100 days of Horoeka/Lancewood

This will be my fourth 100 days project. I'm not sure what draws me to doing these. I know I'll get frustrated at some point. I know I'll 'cheat' at some point (cheating is irrelevant when it's my project and I can do it how I like). I know I'll think what I'm doing is dumb and want to change it. But here I am, doing it anyway even though I know all of that.

Because I also know that there will be times I really enjoy it, and there'll be times when I love what I've done, and times when a flash of inspiration or a new idea makes it all worth it.

And besides, I'm the one running it for Aotearoa Quilters, so I kinda have to do it now!

So what is my project this time around? 100 days of Horoeka, which is te reo for the lancewood tree. Or Pseudopanax crassifolia if you want Latin. I'm also including Pseudopanax ferox, also known as the savage or fierce lancewood. How could you not be fascinated by a tree named savage?

The lancewood is a funky NZ native that completely changes it's appearance between juvenile and adult forms. So much so that at one time they were thought to be a separate species. Juveniles have long, strap like toothed leaves that hang downwards, usually dark in colour with a thick yellow/orange midrib. Once they get above moa browsing height, about 3 metres, the tree begins to branch, and the leaves become shorter, rounder, less toothed and lose the coloured midrib.

Here's my first three days:

I wrote text about lancewoods onto my base fabric the first day, cut out an organza lancewood the second day and sketched a lancewood onto my base fabric the third day.

I'll also be working in a sketchbook for when life doesn't accommodate fabric work. Here's day 4 (today) where I worked in my book that I made specifically for this project. I haven't attached the covers yet, that'll probably come as one of my days of the project.

I've already discovered that I have quite wide parameters for this project. Yes, I'll be working with some aspect of lancewoods everyday, but that leaves it really open and sometimes I have difficulty deciding what exactly to do. I might need to brainstorm a list so I can refer to it when I'm trying to narrow my choices.

Lockdown Day 24

Aotearoa Quilters is the national quilting association of New Zealand and I've been a member for a while now. I was seconded to the committee last year as part of the group that was invited to the Canadian Ailsa Craig Quilt and Fibre Arts Festival, and although I haven't stayed on the committee, I'm running a speical project for them this year.

I pitched the idea that we could do a 100 days project for members as something to bring us together and give people something to do over Winter. The idea was warmly received and the committee kindly gave me the go ahead.

If you've read this blog for a while, you'll know I've been part of 100 days projects before. A 100 days project is where you do a creative thing every day for 100 days. As part of it, you're meant to record and share your process every day.

It began with a graphic design teacher called Michael Beirut and his class. It was such a cool concept that it soon jumped to Instagram and has slowly grown and taken root all around the world. Here are some links if you want to read more about the earlier years.

Michael Beirut and his original idea:
https://designobserver.com/feature/five-years-of-100-days/24678
Elle Luna, who first brought it to Instagram:
https://thegreatdiscontent.com/interview/elle-luna-100-day-project
Emma Rogan, who got it running in NZ:
https://designassembly.org.nz/2018/06/01/permission-to-be-creative-seven-things-i-learned-from-seven-years-of-the-100-days-project/

My first project was 100 Days of Faces, where I drew/stitched/collaged/generally played around with faces every day.

My second project was 100 Days of Scissors, where I made collages with scissor cut shapes every day.

My third project was 100 Days of Reworked Cloth, where my intention was to rework, either with overdyeing or surface design, my previously hand-dyed fabrics.

And this year, I plan to do 100 Days of Horoeka (Lancewood). I'll be stitching, printing, collaging, sketching, whatevering on the theme of lancewood. I'll be using a long narrow swath of cloth and a sketchbook that I'm making specially for the project.

Attribution: Kahuroa / Public domain

If you want to read more about what a cool tree Lancewood is, head over to Sandra's Garden Blog.

In light of the current lockdown and scary stuff with Covid-19 happening, the committee decided to waive the joining fee for the project. So all you have to do to take part is be a member of Aotearoa Quilters. And now is the time to join, it's the beginning of the membership year. How convenient!

