Inspiration- a subconscious game or true magic?

I often wonder, what makes one thing more inspiring than other?

I can be inspired by a picture, by a song, by a book, by a person...and I never found the logic of it. All these things I find inspiring are so different...and yet the same!

What actually is the reason to be inspired by something and why one person can be inspired by one thing, but the same thing might not be inspiring for another?

I guess it's more of a subconscious call of our imagination, of what we find attractive and close to our understanding of beauty.

Have you found a pattern in the things that inspire you or is it just random? What things do inspire you?

I have found a new passion of mine that I hadn't talked about  here, not because it is a big secret, but mostly because I needed the time to finish what I started. It is so powerful feeling when you start that it is  almost overwhelming! I just HAD to finish the first mandalas and then to concentrate on showing them.

Browsing though Flickr I found couple of pictures of Stephanie's work ( or Buffybeans as she call's herself on Flickr) and was just mesmerized by them! If you take a look at her album, you'll see what I am talking about!

So I started reading about  her blog, about how she creates an image...and I just fell in love with this way of drawing! I started and I literally couldn't stop! I have so many mandalas now and  I am going to show them to you...but let's take one step at a time.

The first mandalas I woodburned on wooden plates, I even took pictures in progress, which I don't think I've ever done for a pyrographed items before, I hope you find it interesting.

Let me tell you couple of words about the process of woodburning for me.

*Have in mind, that I've never read about pyrography, or went to a class or something, so my way might not be the best way. I am self-taught  and I am constantly discovering new ways of making pyrographed items.

1. First I find myself a nice wooden piece ( often a box, this time a plate). I prefer birch wood, it's soft and it's a pleasure to work on. The woodburner's tip just slides on the surface, there is no pressure, no strength applied as with the other wood and it smells better when burned. Unfortunately, birch is expensive...So I often use other wood, which makes my work that more challenging. But, for the purpose of the mandalas I decided to use good quality wood ( a.k.a birch wood). It was a real pleasure working on these!!!

2. The second thing I do is sanding the wood. This part I hate...If there is a way to find somebody to do it or me...I would gladly give them the opportunity to help me! All the dust, all the pressure you have to apply with your hands, .my hands hurt like hell afterward.

3. After I make the wood ready for woodburning, I grab a pencil  and I draw free hand whatever I decide I'm going to draw.

II use a regular BIC pencil #2, 0.7mm like these:

 I found that some of the other pencils are very hard to clean up later, but BIC #2 works just fine for me. 



There is no premeditation, no stenciling, I just start at the center, often I don't even know how the whole thing is going to turn out until I am finished. Often when I start woodburning I change things in the course of work, so the finished piece might be slightly different from what I drew beforehand.

Here is how this plate started:

4. I try not to think about the whole image but to work on the details, so it is always very rewarding to look at the whole thing afterward. Sometimes I just stare in amazement what I had created and I can't believe my eyes. 

Here is another closer work:

 You can tell it's work in progress. 



This is what came out of it at the end:

In my opinion this is very different than what I've done before. It is more time consuming, because of the way I do it, like a lace, dot by dot. These I created as pieces of art, not so much as items to work some purpose as the boxes before.They transform more emotion and feeling in them.

 It would be very interesting for me to read what do these pictures make you feel? What do you think about when looking at them? 



If you liked this mandala, check out the second one here.