100 Days of Patterns Archives

August 11, 2017

A Lot Can Happen in 100 Days!

I am way overdue for an update or even just a blog post. Summer is winding down, and I have been busy traveling and preparing for my new full time art teacher job.

Good news! I completed my 100 Days Project on July 10th – the day before I flew out to the East Coast to visit family and to do some touristy learning things like visit Gettysburg, the Flight 93 Memorial, the monuments on the National Mall in D.C. and the National Gallery of Art.

A Lot Can Happen in 100 Days!

With no further ado, I give you a 10×10 collage of all 100 of my daily black and white pattern sketches.

Cindy Guajardo 10x10 100 Days of Patterns — Cindy Guajardo 10×10 100 Days of Patterns – A Lot Can Happen in 100 Days

To see larger images of each one, visit my 100 Days of Patterns page.

So, what exactly happened in the 100 days that I worked on this project?

I was not looking for a job, but the right opportunity came along. I applied for, interviewed, taught a lesson that I designed in front of a group of students as part of my interview process, interviewed again and after being offered the job, accepted it.
Knowing that I would be busy this next school year, I decided to book travel to the east coast to visit family and to do a little sight seeing with my daughter.
My daughter informed me that she wanted to transfer colleges – a bit late I might add. We scrambled for the better part of June to visit schools and to compile application materials just in the knick of time.
I managed to make enough ceramic work and participate in a soda firing in June.
I’ve been preparing like crazy for my new job. I’ve never taught year round in a school setting before, so the learning curve is fairly steep. I’ve taught after school classes, summer camps, etc., but never mapped out a defined curriculum. Challenge accepted!

Ceramicscapes Planter - Does this pattern look familiar? — Ceramicscapes Planter – Does this pattern look familiar?

What lies ahead for me from a personal art making stand point?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot. How can I continue making work while holding down a full time job?

The good news is that I’ll be teaching from September – May and will have most of the summer and all the normal holiday breaks off. I will be making less work, but hopefully more meaningful work.

I enjoyed the 100 Days Project so much. It reinvigorated a love of working in two dimensions. I’ve worked hard in the last 2 years to bring an element of painting and drawing to my ceramic work and it’s something that I want to continue doing. I also want to make the tile version of my 100 Days Project that I originally planned doing.

Blog Schedule

There will be an adjustment – of that I am sure. In the meantime, I have stopped soliciting Meet the Artist Interview series, though I am still willing to share others work if anyone is interested. Simply contact me through this form.

I also plan to cut back down my posting from 3x a week to 1x a week. Why add extra stress to my life.

Events

In the meantime, I’m slowly starting to make work for the Fall Colorado Potters Guild Show. It’s on November 2-4, 2017. More information to follow.

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June 26, 2017

It’s Time For Another 100 Days of Patterns Update

Cindy Guajardo 100 Days of Patterns Update

To date, I’ve completed 85/100 Days of Pattern Sketches. Phew…I’m really nearing the finish line right now. After I finish, however, I’m not done. I still need to make 100 paper clay tiles out of my sketches.

I decided to fly out to the east coast to visit family in July just in time for my Mom’s birthday. I won’t reveal which one since that will date both of us. 😉 When I return, I’ll have a little less than a month before I start my new art teaching job. My current plan is to start making the tiles when I get back from my trip.

Although, now that I’m writing this, I just realized, that I really won’t have a lot of time before things get more regimented around here. I also hope to make and stock pile some pottery for the fall Colorado Potter’s Guild Sale. So many goals, so little time. We’ll see how this plays out in real life.

It’s Time For Another 100 Days of Patterns Update

In the mean time, here are a few favorites from this past batch of 100 Days of Patterns sketches.

Guess what? I think that I’m going to make it to 100/100 sketches. I’ve managed my creative ADD pretty during this challenge.

Up next

I will have a selection of handmade pottery at the Horseshoe Summer Market in about 3 weeks. My next event after the Horseshoe Market will be the Fall Colorado Potters Guild sale in November. I will be adding inventory to my Etsy Shop once the Horseshoe Market is on the books.

Where & When:
Olinger Moore Chapel
4345 West 46th Ave
Denver, CO 80212

July 8, 2017 – 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

June 5, 2017

100 Days of Patterns Update

Cindy Guajardo 100 Days of Patterns 52-60

100 Days of Patterns Project Update

I have a really big day tomorrow. I can’t quite share yet what I’m doing and what it might mean for my career, but it’s exciting.

