Several months ago I asked in my blog's Facebook what you'd like me to post about. Of course I shall continue sharing the crafts and DT work I do, but I wondered if there's something more that you'd like to know. Like something about the mediums I use, my favorite supplies, about my process or similar. What was suggested was a post about inspiration. So I decided to start a series of post concentrating on something that inspires me.
Here's links to previous posts on the series:
This month's source of inspiration presented itself while I attended an event called "Matka Luovuuteen" in the beginning of the month. It's a weekend long event with workshops and intention to inspire and be with like-minded people. This time there was two awesome teachers, Nathalie Kalbach and Birgit Koopsen. The projects in this post are made in their workshops. The one underneath in Nathalie's workshop and the ones after that and the top most are from Birgit's workshop.
So I thought to write about the inspiration source of these pieces and a few other's also - workshops. They go to the same category as events and crops with a few (minor) changes. Of course in workshops you're drawing inspiration from the teachers. In my opinion even if you are familiar with the subject or the product you are using or even the technique, you can always collect something new from every workshop. There's the way the teacher uses the materials, what technique she/he uses and of course the way she/he teaches as well. Even if you are familiar with mists or stencils, the workshop possibly offers a new way to look at these and can thus inspire you.
Events are in a way the same. There might me workshops available as well, but at least demos. So there might be a new product or an update to a product. Or a product used in another way. Again, you are inspired - and from a shops point of view, hopefully so inspired that you buy the product.
Crops work in a bit different way as there's no workshops or demos but there's something that the three have in common - like-minded people! And that's also very inspiring! If you have ever attended a crop or crafted with a friend you know what I'm talking about. Because we all have a signature style and our own way to use supplies, seeing a friend use a familiar product might be just the inspiration source you need. And of course just talking about creativity, the challenges, the resent collections or blog posts might give you the spark.
There's a saying that goes something like creativity spurs creativity. It's not something you can use up, but the more you give, the more you get. That is to say if you share an idea with your friends the odds are that one of them answers with a more refined idea and then ideas just start to bounce! Crops also might result an idea I talked a little about the paint media part of this series (link) and also in this post for Mixed Media Place (link) - limiting your supplies. When you don't have your whole craft room with you, you are bound to use materials a bit differently. Same may also apply to workshops as they may introduce new ways to use existing products and also different products from what you might have at home or would have chose to use.
One thing about the all three, though. The idea of all of these is to be inspired and just that. In the workshop you are using techniques and doing a project very similar to the one the teacher has done. Some teachers even want you to make the exactly same project they've done. But even if you can use your own style, at least for me it's quite hard to let my own voice sing simultaneously with learning new and the phase the workshops goes. And in my opinion that's not the idea after all. In the workshop you are learning, you are experimenting and it's allowed to mimic the teacher's style and project to make things easier for you. Of course if the topic is more familiar to you, you are more likely to be able to play with things and invent as you go along.
But then the big thing arises when you reach home. As then you have to find the inspiration the workshop gives and incorporate what you have learned in your own style. Or maybe you'e done something in the workshop that just isn't you and you can let go immediately. Or then you can use the inspiration gained in a totally new way - maybe being inspired by the color use of the teacher or falling in love with the marker the teacher used. But anyway, the hardest part is to find again you and your voice after a workshop. You are most likely very inspired by what you just learned and it might be useful to do something totally different at first to get to real you. Or then just do a project after a project and the true you emerges from those projects.
As inspiring the workshops are by themselves even, underneath is a few, maybe new ways, to be inspired about workshops, events and crops.
Here's just a few ideas to get you going:
- browse the web pages of the shops near you or the teachers you like and see if there's a possibility for a workshop. Learn and adapt to your own style!
- finish a project you started at the workshop
- make a crop of your own and invite a few friends over - see what kind of inspiration you can whip up!
- enroll to an online workshop and use that as an inspiration source. Think outside of the box - try photography, calligraphy or art history.
- want to learn something new but no courses in sight? Invite a few friends over and ask everyone to share their favorite tip or trick or technique with each other!
- use the workshop as a jumping off point - instead of using the technique you might have learned use the composition of the sample project or the colors of it as your source of inspiration
- if you have made backgrounds in the workshop or in the make and take, make something out of them
- challenge yourself and mold the thing you just have learned into something you can use in your own crafts
- document a workshop, event or a crop
- use the name of the workshop as your inspiration to create
I hope you found this post interesting or perhaps even inspiring! I'll post another source and a few ideas how to use it next month. Please also remember the "Inspired by" posts as I usually try to open up my process in them!
Thank you for stopping by today!
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