A creative monthly challenge for 2021

My word for 2020 was tide. It turned out to be a good choice, what with Covid lockdowns, a job change and losing my children to their grown up world. It helped remind me to ebb and flow with the wash of change and to not resist.

Strangely enough, 2020 was also one of my recent best years. I enjoyed working from home and slowing down, not rushing through the traffic, consuming less and being with my family, together in lockdown. I know I am one of the lucky few- many didn’t have good experiences, were terrible lonely and businesses suffered. So I know many hope that 2021 will be more like pre 2020 times.

This got me thinking. It reminded me of some of the creative challenges I ran a few years ago and that it might be time to run an annual challenge with monthly themes. So many people are stuck at home or less likely to  be able to travel or see loved one. Focusing on a creative pursuit is a mindful activity that not only helps us through difficult times, but may be a vehicle to discovering something about ourselves or helps to push us creatively. It doesn't matter where you are, you can create with very little.

Each month there will be a prompt for you to interpret.

It must be original - original you. It can be an art piece in any medium, a poem, a captured moment, a flower arrangement, arranging shells on the sand, sewing, knitting, crocheting, bookmaking. Something made or created by you.

Join in. Let’s get creative and inspire each other! Be experimental - use it to try a new art medium or style of photography or to develop a way of making in your preferred medium. Where will it take you?

Think about whether you want to create a theme of your work throughout the year? Do you want to use particular colours, moods or media, or, simply use the challenge to play?

In 2020, I enjoyed filling a beautiful Bespoke Press diary with an ink drawing a day. 

For 2021, I plan to repurpose a disposed book and make my own art journal. Creating every day can be difficult to achieve, so I decided that having one place to play in, is useful as I can simply grab my book and go. My repurposed journal is my Book of Days. It is quite large, slightly less than A4,  but the idea is to have space to try new things and what I don't like I can simply paste over the pages again and again, if necessary. 

I called for prompt themes recently on Instagram and some kind souls shared some topics that you may recognise below.

The 12 monthly themes for 2021 are:

January - word/s

February - compassion

March - nature

April - beginnings

May- sky

June - sea

July - food

August - mountains

September - seasons

October - courage

November - thoughtful

December - magic

The hashtag for posting is

#2021_creativegrowth

 

Before the start of each month during 2021, I will post a theme on Instagram and will feature posts in my Stories followed by a monthly round up on my blog. 

If you would like to get notification and inspiration about the new prompt, please sign up on the Follow by email link on the adi & bert blog home page.

Here is January’s prompt - word/s

Do you have a word for 2021? Do words move you? Is font something that inspires you? What is your favourite quote?

Sometime in January, share your word/s interpretation and together let’s celebrate the magic of letters and words. 

So I can follow along, please tag @adiandbert and #2021_creativegrowth  

I hope your 2021 will be just what you need and so look forward to seeing what you create. Claudia x

Interviews, tools and other tales

After a thoroughly enjoyable interview (my first!) with the delightful Liz Constable from @bookartstudios on FB live and having a lovely supportive and friendly audience tuning in, I was inspired to finally get back on the proverbial (writing) horse again and do a blog post. It’s been a while as you can see!

I am always interested to hear about what inspires other artists, how they learn and what materials they use, and after the interview, I realised that others may too. So here are some more thoughts to build on the interview with Liz and to document some of the people and techniques that I mentioned. I hope you will find it of interest. Also there is a Giveaway surprise at the end, so read on!

Creative Challenges

Firstly, to get the creative juices flowing, if you are stuck, or you don't know where to start,  I have found that doing creative challenges is a superb way to help give you a focus and a goal. Signing up to a challenge is a great reason to have permission to keep on task and take out your materials to create, day after day. 

So here is a list of some of the challenges that have helped me grow my artsy habits.

1. 100 day project - do something creative every day for one hundred days. Anything goes, it could be a piece of writing, a poem, knitting or any medium of art you like or want to try. Choose a theme or medium that is achievable on a daily basis, otherwise you will make it too hard for yourself. 
   
   [My reflection on doing the New Zealand 100 days project is here if you want to read more about why these challenges are so helpful.]
    
