS STAMP AND SHOW challenge but I have to say I was disappointed to see the theme was to produce a piece in the style of Wendy Vecchi.Of course they are free to have whatever theme they like but I don't understand why I would want to make something to look like someone else made it, I have enough trouble making something that looks like me and I am happy with never mind trying to look like someone else!
I spend ages worrying what people will think about my stuff instead of just making what I like and satisfying ME, I think it comes from years of magazine work where I had to work to a theme and was told quite often to tone down my "me-ness". Since I am no longer working like that I have found it so hard just to please ME!
I know that Ms Vecchi and Mr Holtz are very popular and they done a lot for us crafters......I mean Tims Distress ink pads are the yummiest pads ever and I am distraught that mine are in Almaty.......but I can't be the only one that wishes things would move on a little and something else new would appear.......if I see another grunge rose it will be too soon........OK don't shoot me...... I don't want or mean to offend anyone, it's just my opinion expressed on my blog!!
Having spouted on for way too long I will move onto what I made! Having been disappointed by the theme I decided to get out my Wendy Vecchi stamps.....yes, see I do own some......and do MY thing with them rather than hers! This is the result.
As you can see from the pages, I LOVE MY GARDEN, in fact I think I miss my garden when I am away more than some people.......only kidding! This page was inspired by one plant, a cone flower that is looking pretty good in the garden at the moment...........here it is.......this plant is why I bought the flower stamp used here!
47 comments:
I love your MEness!
These pages are lovely your garden looks pretty good too... so glad I never made a grungy flower/rose tee hee
You creation is gorgeous and definitely exhibits your beautiful "MEness!"
Also, I don't think I'd heard of Wendy Vecchi until I read this post.
So I just went to look at some of her work, and you might be happy to know my reaction to her stuff: It's nice, much better than I create, but not as unique and inspiring as your art.
Not. Even. Close.
I totally get what you are saying.
your pages are great. love how you used the scallops
Great page Sue, right up my street with it being garden related and love how you have used the flower. I am with you I really like to see something unique and work created by the said individual not in someone else's style. Everyone has their own style, which they should be proud of, it's what makes them a unique individual. If we were all the same it would be a boring world, very dull. That's what I love about crafts, it is a form of self expression. I am inspired by many crafters but always like to take my own take on an idea never someone elses. You stick to your MEness, it's what makes you Sue Roddis. Tracy xx
I think your journal pages are great. I love Wendy Vecchi's style and use her stamps lots, but I agree with the others, we are all individuals and should be proud of it. Having said that, I can't wait to do this weeks SSSS challenge!!
Sue ... I love your Me-ness ... please link it up ... maybe my wording was too restrictive ... your Sue Roddis art is fab as usual and as for your straightforward talking ... I like that too! I won't Thank you for joining in just in case you decide not to ... but rest assured I would be totally delighted if you did and I am sooooo sorry I kind of spoilt your day.
I think you have every right to feel the way you do and express it here on your blog...nothing wrong with that :) Love your interpretation..very you xx
Gorgeous pages Sue. You're very lucky that you have such a strong style of your own and know where your work comes from. I do empathise with your comments though.
I must agree with you Sue. I've stopped visiting some blogs as all they talk about is WV or TH and it drives me nuts!
Anyway, I love your pages. So definitely 'you'
I totally hear what your saying, I thought the same thing too when I saw the challenge...glad Im not the only one who feels that way too.
Love your work/style and this garden themed entry it no exception
Hi Sue, I do agree with you to some extent that the leading figures in any industry set trends that tend to get a bit cliched. Even art journaling & altered collage which you would think would be the ultimate in "personal me-ness" seem to have a "norm" - if I see another "vintage" child with a hat or wings stuck on,it will be a lifetime too soon !!
On the otherhand, I do think that not everyone launches into a craft with a "personal style" fully formed. I expect if you compare your early work to the lovely projects you create now you would see a bit of a difference ?
When I started my crafting with inks & paints I felt quite intimidated & I was happy to copy the techniques, colourways & projects from people much more artistic than myself.
Now I feel, with practice, I am gradually gaining the skills & confidence to branch out & try things, play with my stash, explore my own ideas - find my style even !
But I still have masses to learn & enjoy trying things that people can teach me. It's why I love your blog !!
Maybe the challenge would have better expressed as "inspired by" as opposed to "in the style of" ??
Anyway - just my penny's worth ! Love your projects & alway enjoy seeing what you have been creating ! Ali x
I haven't read the other comments yet, so i'm just going to get stuck in there. I'm glad that you spoke your mind.
Although I like the Ranger products very much, and think that Tim Holtz has designed some wonderful and unique stuff, I'm getting a bit fed up with seeing reproductions of his work. I'm sorry if this offends anyone. He gives great ideas to get you started on your OWN flight. I, for one, am always short for techniques.I love to watch him create but I also want to add a lot of me into my work.
I'm not very familiar with Wendy Vecchi, but I'm sure that she,too, gives much inspiration to a lot of artists.
I feel very uncomfortable copying anybody and if I have, it was unintentional.
