Things That Catch My Eye II

Continuing with the odd-things-that-spark-my-creativity list, here are two more areas of life which catch my eye:

Trees

I love trees.  Really, I do.  There’s the visual angle – the colours of bark and leaves, the shape and size, the height and breadth.  The texture of trees is also important to me – rub your hand across that bark and imagine the splinters of story you’ll get... 

The angle which most influences me (but this could become a Deb-cliché in my work if I’m not careful) is the wonder, the mystery, the sense of something’s-about-to-happen that I get when I peer into a wood, when I question where that path leads and why the trees don’t look like trees anymore... 

This photo is of a tree along the Newton Park campus drive to Bath Spa University, and every day, while driving into uni, that I passed it, I thought about whose face that was and why they were trapped in a tree. I have that story in my mind yet I've never written it down beyond some old, scribbled notes - perhaps now I should!

I’m fascinated, too, by the timelessness of trees, the fact that the ancient ones have been on this earth for hundreds, even thousands of years – and this immortality and power is, to me, a little like the magic of words in books...  All this and we haven’t even got onto the scientific-photosynthesis-essential-for-living stuff yet...!

Buttons

There’s something captivating about my Nan’s button box...  It’s intriguing and interesting, absorbing and surprising. 

Picking out the odd button here and the odd button there, I imagine the type of garment it adorned; how the wearer felt wearing it; and how the button came off...  I wonder about the choices the designer made; if other buttons were considered first but unavailable; and whether it was handstitched or machine-sewn on.  I question the texture and colour; the ease of buttoning and whether it stretched or frayed the buttonhole; and what it might say if only it could speak...

For Novel Number Two which features fashion and fun, I’ve selected buttons and rings, necklaces and charms that seem to speak to me, and placed them inside a Chinese-style handbag (which is also inspiring, all on its own-some!). 

Who knows what characters and events they’ll help me create, but there’ll be something, I’m sure...