If you're already a member of AQ and you want to join in, head over to their website, log in and hit the 100 days project under the Activities tab. Then you'll get a welcome email and you'll be able to join our closed facebook group - which is the platform I'm using to run the project.

So, are any of you joining in this year? Have you done a 100 days project before? Are you doing one with another group? I'd love to hear your top tips so I can share them with the AQ group, lots of them are 100 day newbies, so all help appreciated.

100 Days of Reworked Cloth 2018

My 100 days project for 2018 is more than halfway through, but I'm lagging behind a fair bit due to work commitments and holidays in Rarotonga.  However, I'm not feeling too bad about it because I've already had positive effects from my participation, and I anticipate more before the project is through.

One of the positives is that I've really resparked my dyeing practice.  I thought it would be difficult in this house we've moved into, but with a little bit of work and a fair few plastic drop sheets, I've found ways to make it work.

Dyed fabrics drying in my back deck dye 'studio'

Another of the positives is finding ways to sell my work.  I had some enquiries, so began a process of photographing pieces of hand dyed cloth and posting them in a shop section on my Facebook page.  It was a pretty easy thing to do that I'd been putting off because I thought it would be more difficult.  Turns out it's easy, and I'll be gradually adding more as the days go by.

(You can see what is listed here https://www.facebook.com/pg/opuaarts/shop/)

The best positive is the notes I'm taking.  I have always taken notes on my dyeing, but not nearly as extensively as I should have, but I'm being very careful with this project and keeping good samples of the fabrics before I've changed them.  I can already see how useful this will be.

One of my favourite experiementations of my 100 days of reworked cloth so far is the overdyeing that I've done.

I began with the olive green fabric on the above left and ripped it into twelve pieces.  I then overdyed each piece with a full strength mixture of my most usual dye colours.  On the left, from top to bottom, is overdyeing with black, turquoise, mid blue and navy.

This one is golden yellow, lemon yellow, red and fuchsia.

And this last section is purple, bright green, grass green and sea green.

This lot inspired me to do further sets, using base colours of blue, yellow and red.

Above is the blue, with black, turquoise, mid blue and navy.  And below is the yellow and red with the same set of overdye colours.  It's so interesting to see how the different base colours effect the 'topcoat'.

I love how the two layers make the dyes so much richer and more interesting.

This won't just be useful for when I'm doing a complete overdye, but also if I want to print patterns with a second or third colour.

I also think I need to do some colour wheels and dilution scales, which is departing a little from reworked cloth, but it's my project, so I guess I can do what I like!

100 Days Project 2018 - Reworked Cloth

Back in May I wrote about my upcoming 100 Days Project.  Well, it's started, and today is day 20.  My project is all about experimenting with adding layers of surface design over the top of my already hand-dyed fabric.  You can read more about how I came up with that project back on the original blog post.

I asked for suggestions for names and hashtags and Linda suggested #100daysoflayers.  I was going to use that (thanks Linda!) but it's already been used on Instagram for a few other things - beautiful things actually, you should go and search that hashtag when you've got a minute.  In the end I spent some quality time with my thesaurus and came up with #100daysofreworkedcloth.  Still a bit clunky, but at least it's all mine - so far.

Day One Fabric, before and after.

Twenty days means I'm one fifth of the way through, but I feel like I'm just getting started.  I've generated 20 new fabrics, but I've also generated many more ideas and questions and leads to follow.

For example, should I try every technique in high flow acrylic inks AND dye to compare the results?  Should I do one technique in multiple colour ways?  There's so many techniques available to me, should I simplify by just sticking to dye and not paint?  What if I used a foam roller rather than a hard brayer to spread the dye paste onto that leaf?

I'm not sure of any of the answers to those questions.  So I'm just continuing, with not much planning at this point, but having a lot of fun.

