First, regular readers of my blog will notice that the weekly Illustration Life series has been missing. Man, it was hard to keep up weekly! So I’ve decided to make it a monthly roundup. The vlogging will resume too, I’m just setting myself more achievable targets from now on.
So what has October brought? Well, it’s been inspiring creativity. Notably inspiring creativity in others.
Wins This Month – Inspiring Creativity
During October, I was honoured to be asked by Katie Robins aka Ceramic Magpie to guest judge the #wipsandblooms_mycreativity Instagram challenge. I was interested to see more of other peoples creativity and maybe some of their creative experiments.
I wasn’t disappointed.
There is so much talent out there. I want to scoop up all the creatives up in my arms and shout about them to the rest of the universe. People who quietly work away in their home studios, living rooms, bedrooms and kitchen tables because they love what they do. I’m just happy that so many creators felt inspired by the challenge to share their creations, art and crafts.
Here are the #wipsandblooms_mycreativity runners-up. I choose images that I felt showed people’s arts and crafts and creative experiments. Like @bymeeni timelapse of her animation work in progress.
Clockwise from top left: @sarahbecvardesign, @jenny.bee13, @_thewayoftea_, @bymeeni
My overall favourite and the winner of a print was Annie aka @hannie65. Not only does she make adorable hand felted pumpkins, she used the ‘Plotagraph’ app to make a beautiful and intriguing animation. I loved the composition, colours and soft hues in her wipsandblooms_mycreativity image. Annie’s use of Plotagraph is really subtle too and not ‘over-done’. Just enough to make you investigate the image further.
Well done Annie, your new print is on the way 
Sassy Images From the Heart by Serena and her son Samuele
To inspire others to create is an amazing feeling and something I aspire to do. When @serena.faggioni from Livorno, in Tuscany, Italy, contacted me on Instagram and asked if she could use my Sassy images to inspire and create her own images for a special event.
Serena wanted to create a special memento to give to close family for her son, 5 year old, Samuele’s baptism. A memento that she could also create with Samuele as well. She loved the idea of Sassy watering a seed that grows into a magnificent tree. A gorgeous metaphor for a child’s baptism.
I have templates that I have given away in the past and sell on Etsy. But Serena asked to use a more recent Sassy pose. And boy she did an amazing job!
Using dried flowers she collected from Samuele’s grandparents garden, along with paper and paint, together they created these Sassy images as gifts for his Grandparents, Uncles and God-parents.
Serena framed the images individually in coloured frames along with this beautiful quote from Bertrand Russell from the “The Conquest of Happiness”:
Love is an experience through which our whole being is renewed and refreshed, as happens to plants when the rain covers them after drought.
Aren’t they fantastic!
Serena was so thankful for using Sassy as inspiration as a gift for her family. But actually, I’m incredibly thankful to Serena. She created an inspiring, heartfelt interpretation of my art for a special event in her and Samuele’s life, that I’m happy Sassy could be part of.
I’d lost a little passion for Sassy recently, but Serena and Samuele have restored it once more. SO thank you Serena!
Frustrations This Month
Stolen Images
As Serena kindly asked for permission to use my images, there are some people who aren’t so thoughtful. It was by chance this month that I discovered that someone had scrapped some imagery from my website or Instagram account, put them on a stock image site and subsequently sold them. A business in South Africa has purchased the images and are using them as their logo. It was only after a print company asked me if I had a high-resolution version for their marketing material, that I knew my images were being used illegally.
Fighting this sort of copyright violation is a minefield. Especially in another country.
I sadly think this is only the tip of the iceberg. Many lovely supportive people gave me advice and it was clear very quickly I’m not the only artist this has happened to.
As much as the internet brings opportunity and the chance to meet like-minded lovely people, it also, unfortunately, exposes the cheats, liars and darker side of human nature.
What I have learnt is whilst I love sharing my work here on my blog and on my social media profiles, I need to be more guarded with how I share them. Lower resolution images and watermarking is one way of protecting my work but I fear this will never 100% protect me from the thieves.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
And Finally…
Is it OK to talk about Christmas now?! With my eldest son Zac in his GCSE year, it’s a very busy time in our household so I decided a while ago not to take part in any Christmas shows or craft fairs this year.
However, I do have some lovely prints, cards and gifts in my shops and will be doing some subscriber-only discounts over the next month. If you haven’t signed up for my newsletter you can do it here…
As always, leave a comment and tell me what creative projects you’re working on. Leave your Instagram handle and I’ll be sure to check your work out. I love discovering new talent!
Have an inspired day
Georgie x
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