In the meantime today, I scanned and uploaded the latest round of sketches for my 100 Days of Pattern project. I’m on number 64/100 right now and can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I’ve wrapped up exploring triangles, and have now moved onto the square. It makes sense after drawing iterations of circles, triangles and lines.

Here are a few of my favorites:

I lost my intended pattern on this one and then just had to go with it.

I like the combination of solid shapes and line work.

The inspiration for this one is the “flying geese” quilting pattern.

This one is simply a riff on the flying geese pattern.

I like this one because it feels like a harlequin pattern with the varying shades of gray.

If you’re just landing on my page, check out my 100 Days of Pattern Page where I’m documenting every drawing.

That’s it until Wednesday – see you then!

May 22, 2017May 22, 2017

100 Days of Patterns Late May Update

It’s been a busy month getting ready for two shows, doing the shows and then allowing myself to decompress. Through it all though, I’ve been keeping up with my 100 Days Project that I started on April 4, 2017.

100 Days of Patterns Late May Update

If you’re just finding this post, I’ll recap my project. For 100 days, I am basically making marks in black and white that I plan to translate to paper clay tiles. I decided to break up the 100 days into 20 day increments. Each 20 days, I concentrate on a different shape or mark. So far, I have done circles, lines and now I’m working on triangles.

Some of the shapes definitely cross over – especially lines. When I was working on lines, it became apparent that lines can make shapes too. See below.

Cindy Guajardo - 100 Days of Pattern 38 — Cindy Guajardo – 100 Days of Pattern 38

Here are a few of my favorite triangle drawings

Cindy Guajardo - 100 Days of Pattern 50 — Cindy Guajardo – 100 Days of Pattern 50

Cindy Guajardo - 100 Days of Pattern 49 — Cindy Guajardo – 100 Days of Pattern 49

Cindy Guajardo - 100 Days of Pattern 48 — Cindy Guajardo – 100 Days of Pattern 48

Cindy Guajardo - 100 Days of Pattern 46 — Cindy Guajardo – 100 Days of Pattern 46

Cindy Guajardo - 100 Days of Pattern 44 — Cindy Guajardo – 100 Days of Pattern 44

It seems like a really simple exercise, and at the same time, it’s challenging to draw the same thing differently for 20 days straight. Some drawings definitely inform new ones. For example, the chevron pattern (drawing 49) evolved from the small triangles (drawing 44). And then the line work in drawing 50 is a direct result of mapping out the chevron pattern.

I’m not quite sure what my next 20 days should be, but I am hoping that inspiration strikes in the next week. 🙂

Next Event

On June 17th, I’ll be doing an in store pop up shop at the West Elm in Cherry Creek.

Where & When:
West Elm Cherry Creek
2955 E 1st Ave #101
Denver, CO 80206

June 17, 2017 – 12:00 – 4:00 PM

May 3, 2017

100 Days of Patterns Update

This is going to be a short post today because I have been working very hard to make work for the next two sales I am participating in this weekend and next weekend. In today’s post, I’ll be sharing a 100 Days of Patterns Update.

100 Days of Patterns Update

Today is the perfect day to share some of my daily sketches for the 100 Days Project. I am breaking the project into 20 day blocks. For the first 20 days, I concentrated on circles and dots. Currently, I am exploring line work for the second 20 day block.

Cindy Guajardo LINES 100 Days of Pattern 21-34

Ultimately, this project is an exploration in mark making. By keeping the color palette limited, the project is more cohesive and also takes out a lot of guess work for me.

After my two shows are history, I plan to start making paper clay tiles using my clay scraps and recycled paper scraps that I’ve been collecting. Then, I’ll begin the process of translating my 100 Days of Pattern sketches to the tiles. I’m pretty excited about this project. It feels ambitious, but at the same time doable since I’m breaking up the project into modules. My next 20 day block will include geometrics.

Here are a few of my favorites in the line work block:

True confession though…I worked ahead this week on my sketches because I can not see a way for me to draw the daily sketches during the Colorado Potters Guild show. I volunteered to be the show chair this spring and I have to keep too many balls in the air, so to speak. The days are long. While I love meeting all of our customers and catching up with guild members, it’s also exhausting. I’m not sure if this is considered cheating, but it sure makes my life a bit easier.