One thing I'm glad I did, is set up a good note taking process before I began.  I take a photograph of the fabric before I begin and snip a swatch to put in my book.  I make and create, and then once the fabric is finished, I photograph it again and snip another swatch.  In my journal I make extensive notes about what I did, the colours I used etc.

The process falls down sometimes when I forget to take a photo before I start, but I'm getting better at  working ahead a bit and photographing things in batches when the light is good.  At the end of the project I'll have a book full of 100 surface design samples, so I'll have something very concrete and usuable for years to come.

Day 10 Fabric, before and after.

Because I'm only doing one or two pieces a day I can spend some time considering my results more than I would if I had spent a whole day dyeing fifty pieces of fabric.  It's this musing that is leading to all the questions I talked about earlier.  Sometimes the project feels like it could grow exponentially (and out of control!)

I'll check back in when I have a few more favourite fabrics to share, but for now here's day 14 before and after, which I think is my most dramatic change, and day 4, which I think is my weirdest...

100 Day Project 2018

June will see the start of my 100 Day Project for 2018.  A 100 Days Project (or Challenge) is really just what it says - 100 days in a row of doing something creative, again and again and again.  I've completed two 100 Days before and I've found them immensely rewarding.  I've also found them frustrating and challenging, but that's all part of the package!

Day 1-20 of 100 Days of Scissors.

Last year I completed 100 Days of Scissors, where I cut paper and formed collages.  I developed my composition skills and now I have a sketchbook full of ideas and inspiration.  I also realised that I prefer to cut to a drawn line rather than free hand!

My first 100 Days was 100 Days of Faces, with the intention of getting comfortable with sketching faces and using them in my work.  Again, I have a sketchbook full of ideas and inspiration and I'm much more confident with my face drawing skills.

Sketchbook page from 100 Days of Faces

This year, the organisation that has previously hosted the 100 Days Project NZ is taking a break, so I'm working with Lisa Call and Kate Hartmann of Tutere Gallery, who have jointly developed their own 100 Day program.  I thought about working on my own, but I know myself well enough to know that to stick with it and commit, I need the accountability and community that a group can offer!

There are different tiers of support with Lisa and Kate's program and I believe the in-person programs are full, but there are still spaces to join the on-line program running through email and Facebook if you'd like to jump on board and join in.

One of the hardest things about 100 Days is deciding what sort of project to do.  It has to be small enough to complete EVERY SINGLE DAY, challenging enough to stretch you and interesting enough but easy enough to stick with over the course of more than three months.

Then you need to think about what you want to do with the final works.  Are they just inspiration for future projects?  Do you want to have a body of work to exhibit or sell?  These decisions will also influence what project you decide to do.

To help me make some of those decisions, I got out my trusty pen and paper and did some brainstorming.  What did I want to get out of this year's project?

• help me get into a regular studio habit
• get me working with joy and curiosity
• find something new
• a body of work or a collection of inspiration

Then I brainstormed ideas for projects:

• flora printing
• botanical drawing
• bird drawing
• clothes making
• fabric collage
• colour - dyeing, painting, colouring fabric
• free-motion quilting
• surface design
• art on the iPad
• improv piecing
• drawing patterns

Then I put those two lists together and I've come up with something that I think will work on all levels for me.  My intention is to 'renovate' my hand-dyed fabric stash.  This means that every day, for 100 days, I'll take a piece of my hand-dyed fabric and I'll add another layer of surface design to it. Whether that be another layer of dye, a printed pattern overlay, perhaps taking colour away with discharge dyeing, or even drawing straight onto the fabric.

  

Either way, after 100 days, I'll have 100 surface design samples; I'll have tried out lots of new ideas and practiced old ones; I'll have got back into the habit of regularly wet studio time and I'll hopefully have had lots of fun!  

Now I just need to come up with a funky title for my project and a hashtag that I can use on Instagram to collate my images.  #100daysoffabricrenovation is a bit clunky.  Any ideas?

And have you ever done a 100 Day Project?  Are you doing one this year?  What were your challenges and triumphs?  I'd love to hear from you.

