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:
Cindy Guajardo 100 Days of Patterns 52
I lost my intended pattern on this one and then just had to go with it.
Cindy Guajardo 100 Days of Pattern 54
I like the combination of solid shapes and line work.
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.
Ceramicscapes 1 of 100 – 100 Days of Patterns
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
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.
Ceramicscapes 2 of 100 – 100 Days of Patterns
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
