Hi and welcome back to the Chrissie Murphy Designs Blog. I have some pics of some Dragon Eggs I crafted to share with you today. These are such a simple and relaxing way to express yourself creatively.
The Expressive Bits
What inspired me to create these dragon eggs?
This time it was a who, not a what that inspired me to create. Earlier this year I went to a friends place for a long overdue catch-up. She shared with me some Dragon Eggs that she’d been working on. Needless to say, I fell in love! She filled me in on how to create them and I was on my way to get cracking!
Decorating my home in neutrals had been on my mind at the time. I was trying to add more natural and earthy elements to my home. So it was easy to picture Dragon Eggs in the earth tones I would make.
Decorating your home is a great way of being able to express yourself creatively. Creating an environment that witnesses to the influences in my life is what I am currently focused on. So neutral dragon eggs it was going to be!
What techniques did I use for the dragon eggs and why?
Really, all you do is push thumbtacks into styrofoam eggs. That’s it! The technique is minimal.
All I can suggest is trying to get a hold of some extra foam board to push thumbtacks into for painting. By painting the thumbtacks with nail polish you can create different coloured dragon eggs. I found it was so much easier to paint a heap of them at once, and then push them into some foam board to dry, instead of painting each thumbtack one-by-one.
What does it mean in terms of my artistic work as a whole?
I kind of explain this on the Home Page of my website. Because I share about a time when I used to be lost. You see, I have spent decades of my life trying to fit into boxes and moulds that other people have for me. And all that did was produce a sense of unfulfillment, emptiness and apathy for life.
I made a conscious decision to start to follow what speaks to ME, and what does speak to me is my creative heritage. My ancestors made things from what God provided.
I have a deep love for the intricacy and practicality of a piece of polished timber. I appreciate the texture, smell and longevity of tanned leather and the extravagance and glory that radiates through working with gold.
Neutral tones continually astound me with their depth and variety. My ancestors used them often. My dragon eggs are a great representation of this. I have surrounded myself with things that authentically represent my heritage.
How can you take this idea and be more Expressive?
If you listen to your heart, to the core of who you are, can you express it? Can you take something and change it or decorate it to represent the elements of things you love? It’s such an authentic and beautiful way to express ourselves.
You know, if we listen intently to the core of who we are, the Lord will use it to lead us to a beautiful place. He made us, he knows the desires that are in our hearts, and He will use the desires (those that are His) to lead us to freedom.
And what do I mean by freedom? It’s a place where we are no longer bound by needing to fit into the boxes and moulds of others. It’s an incredible place to be.
The Factual Bits
The materials used
- Styrofoam or polystyrene eggs and balls in varying sizes.
- For the styrofoam board, we had some packing left over from an old train set that I used.
- And a couple of different nail polishes (Dune by Natio and Electric Sage by another brand).
How big are the dragon eggs?
The smaller eggs are about the size of a chicken egg, the larger sphere is about the size of a baseball.
Want to be more Expressive?
Join the Expressive’s List to begin to learn ways you can start to express yourself creatively. With the Lord there are no moulds or limits, just possibilities, and the promise of unearthing who you were created to be.
Expressive Subscribers receive an email each month that contains creative inspiration and ideas, links to helpful resources and a month’s worth of journal prompts to stimulate creative expression. These prompts are a great way of learning to express yourself when you’ve never really tried it before. Fill in your details below to sign up.
Until next time, listen to your heart and sharpen your coloured pencils. A masterpiece awaits!
Bless you my friend
Chrissie xx