Putting Down Roots Series II

Examples from my 100 days project

In my last post I showed a couple of quilts that were inspired by my paper cutting 100 days project.  They are showing at Kings Theatre Creative for the next few weeks, along with the quilt I'm showing today called 'Belonging'.

Belonging by Charlotte Scott 43cm x 55cm $195 

This quilt is a nod to landforms that have dominated the areas where I've spent much of my life.  Kapiti Island is the first.  It dominated the horizon in the area I grew up and whenever I see images of it something twangs inside me.

Kapiti Island.  The original uploader was Grutness at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., CC BY-SA 3.0

The other peak that fills my horizon these days is up the far end of the Waikare Inlet.  It's constantly changing colour, sometimes wreathed in mist, occasionally covered in cloud.  I don't even know what it's called and can't find it on a map, but it forms one of the backdrops in my daily life.

These are the two areas in New Zealand where I've spent the longest time, where I've put down roots by growing up in the area or by moving there and consciously deciding to make my life there.

Belonging (detail) by Charlotte Scott 

I don't think I'm done with this series yet.  There are more variations with the branch and root imagery that I'd like to try.  Different ways of saying what I'm thinking or feeling.  And I like that it's the sort of symbol that has rich meaning for others too.

E noho rå!

The 100 Days Project

The 100 Days Project is over for another year.  This year I had a big stretch where I was as the uggh stage of my project; the 'have to push through' stage.  There was also the 'this is awesome!' stage; the 'I didn't know I could do that' stage; the 'what the heck do I do today?' stage; and the 'I haven't done anything for ages so now I need to do three in one day' stage.

I started the 100 days project again this year after having a very satisfying experience with last year's.  I didn't get all my days done last year, but I felt like I had really achieved something personally with my art.  My theme had been 100 days of faces and I thought I might get to the stage where I was comfortable with drawing faces and using them in my quilts.  I did get really comfortable with faces and I felt I was even reaching a point where I could narrow in on my style - I felt this was a pretty big accomplishment.

So this year I was really excited to get going on another 100.  I chose 100 days of scissors, wanting to see if I could find my voice with free hand paper cutting, with the hope that I could transfer this to my fabric cutting later.

And I have had several stretches of days where I've really thought I had cracked something.  There was a stretch when I was doing branches, I loved almost every one of them, but then I felt I couldn't keep going with them because I thought I'd exhaust myself with them on paper without ever getting them into fabric.  Was that a legitimate worry?

I spent a span of days trying to find a symbol that worked for me.  That was after seeing Dinner at Eight artists share their work that was accepted for a themed show 'Personal Iconography: Graffiti on Cloth', and wondering if I had any particular personal symbols that I could incorporate into more of my work.  Turns out I don't think I do...

So I pushed through and just kept turning up, because that is what it's all about.  Turn up, do the work, form the habits, see what happens.  Sometimes I'd cheat though, and I'd do several days in one go, which helped me work in a kind of series with whatever subject I'd picked.

But mostly I just kept trudging on.  And now we have reached the end of the process.  I'll let you in on a little secret though: I haven't done day 100.... I bought two sketchbooks in the beginning - a black one with 40 pages and a white one with 60.  I must have ripped out a page, or the manufacturers were telling fibs because at day 99 I ran out of pages!  Somehow I just can't bring myself to work on any other surface!

Overall it doesn't feel quite as satisfying as last year - the experience was positive, there are pieces of work that I like and that I want to explore more, but I guess I just don't feel like I reached the same stage as I did last year.

But that's ok, I'll be back for next year's 100 days, because the process teaches you so much, even if you don't reach the creative levels you hoped for.  And now, looking at the photographs of all the work laid out end to end, I'm proud of myself.  That's a good feeling.  I'll be back for a second helping next year.

Here's what day 99 looked like:

And here's the whole project in lots of 20 (you don't see the whole pictures, just thumbnails, and sometimes oddly cropped):

100 Days Project 2017

The 22 May was the first day of the NZ 100 Days Project.  Except it's not just NZ, there are plenty of people from around the world taking part too.  I did it last year and I'm doing it again.  This time with a side-kick, my own built-in accountability partner, my daughter.

