Well, I have been doing an alternate form of ‘piecing’ a lot these days. I may have mentioned that I am working to get an article published on the research evidence for the intervention I use with my students with autism, an intervention which is called “DIR/Floortime”. (DIR=Developmental, Individualized, Relationship-based), and while there are about 25+ articles published about these types of interventions, no one has published a review of these articles. I am working long-distance with two developmental pediatricians. This is what this looks like:
Writing involves scouring the autism literature for articles, decifering them, and writing a summary.
More articles to read, review and dissect.
First I have to find the articles, read them, decide if they fit the characteristics of interventions we are examining, write a summary, including length of the study, number of children involved, whether there was a control group or not, and what type of study it was (randomized control, single-subject, pre-post, and so forth)….
In other words, it takes a lot of time.
So far, the draft article we have completed is over 7000 words long. Some weeks I can work on this three nights a week!
BUt I had today off for Rosh Hashana, and I spent some time with my gelatin plate, fabrics, paper and cards. I was trying to make monoprints on paper and fabric, and I liked some of them.
I used paper paints and real leaves from my garden to make this. I like this one.
Green leaf print on red/orange paper.
I then moved to some plain fabric (I used an old sheet) and I made a bunch of paper-size prints.
I spent about three hours trying this. I mostly used green, yellow and some blue. I have about ten paper-sized prints on fabric. I don’t have a plan for them yet, but I liked the process.
Later, to have something I can call ‘complete’, I went upstairs and started making some more cards. It’s been a long time and my supply of hand-made cards is getting too small. I like to sell them at Open Studios and to use them as gifts. And since I have been stymied about making ‘art’ with fabric, I decided to start with cards again, since that is where this all began.
Buttons, ribbons, lace, and other supplies
Two new cards I made tonight.
And I know that creativity does not just appear, but has to be ‘caught’ when it is ready. And I believe I will be able to ‘catch’ it by sitting at my machine at least four/five times a week.
Great ideas for some creativity. However, I think the article you are writing sounds great!
…yes, I do know more adjectives than ‘great’…was just in too much of a hurry…