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.