We're both working on the idea of paper cutting.  I'm inspired by Matisse mainly, and trying to explore whether I can find my 'voice' or my 'hand' in free-hand paper cutting using scissors.  You can read more about my motivations and how I decided on my project here.

Day One is always exciting.  Will my idea work?  Will it look ok?  Am I going to come to loathe this after 100 days...or after 20?

But so far, so good.

I had absolutely no idea what my scissors would cut, but I always do gravitate towards birds.  So it wasn't much surprise when my finished work looked like this:

Day One was a beautiful day, sitting in the sun with my daughter, discovering with paper and scissors.  It was quick and easy because I'd set myself up for success.  Having a project that is quite specific helps (less choices to make), having a set size (I've decided to use sketchbook pages as my base), and having all the tools I need in one place (we've made a pack with card, scissors, zip-lock bags for small leftovers, storage for finished words and a glue stick) all contributed.  Day Two?  Well, that's today, so we'll see!

If you want to follow along with us, my project is:  https://100daysproject.co.nz/projects/100-Days-2017/charlotte-scott-115
My daughter's project is: https://100daysproject.co.nz/projects/100-Days-2017/olivia-114

I'll also post now and again to Instagram, you can find my feed by clicking on the Instagram icon at the top left of this page.

100 Days Project 2017 - Creative Practice

Last year I took part in the 100 days creative practice challenge.  I found it immensely rewarding.  Frustrating and hard sometimes, but overall I found my art going places I hadn't foreseen and finding ideas I hadn't thought of and possibilities I hadn't discovered.  (You can find my project here.)

So I'm doing it again this year.  It's running earlier, from May till August, which suits me better.  And my daughter is really keen to take part, so I have an accountability partner already!

I learnt a few things last year:

• Keep it fairly small, broad possibilities are sometimes just as paralysing as narrow ones.
• Think about a standard format in case you want to present your work as a whole in a 100 days show.
• Have something new and shiny to work with to motivate you! (Last year mine was a brand new sketch book.)

And I've been thinking a lot about what I want to explore and how.

Last year was 100 days of faces.  I had never felt very comfortable drawing faces or including them in my work.  I'm much more comfortable with them now, but I still don't really include them in my work, so my first idea was to explore adding faces into my quilts.

But that's awfully broad.

So then I started thinking about how I work, what techniques I already use and what techniques I'd like to explore or develop.  100 days of printing was quite appealing.  But it's not very transportable and really does mean that I have to be quite prepared for each day's work.  My life doesn't always run like that...

I've ended up with 100 days of scissors.  A few things lead me to this.  I had been thinking about how I work with a lot of silhouettes in my work and I use scissors constantly.  Then when Matisse and his large paper cut-outs was mentioned on the AQ education seminar that I just went to (more on that later), ideas started to fall into place.  Matisse's 'hand' was very evident in his work, he was sketching with card, using the cut-outs to play with layout and test colour and form.  I do the same with my fabric cut outs, but I'm a lot more 'staid' in my cutting out.  I draw first and cut on the line.  So what will happen if I try and develop my 'hand' by free-hand cutting?  What sort of shapes and forms will appear?  Will you be able to see my voice and style?

So I've been researching Matisse and his gouaches decoupes and I've remembered that I've followed Raymond Saa on Instagram for a while (have I subconsciously been thinking about this longer than I know?) and I found Claire Brewster as inspiration too.  I'm going to keep thinking and researching, but when it gets close to May 22, start day, I'm going to put the books away, stop looking at other's work, and see where my scissors will take me.

My new 100 days project link is here (I think it's working).  I'm charlottewaves (my daughter is oliviawaves, she wanted matching user names and I'm indulging her while she's young enough to still want to be like me).

