Guild member Breda Fay kindly stepped in to help his past Sunday when our scheduled speaker became ill. Breda spoke to the audience about how we could generate ideas and inspiration to create artwork, whether for our upcoming exhibition, ‘Opposites Attract’ or other shows.

By Breda Fay

Great meeting you all on Sunday, and thanks for your participation. Here’s a short summary of what we did and also the bits I ran out of time to suggest. Unfortunately, I missed Deirdre Crofts’s last presentation on Mind Mapping in 2023, but I have done it with her as part of a Design Course as part of adult education for teachers.

Brainstorming = more random ideas, whereas Mind Mapping = (for me) is a way of growing ideas and relationships, giving new and broader insights, connecting surprising links, AND keeping some order in my thoughts.

It’s great to use with kids – they love the spider web effect.

Opposites Attract Mind Map

What I Do

1. Write down the title.
   For each of the following, draw a line (I put each group in a box – it helps to keep my ideas somewhat organized!)
2. Write down anything that the title brings to your mind.
3. If nothing comes to mind, look up synonyms and antonyms in the dictionary.
4. Google some categories –
   Literature. I find Emily Dickinson and Rumi to be quite good. – Google their quotes and poems – “Rumi attraction”.

• The Bible, especially the Book of Wisdom and the Book of Proverbs.
• Kids’ poems and stories.
• Famous quotes can also inspire.
• I’m a bit of a Gaeilgeoir (Irish speaker), so I might do some of this in Irish.
• Artists
• TV, Films
• Songs
• Common Phrases

5. Some words or ideas will spark your own memory – write them down.
6. Sometimes, a browse through IMAGES on Google or in magazines
   Cut them out and add them to my mind map – this is kind of veering into Mood Boards.

Some Rumi Quotes – https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/875661.Rumi_Jalal_ad_Din_Muhammad_ar_Rumi_

1. “Let the beauty of what you love be what you do. …”
2. “The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. …”
3. “Everything that is made beautiful and fair and lovely is made for the eye of one who sees. …”
4. “Grief can be the garden of compassion.”

Some Emily Dickenson Quotes – https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7440.Emily_Dickinson

1. “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all.”
2. “I dwell in possibility.”
3. “Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality.”
4. “That it will never come again is what makes life sweet.”
5. “They might not need me; but they might. I’ll let my head be just in sight; a smile as small as mine might be precisely their necessity.”
6. “To love is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.”
7. “If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.”
8. “The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.”
9. “To make a prairie, it takes a clover and one bee, One clover, and a bee, And reverie. The reverie alone will do, If bees are few.”
10. “Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door.”
11. “A wounded deer leaps the highest.”
12. “The brain is wider than the sky.”
13. “Forever is composed of nows.”
14. “Finite to fail, but infinite to venture.”

Editor’s notes: Thank you Breda for so kindly helping Feltmakers Ireland with your presentation on Mind Mapping! Keep up with Breda via her blog – https://bredafay.com/ or her Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/fay.breda/

In addition to doing Mind Mapping on paper (or underflooring resist – apologies to Breda for that last-minute substrate), several free desktop and phone apps are available online. Miro.com seems to have an easy-to-use interface!

Remember, your submission for ‘Opposites Attract’ is due by the 19th of April. For more information, visit our website – https://feltmakersireland.com/annual-guild-exhibition-submission/