Category: The Creative Process

Jhess Knight from the Puppet Smithery talks about working on puppet projects simultaneously.

As I keep coming back to the question of ‘What is art?’ Cosmosicula’s description of an Artistic Spirit rang true with me.

The late Elliot Eisner identified 10 lessons which are clarified through the study of art in schools, but the points apply to art ed in general. From NAEA Publications

A very interesting article about how to rate a craft activity, with a focus on kids crafts.
Blog post by Carla from Trashmagination

Eyecatching designs and I love the Life of Popeye ethos.
Instructions by PopeyeTalks-Life of Popeye

PDF by Editors: Oleg Koefoed & Stine Avlund, Cultura21
“A guide to becoming an artcycler: a maker of beautiful things that keep the world healthy”

The beginning of this publication reads: “This version is intended for internal non-commercial and educational use
only, by the involved partners. Not to be distributed to third parties.” But they have made it available to the general public nonetheless.

A pdf by Fundación INTRAS, Artcycling project

Encompasses history of art therapy. mental health and the arts, some examples of artists, and details of arts mental health festivals arond the world.

An article by Kelly Phillips who teaches elementary TAB (Teaching for Artistic Behaviour) with plenty of practical tips for creating an environment for student-led creativity. I particularly like the poster of attachment methods.

As part of her writing about her research into the Shetland basket making tradition, Lois makes some interesting points about the process of research in her work. Abridged post.

Article by Lois Walpole
This is a phenomenon I can relate to. It’s also a lovely account of restoring a chair using polypropylene strapping tape.

Lois Walpole always photographs her own work and explains in a couple of places in her blog, the reasons for doing so. It’s another whole skill set for makers to learn, and one I struggle with, so it’s encouraging to hear experiences from others.

Beautiful sketches by Malena Skote illustrating the basics of Windmill Loop weave. The title refers to an architectural or industrial design concept that means “the shape of a building or object should primarily relate to its intended function or purpose”.

Intro to some of the work with ocean plastics by Nina Clayton who lives on the island of Koh Seh. Great video, too.

I love to find out the story behind the idea, the design, the name, the journey. Excerpts from Jane Ní Dhulchaointigh’s story (the parts I;m interested in!).

I was interested to read about Tammy’s experience of ‘flow’. The pschology of ‘flow’ makes for interesting reading’. She has created a long list of Zero Waste materials that beginners may find useful. Slightly abridged version of original article.

Video where Filippa talks about the empowering nature of Do It Yourself and Hacking being a holistic approach to creativity. She sees hacking as a fun and sustainable solution to a common problem, suggesting that design ideas could be so much more useful if design blueprints were more openly shared.

Paper mache artist, Liat Binyamini Ariel, from Israel. Talented illustrator and puppet maker. I especially admire the Love Seat made from paper mache.