My shiny new things to add motivation?  A black paged sketchbook, a stack of coloured card and some brand new, very sharp, dedicated to paper, scissors.

Will you be doing the 100 days challenge this year?  And if you are, what's your project going to be?

Edited to add:  Here's the link if you want to sign up http://100daysproject.co.nz click the register button in the top right corner.

100 Days Project 10%

I wrote recently about starting a 100 Days Project.  Luckily there was a group and a website and someone had done all the thinking and all I had to do was sign up and join in.  We are now onto our tenth day, which means we are a 10% through the process.  Put another way, I've got 90% more to do!

So how am I feeling about it?  I wrote a little summary of how I've been feeling day to day.  I'm wondering how I'll feel at day 50.

Day One - nervous and excited, so much to live up to!
Day Two - well that was easy, too easy perhaps?
Day Three - this isn't so bad, but am I getting anywhere?
Day Four - Ick, what a stuff up, now I'm nervous again.
Day Five - I think I'm onto something.
Day Six - I really like this.
Day Seven - I really LOVE this.
Day Eight - I've got so many ideas, I'm bubbling over!
Day Nine - how do I work on all these ideas?!

The photo above was day five.  That was a spread in my sketchbook with a silhouette cut from the edge of one page so it appeared on two page spreads.  It's the day that I felt I had a little breakthrough.

And today is Day Ten.  Today I'm wondering how I can spread out my ideas a little.  Can I work on the same face or quilt two days in a row?  Will I be cheating if I do that?  I've got so many ideas but some I want to work on more deeply than others.

Above is the spread of all my days so far.  Day four was a scary one, I felt like hiding it, but that wouldn't contribute to my process, so there it is in all its glory!

I'll share more in another while, but in the meantime if you want to follow my progress, this is the link to my project: http://100daysproject.co.nz/projects/100-days-2016/charlotte-scott-700

100 Days Project

A creative practice project is something creative done regularly with a certain intent- a journal quilt every month, a zentangle per day, you've probably seen or read examples of them as they seem pretty popular around the blogosphere in recent years.

"Show up, show up, show up and after a while the muse shows up, too."   

-  Isabel Allende, Author. 

I've thought about creative practice projects before.  Like way back in May 2015.  And I guess I have been doing one in a loose way with my little colour compositions, but that particular project doesn't have accountability, or the support of being part of a bigger group.

An artist friend introduced me to the 100 Days Project recently.  She has participated before and found that it was enriching, challenging, frustrating, confronting and most of all, worthwhile.  (Find her work here).  The 100 Days Project in New Zealand started in 2011 and has been running annually since.  Except for last year - I don't know what happened there.  There is a website where you sign up, create a profile, and then when the project starts, you record your efforts there every day.

"The project gives anyone (young & old, artist and non-artist) a framework and the permission to be creative. It challenges you to dig deep into your creative reserves, to rely on your readiness to work in order to achieve creative breakthrough."   

- 100 Day Project, NZ. 

I signed up yesterday.  The project starts on August 24th and you have until the 20th to join up.  I'm nervous and excited because I decided to do something that will challenge me and, hopefully, enrich my textile art in a new way.

I've called my project 'Facing Up' and here's how I described it:

"I'm a textile artist, afraid of faces. So here comes 100 faces, in textiles or not, with the intent of 'facing' my fear."

This is a detail from a quilt about Ranginui and Papatuanuku (sky father and earth mother).  I think it's the only time I've included faces in a quilt.

The great thing about this is that my stitch and bitch group that I run through the studio and gallery is taking part too.  Not all of us, but at least four others.  When it gets hard and when we get stuck, we'll have someone to commiserate with.  When we feel the exhilaration of breakthrough and satisfaction of completion, we'll have someone to celebrate with.

And at the end of it all, I happen to own a gallery where we can have a 100 Days Project exhibition!

If you did a hundred days project, what would it be?

If you want to follow along with me, I'll be posting to Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag of #100DaysOfFaces and I'll probably post here in a digest form with several days all at once, along with my thoughts about the process.