2. Inktober with Jake Parker. Practice your ink drawing style, drawing everyday for the month of October.
   
   
3. Are you book enough with Sarah Maker from @inkandawl. Each month Sarah has a theme to which you make a book. And when I say ‘book’ don’t think conventional turning-pages-type-of-books necessarily. Check out #areyoubookenough.
   
   
4. icad- index card a day for 61 days introduced by Tammy of daisyyellowart.com or @gyspy999 on IG #icad2020
   
   
5. #7vignettes by @interiorsaddict -sadly Jen's challenge doesn’t run anymore, but at the time, it helped me learn to style a table to photograph my creations and fed my guilty pleasure - STYLING! ;)
   
   
6. Tune into what’s happening around you or in the world and be inspired by events or causes and interpret what's going on creatively e.g. the bread tag project by Shani Nottingham @thebreadtagproject on IG.
   
   
7. Look out for challenges like Sara Tasker’s @me_and_orla #15minutemagic - great if you only have a few minutes to spend taking photographs and only need to post once a week.
   
   
8. The Sketch Book Project - buy a sketch book from the Sketch Book Project and have it stored in the Brooklyn Art Library. You can even have it digitised as I did mine. 
   
   
9. Creatively Squared  is a whole community creating content and earning through the endeavours of co-founders Ruth Stephenson and Scott Thomas. There are monthly challenges and they have content creators that share amazing tips on taking and editing photographs @creativelysquared on IG.

I  have found that that there is so much support from the creative community on Instagram that you will never feel a failure! And anyway, failing is just an opportunity to learn.

Learning

Speaking of learning... some online courses that have inspired my development and encouraged me to try different mediums and styles, were taken with the following astonishingly clever and warm people.

• Mati Rose McDonough who inspired me to take "daring adventures in painting" and to "show the world my magic"
  
  
• Jeanne Oliver jeanneoliver.com @jeanneoliver IG / FB who helped me "answer my creative calling".
  
  
• Liz Constable @bookartstudios who has the most amazing workshops on offer and who generously shares free tips and techniques for bookmaking. Visit Liz's FB site for her videos and the Book Art Studios website for products and workshops.

Something I have noticed is that private Facebook groups are often created by teachers during these courses and this channel provides a safe space to share your newly discovered techniques.

Materials

Some favourite materials I use are:

• Stick charcoal to draw with and size 3 brush and water to move the charcoal around the outline and create water colour effects
  
  
• Strips of unwaxed sandwich wrap used in collages or to draw on, or scrunch up and flatten to add texture
  
  
• Old library index cards covered with gesso or torn and cut pieces for collage or used for blackout poetry 
  
  
• Bits of fabric with torn threads dyed naturally with beetroot or coffee
  
  
• My kids' old water colour set, a Windsor and Newton travel palette I bought more than 20 years ago and more recently some new metallic watercolours I picked up, called "Watercolor Confections"
  
  

In her Studio publication

I was very fortunate to have an article published in a Stampington publication, The Artful Blogger a few years ago and gave away copies in a giveaway. During the recent lockdown in New Zealand, the publisher notified me the same article would be appearing in their sister magazine called In her studio in their summer 2020 issue. 

Do look out for the issue in your local stores or online and if you find a copy please do tag me and #inherstudiomagazine as the copy they sent me sadly, never arrived. 

Giveaway

 

In celebration of my first ever interview, I have a little giveaway.

I made a ceramic ring cone (with a botanical impression of course!) and which is one part of the giveaway. There is also a small handmade notebook made with original paintings. 

I learned the notebook making technique from Liz @bookartstudios during a live tutorial that Liz so generously offered for free  on Zoom, during lockdown. 

(Note the ring and other paraphernalia are not included . The ring is my mother's (Adi) wedding ring and now mine, so if you got that you will have to take the husband too!)

If you'd like to be in the draw, please 

1. Follow @bookartstudios and @adiandbert on Instagram 

2. Post an image of your favourite book, handmade or not, tagging it to the above handles and  to the hashtag #the_book_series. 

The draw will be made on Sunday the 12 July. 

Enjoy your gathering of books and taking photographs - its a wonderful way to unwind!

(This giveaway is in no way linked  with Instagram or facebook)

Next Time

In my next blog post I will give a shout out to some amazing artists on Instagram who have and continue to inspire me and some of whom, I have made wonderful, long lasting connections.  

Have a joyous July, stay safe and keep creating.

Claudia x