We shall be ex-commincated together, at least from the craft comminity ;)
Rant over. Love your work,here. You have been a great inspiration to me personally.
Sue Roddis,ROCKS :)
Hello Sue,
I wouldn' t know why you shouldn't participate in the challenge !
You used Wendy's stamps in your own style , but there is a bit of Wendy in it because you used her stamps, so there IS something in her stamps that attracts you.
You made with her stamps a projects that is "you" and I think that's what creating is all about.
Learning from each other, mimic what they do to make the learning easier and then develop an own style.
Some find their own style fast, others need more time and copy more than really create in their own style. But one day if they are ready, they will quit this pure copying.
I completely understand what you wrote and it's good you could write it down. It would be sad you can't express your own feelings and thoughts in your own blog.
I'm not a Wendy Vecchi fan. I don't own any of her stamps, but I did participate in the challenge.
I looked at her blog to discover what makes it her style and I tried to put some of these elements in my project without losing myself.
greetings from belgium
Inge
PS : I see you are quite fond of halloween... I must stroll a bit more through your blog I think...
Sue, your art is fab and you can say what the hell you like on your own blog ! Good on you for having opinions and expressing them.
Love you piece here and the flowers are fantastically represented.
Carry on being you !!!
I know where you're coming from Sue - I do like a bit of Tim etc but I like to see variety rather than samey. I feel about the dotty butterfly how you feel about the grunge rose!! x
I forgot to ask, I've seen you use those flowers before and love them. Would you please tell me what the name of the die cut is (if they are die cuts)?
Echinacea (cone flower), is my favourite flower.
Yessss!!! I am not a voice in the wilderness after all.
Thank you!
Nice artwork by the way :D
'Yessss!!! I am not a voice in the wilderness after all.'
Amen to that and Amen to what you said, too, Sue!
I don't want to replicate anyone else's work, either, though I do like brainstorming with other people's ideas and doing my own 'take'. I think that's what it's all about - not just blindly following someone else's style.
AND I love your flower piece. I love cone flowers too.
Enjoy creating for you! No one else can do it better.
First, I LOVE these pages! I have that stamp set & never recognized how much they resemble my very-loved coneflowers. I, too, am a gardener & thoroughly enjoy every moment I am in my garden.
Second, your "Meness" is what, in my opinion, we are all working towards. We each are, hopefully, coming into our own styles. Some will like who we are, with our individual creations, some won't... and life goes on.
Last: I'm glad you decided to join in the Simon Says Stamp & Show challenge this week. Your individuality is what I appreciate most among the entries.
Love your journal pages...they are pretty amazing....I have learned alot from Tim and Wendy and love to use their techniques as a jumping of place to create items that embody my own style!!
SSSOOOOO glad you decided to join us at Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge!!
Hi Sue
I love your MEness or rather your YOUness, it is FAB and original. I often look at your pieces and although I don't always comment love your unique style and creativity.
I hear what you are saying and agree to some extent with you, however as a fairly newbie crafter I do take inspiration from others still as I don't feel I am that confident in my own creativity... yet, I am getting there though LOL! I have been through lots of phases from cutsie to Steampunk and can't wait until I am confident to go it alone and not use others as stabilisers to my inspiration haha!
Just want to add that I have jumped on the grunge TH bandwagon late and have to admit I have just made my first grunge rose haha!! I must have been hiding under a rock hehe....
Anyway love your flower, both real and stamped ;-)
Sarah x
Good for you Sue! Yes, we need to be OURSELVES. Totally and true!
I love your 'Vecchi' style; its lovely, but I have to say as I scrolled down I YIPPED OUTLOUD at the BEAUTIFUL echinacea flowers!!!! Be still my heart! They are drop dead GORGEOUS! You had a wonderful NATURAL model to work from.
So glad to hear you express what a lot of us bloggers feel about trying to be original. Love what you created!
Sue, this is YOUR blog, for YOUR art and expressing YOURself.
YOUR art has inspired me Sooo many times I wouldn't know where to begin.
YOUR art is what YOU do best. Don't change anything.
Sam :o) x
I love Wendy's and Tim's work Sue, but I do know what you mean.... especially about the grunge roses!! Please keep on creating 'YOURness', I love that too and as everyone else here has said, your work is inspiring. Perhaps they could have a future challenge to make something Sue Roddis style! LOL
This is lovely, Sue. So original and so you. The colours are delicious and you have got to keep your work true to your heart.
Sue A xx
Sue,
You seem to have started off a real discussion here! I admire you for saying what you said, and your "me-ness" will shine through using anyone's else's style and stamps. I certainly don't disagree with you at all, but often it is people like Tim Holtz and Wendy Vecchi, yourself, to name but a few who inspire the crafter out there to pick up their products and create, be it in someone else's style or their own. Hopefully they will go on to create pieces that are absolutely , defintely in their own style instead of being a complete copycat version! I could say it is a form of flattery to be copied, although it may not always be welcome, and on that note I love your piece and am off to create a Wendy Vecchi style piece in my own way!!!rofl
xx
Stunning art pages. I love how nature is a constant source of inspiration.
Hats off for individuality.