Events:

You will find me at the Colorado Potters Guild Spring Sale May 4-6, 2017.

First Plymouth Congregational Church
3501 South Colorado Boulevard
Englewood, CO 80113
(Hampden + Colorado Blvd)

May 4 – 4:00 – 8:00 PM (Opening reception)
May 5 – 9:00 AM – 8:00 PM
May 6 – 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

On May 13, 2017, I’ll be sharing a booth at the Horseshoe Market in Denver with Sarah Christensen Ceramics.

Olinger Moore Chapel
4345 West 46th Ave
Denver, CO 80212

9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

I missed last Feature Friday’s blog post. Unfortunately, my guest has a very busy show schedule too and was unable to participate due to time constraints. I hope that I’ll be able to share her work in the near future because I’m such a fan.

In the mean time, despite my busy schedule, I’ll be sharing the work of Noelle Horsfield on May 5, 2017 for Feature Fridays. My post is already formatted – all I need to do is hit publish. I can’t wait to share her work and interview with you.

April 5, 2017April 11, 2017

100 Days of Patterns

A few days ago, I randomly noticed a post on a Facebook group that I belong to announcing that former and current students in the Make Art That Sells e-courses were participating in a 100 Day Project. I don’t exactly need one more thing added to my to-do list, but I signed up anyway.

The premise is that for 100 days, participants will post an image of their project. Participants choose their own themes for the 100 days. I chose 100 days of patterns with the notion that I would use this exercise to work on surface design for my clay work.

History of the 100 Day Project

According to the 100 Day Project website, “The 100DayProject is a creativity excavation. It’s about unearthing dormant or unrealized creativity by committing to a daily practice everyday for 100 days.”

I like this so much that I couldn’t really improve upon the description. The website and idea is in its fourth year right now. It’s so popular, there are literally thousands of posts on Instagram that use the tag #100dayproject.

100 Days of Patterns

I knew that the time that I can commit to the project is limited. With that in mind, I decided to choose patterns as a jumping off point to explore clay surfaces. I intend to spend no more that 15 minutes a day on each sketch and will do it first thing in the morning. Sketching first thing in the morning over my first cup of coffee is also probably a much healthier alternative to signing on to my computer. It’s a warm up exercise to start my day creatively.

100 Days of Patterns – Beginnings

Translating a 2 dimensional surface to clay is limited to using slip, underglaze, glaze and texture instead of pen, ink, etc. I can explore circles, squares, lines, and other shapes at leisure. Since I have 98 days left, I’m spending the first part working with circles or dots. I’m also limiting my color palette to black and white for consistency.

Ceramicscapes 2 of 100 - 100 Days of Patterns — Ceramicscapes 2 of 100 – 100 Days of Patterns

Epiphany

After I decided to work with a square format – mostly chosen for sharing on Instagram, I had a crazy idea on day 1.

I’ve been meaning to play around with paper clay and to explore the non-functional ceramic art realm. What if I used the 100 Days of Patterns as a jumping off point to explore paper clay? I can use the structure of the 100 Days Project to make a large body of work that can be shown together, but also broken up into smaller groupings.

What if I made paper clay tiles and used the images from my 100 Days of Pattern to create 100 tiles? Maybe, I could propose a gallery exhibition locally that featured all 100 tiles and the accompanying sketches. What gallery and where? I’m not sure, but I have 100 days to figure out how to make my idea a reality.

Currently, I’m reading (rather listening) to Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert while I work in my studio. It’s a bit woo-woo, but the book is speaking to me. Yesterday, I listened while she hypothesized that the universe flows with inspiration and ideas looking for a vessel for expression. Being open to inspiration and embracing the challenge is good and maybe even cosmic intervention.

Many people have similar ideas, but each of us expresses them uniquely. Part of expressing an idea is to welcome it, announce it to the world and to act on it. Creating habits, like 100 Days of Patterns is my first step at realizing this lightening bolt of an idea that popped into my head when I started drawing on day 1 of my 100 Days Project.

Follow My Project

I will only be posting sporadic updates on my blog every so often. I will, however, be posting daily progress on Instagram @ceramicscapes and my Ceramicscapes Facebook page. An archive of my 100 Days of Patterns can be found as a sub page of “In the Studio”.

The hash tags I’m using are #100daysofpatterns, #100daysofpatternceramicscapes