Sunday, June 20, 2010

Resurrecting UFOs, Recovering Inspiration and Forbidden Rice

The beading on the picture frame is substantially finished, so I started going through the stacked up UFOs (unfinished objects) saved in project boxes on my desktop. 

And I realized, that if a project sits long enough, and one hasn't made any notes, then it's as if you're picking up someone else's work. The inspiration is gone. The intended course has vanished. I looked at some of the bits I'd included in the project boxes, and wondered "what the heck was I thinking?"

Of course, this is the case where inspiration wasn't particularly strong in the first place. The real moments of "ah-HA!" linger on.  Those tend to arrive full-blown, with a visual image of the finished piece, or near what the finished piece will eventually turn out to be. Things I tend to grow slowly by randomly picking up "the next logical bit" are the ones that need documentation if they linger for any period of time.

On the other hand, if I pick them up and begin working, it's an opportunity for new inspiration, a new direction on the whole piece. And since I'm learning and improving my techniques all the time, the work can't help but benefit from the delay.

At least that's what I'm telling myself today.

What's forbidden rice, you ask? We bought this several months ago, and just cooked it for dinner tonight. It's a dark dark purple, almost black. Since it's a whole grain, it's very much like brown rice in texture, meaty and nutty when cooked. It doesn't taste terribly different from brown rice, but the color comes off in the water. And if you, ahem, drop any rice on your shirt, it will leave a purple stain. 

So don't. I guess the Emperor had people to help him eat, either that or he didn't care about purple stains on his priceless silk robes. 

Anyway, the stir fry with marinated pork, veggies and the black rice was very tasty. Tomorrow, up early, work, and then perhaps some beading. 

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