Flowers, Family, Coffee and Gifts

I thought I would start off the blogging year with a quick personal Instagram summary of the last few weeks.

I have been photographing some fresh flowers for a new Freshly Found project

 

Agapanthus is one of my favourite flowers – I love the  the origin of the name, which means love [agape] flower [anthos], and its blue airy structure. I couldn’t resist a quick snap of this ‘Ag-in-bits’

Not surprisingly, I have wrapped a few gifts lately! 2 Housewarming plants were sent off with a tissue paper wrapping.  I wrote the greetings around the edge of the paper square, and tied it with a rolled, frayed square of sari fabric.  I made paper wallets and decorated them with line drawings. This was a creative way of giving the cash that my family like for Christmas.  The rest of the gifts were wrapped in ink-dyed tissue paper.  A really fun experience to make! 

These holidays, my passion for excellent coffee intesified.  My family gave me The Art and Craft of Coffee by Kevin Sinnott. A great visual digest of info on one of my favourite topics [and tastes].  My son organised some coffee cuppings for us.  What a sensory journey that took us on – seeing, smelling, grinding, breathing, slurping, tasting and identifying tastes and aromas.  I definitely plan to experience more of this in 2014.

What a privilege to see family – local and from Gauteng.   I  printed out a local google map of our area as a welcome. We enjoyed beach walks – at night after a delicious dinner at Ninth Avenue Bistro and in the heat of the day too, talking, chilling, playing games, learning to race a car on an iPad app and braaiing. I met the cutest little boy who has officially turned me into a great-aunt.

As I start the year, I have just finalised 2 events for 2014. On Sunday this week, I start The Brene Brown e-course on Gifts of Imperfection.  I am really looking forward to that journey. The Grand White is coming to Durban in May – and we’ve booked to go with a group of friends. 

Creative Process from My Perspective

“Go through the process” has become a life long personal and family mantra.  When we  don’t know what the outcome of a situation is going to be, we resign ourselves to the comfort of knowing – All we can do for now is – Go through the process.

In my experience, the design and development of a new product is a process that always takes longer than I think it will. From the rush of the initial idea to the end product is often a long way.

Its not always possible to foresee  problems, and I often start out optimistic for a quick outcome.

No true creative wants to copy anyone. Even though I want to be original and stretch my mind, there is a need for some research.  Basic skills can be learnt. I don’t want to waste time reinventing the wheel, but I also like to have a fresh approach without pre-conceived ideas.  So successful creative endeavors need a little bit of expertise and a little bit of out the box thinking.

Prototyping is an essential and valuable part of the making process for me.  I am often amazed at what comes up in this exercise. The encouraging hints of what’s to come and the glaring glitches that raise their head too.

As a result I land up with a pile of process art pieces.  The not quite perfect steps to the end product, significant, sentimental and appealing in their own way.  I usually hang on to them for a while.  But for what? I have to honour them as a vital part of the process and then be ruthless and chuck them out.   

Here are some of the steps I worked through in a recent origami project:

I have learnt to value the process of thinking.  When I hit a design problem, I stop makingand deliberately concentrate on thinkingthrough options. Often taking a complete break, and coming back again later brings fresh insight

The more I make something, the better I get at it.  There is always a growth in skill as time goes by.  Sometimes when I see the progress I’ve made, I relegate early production pieces into the prototype category.  

And so these are my companions on most design process journeys: 

Inspiration, anticipation, frustration, desperation, doubt, solution, testing, practice,  production, repetition, therapy, boredom, completion, satisfaction, pride, joy. A creative roller coaster ride!   

 My creative process is quite slow. 

I hear melodies in my head while I’m washing the dishes and I allow my subconscious to do the work.

Sinéad O’Connor

 The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.

  Julia Cameron

Market Weekend

Plan to be there on Saturday. We will be there!  Looking forward to seeing you♥♥♥