Monster Creation (by sarah)

I have made a short film about the creation of the Muse Monsters from my Monster Writing Game - they turn out to have a complex belief system - some of which is portrayed in this video. Also I like the effect I got with a bamboo flute I picked up a few years ago.

Video is up under Creative Commons Attribution which means as long as you say where you got the material from you can use it in your own creations 🙂

It’s All NaNo’s Eve (by sarah)

It be that time of year again when all the nut balls come out of hiding! That's right it's NaNoWriMo time again - at the witching hour on this All Hallows Eve a bizar and eclectic ritual will take place - writers will begin typing, scrawling or dictating in ernest in the hope that this year they will make that word goal. That they will be the Nanoer of the finished first draft - I put it to all fellow nanofanatics new and old - lets get writing the madness has begun.

For those of you who are interested I'm 5affy on the forum (that's Saffy but with a five instead of the ess). Or @TheMonsterBlogs on Twitter and the blog I will be blogging upon is Purple Monster - and of course I'll be doing the picture book ideas as well which can be found on Orange Monster.

Jeany is also joining me in this this year! (She has the last two years - first with dictating stuff to me and then last year with her Nano note book in which she stuck stickers, wrote stuff, drew pictures and made collages from mags.)

September Challenges/To-Do’s (by sarah)

September has snuck up on me and sees me papier mache-ing like a mad thing - my aim? To create a piece of textural science art for the visually impaired and the blind.

This piece of art work does not just involve papier mache though - it involves knitting, sewing, clay sculpting, sugru, polymer clay, wire work, metal casting, wood carving, stone carving, geology and acrylic paints not too mention lots of recycled pots and tubs and our mountain of graze boxes.

This all needs to be ready for the 24th of September for the Centre Arts Exhibition in Braille. And yes I am panicking - it is a play on the tree of life but I have gone for a more coral/byozoan feel and hope to have life in various forms sitting in the polyp tubes (what I have instead of branches). A relief of the scientific creation of life will hopefully be feelable along the base along with an audio poem/story of life.

Apart from that I am researching stuff for my Punk in Pink series and generally trying to take the musical me forward.

April’s Challenges (by sarah)

April starts off busy with the Cheltenham Poetry Festival which I am/have been performing several things for. Then there is Script Frenzy - this is a writing challenge along the lines of NaNoWriMo but the idea is that within a month I write a 100 page script - I am reattempting last years project of a graphic novel script which chronicals the Punks life from the fall of Babel - it's all on Purple Monster for those interested.

Then there is a yet another poetry challenge NaPoWriMo - I am going to be using this as an excuess to work on songs. I will spend at least one hour a day on song writing and polishing. Bar however long it takes me to do the Little Book of Easter Poetry for Jean and Mary.

I am also launching my Science-Art Website on the 4th which I hope people will like 🙂

This Months Challenges (by sarah)

I'm going for easy challenges this Month due to a) having killed my wrist with the Nanowrimo and my 72, 000 words b) having that whole Christmas thingy! and c) now being very pregnant!

So I am taking the easy options of doing a blog post every day and an hour of art/craft a day.

I am putting up links to past and present christmas crafts and cooking on Rachel Cotterill as part of her fun Craft Christmas Count Down! I'm aiming for a link a day 🙂

I'm quiet chuffed that my Fimo Christmas Tree Vase was picked as a highlight 🙂