You know I admire your work and the uniqueness of it. I dont always get it but that's cool cos it gets me thinking! I agree wholeheartedly with your comments.
All the stamps are available to us but its what we do with them that matters. I think it was you that said to me in one of your workshops that as long as I liked what I had produced it didnt matter. That has become a mantra for me (though I dont always follow it lol).....
You carry on with your "Me-ness".
Hi Sue ... Only me ... again ... am loving the debate you have started and reading everyone else's thoughts on the subject too. LOVE your journal page ... Thank you so much for joining us at Simon Says Stamp and Show again this week!
Your 'MEness' has always inspired me Sue! This piece is no exception! Note to self - Must visit more often!
Alison x
with you Sue.... we are all individuals and our art should show that..... perhaps you should shout louder and get some of your ideas to take off so we can 'copy' (ha ha) your style. Ciao
Hey Sue, I boobed and posted in the wrong name LOL .. tis me now... I just wanted to say I love love love your page, the flowers are lush as your real life ones are... I enjoy seeing your "me-ness" - and have been getting inspired by you ever since I started stamping... as you know, I love all things Wendy and I also like to see peeps using her stamps differently as I am sure she does too... I know how easy it is to fall into a rut, I seem to be in one all the time and it is refreshing to see different techniques and art but still using the same products, makes the crafty world a whole lot bigger... anyways... loving your art! x
Can I be cheeky and add a third comment to this discussion? I don't mean to hog your blog.
Angela C, jokingly wrote "Perhaps they could have a future challenge to make something Sue Roddis style! LOL"
It would be interesting to see the result of such a challenge. If you were asked to create something 'alla Sue Roddis' style, you could bet your last penny that most of the entries would be completely different from one another. Why? Because Sue has versatility and covers a wide range of styles, techniques and products. You just need to look at this blog as proof.
I'm not trying to start a hate campaign or suggesting that you should boycott Ranger. Although, for the amount of money they make, I disagree with their high prices.
Even some of Tim and wendy's stamps have pre existing designs on them. We all take ideas and build on them. The problem is the repetition...repetition...repetition..;)
Excommunicated?... then I'll join you!I have to agree with what you and others have said. We all take ideas and inspiration from others but hopefully we put our own spin on things and come up with something different,
I'll get my coat shall I?
Glad to read the support you have had for your comments. I love what you have done with these stamps. In fact I love all your artwork. Thanks for sharing it with us and giving us inspiration.
Well done you, on saying what I was thinking! Love, love, love your pages. S x
Hello there Sue, just wanted to apologise for removing my comment but I went off on a tangent hardly related to your original point at all. Sorry!
Well it seems you started something:)
Thank heavens we are all individuals, I agree we need to remember that. Keep doing what you're doing it's so good and a real inspiration and totally in the Sue Roddis way :D xxx
i really like what you did with the stamps. and you are not alone. i too thought it was a strange topic for a challenge. i enjoy looking at wendy's projects and i have some of the stamp sets too, but just can't seem to use them in that style. i thought it was my lack of stamping experience. now i know it probably just isn't me.
Fun pages!
I am a firm believer that creating should be fun and meaningful ... Enjoy Enjoy!
I'd never heard of Wendy Vecchi before :)
I Love my garden too
oxo
Beautiful work, Sue. You did a great job with Wendy's flowers.
I enjoyed this challenge immensely. At first I didn't relish the idea of trying to emulate someone else's style, but I ended up having a terrific time. Why? Because I love being challenged. I didn't worry about squelching my own artistic voice, because I knew it couldn't help but end up in the finished piece anyway. Challenge me to create in the style of Monet, and eventually I'll come up with the best water lilies I can possibly paint - but they're gonna have glitter on 'em, by golly! (And more than a few will be made out of paper.)
I guess what I'm saying is, I didn't see this challenge as a threat to my own individual voice; rather, it was a way to stretch my boundaries by creating in a style that was foreign to me - and like you, I think I ultimately made it my own.
Those flowers are amazing!!
Thanks so much for entering the Simon Says Stamp & Show!!!
-Sarah
Definitely stick to ME ness... you work is unique and much more innovative than ms Vecchi - tho I like her stuff, I prefer yours any day.
Chris
Hi Sue,
I agree with you about the MEness and your comments.
I have just uploaded my entry for Simon Says and I must admit I read the brief wrongly ... I don't copy either and it's all Me, Me, Me lol! but I thought the brief meant Inspired by ... which is what I did. Don't have any Grungeboard/paper yet but I do want some just to try it to see what all the fuss is about lol!
TFS
Suze
Sue - what is unique about you is your ME-NESS! I doubt whether you have ever followed any particular trend, but use what is available to you to produce stuff in your style.
I admit, I do follow some stuff, I am still learning, and hope as time goes on that what I produce is considered more my own.
Hugs
Valx
I love your piece! I took the challenge as to go with a Wendy style, but to put your own twist on it. I don't have any of her supplies or stamps, but made a house. I think we all have our own style and that is what true art is all about! If I had to copy someone's art to play, I would just stop!! Nothing wrong with your MEness!
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