July’s creative prompt was SHIPS, and it was very inspiring to see the different things we all came up with. Here’s a selection of them:
July creative challenge roundup
When we were kids: what happens to creativity as we get older?
By Cloud Gazer Emily
Memories of childhood are rich and hopefully for most of us, joyful. People have varying abilities to recall their childhood, but for many many people there are sounds, smells or sights that trigger the brain to remember favourite places, events and people.
Many of our favourite memories are of play; being up a tree, riding a bicycle around the neighbourhood, climbing up a heather covered mountain to pick wild blueberries or swimming at the cottage. You may also remember drawing with crayons, or the smell of a new notebook, or how a new pencil felt when you began to write or draw in school. You might remember the amazing rocket ship you built once, out of boxes, or a tent from mom’s linen, or a tree house, or a hay fort or a ballet dance with turquoise and orange nylon sheets and James Galway on the record player. These activities are the developmental basis for creativity and children are the most creative beings on the planet. As an educator, Emily discusses children’s play with parents and this always results in stories about their own childhood experiences and what they remember building, making, painting, creating and drawing.
So why do so few adults retain that creative spark? Is it because we stopped playing? Is it because schools stifle creativity? Is it a societal effect, whereby the perception that play is for children, that failing is bad and that academics are the key to success have eroded the ability to be creative? Is it just in our genes; that some of us just aren’t creative?
I’m here to reassure you that it most definitely isn’t your genetics. Everyone has the ability to be a creative thinker and problem solver. I can also tell you that it can be an unfortunate combination of the other three elements that causes people to believe that they aren’t creative.
Please remember, being creative doesn’t mean you can draw a figure like Degas, or paint a landscape like Monet or sculpt like Rodin. Technical ability is something else entirely. Creativity is the ability to think of an idea and express it in some way that pleases you. Creativity is being able to think of unusual solutions to tricky problems, to use materials in a novel and unexpected way. Creativity is following the ideas in your head to a satisfactory (not always successful) end, Creativity is the thinking and finding and making and the doing of your brain pictures.
So, we know that creativity isn’t genetic. We know that there are external factors that may have had an effect on how creative we either are or feel we are as adults. What are they and how do they stop us from being creative? Let’s explore.
There has been a seismic shift towards a resurgence in almost all of these activities as forms of ‘stress relief’ in recent years and I am here to tell you that if you do these regularly then you aren’t relieving stress, you are avoiding its build up in the first place. And also building the capacity to be creative. Because unlike activities where points will be awarded, or leagues won, or in the case of playing with your kids (although it can absolutely be a creativity builder in many circumstances) part of parental duties; making time for YOUR playtime will allow your brain to focus on novel solutions and expression of self.
Schools have also contributed greatly to the demise of creativity as a human skill. The westernization of schooling into the ‘sitting at desks, learn what I am telling you, memorise this formula, this is how you do it’ method of teaching is eroding students abilities to try things their way and FAIL at them. Because, hard as it is, failure is one of THE most valuable lessons in how to come up with a creative solution to anything. How can we know and understand what works if we don’t see what doesn’t?
Sir Ken Robinson’s TEDTalk https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity?language=en is one of their most popular and he explains it far better than anyone. We value success more than failure, reward success more than experimentation and expect conformity. This is not to say that some students aren’t creative, but I guarantee you most students begin to quash some of their more original ideas as the system begins to erode their confidence and show them the ‘expected’ way of doing things
That leads us to our third influence on the decline of creativity in the ordinary human. Society. Western society and other cultural influences from around the world have had a massive effect on how we see creativity, (the eccentric, the mad artist, the messy maker or the artisan who ‘just’ makes things. These have become specialized programs in schools, and in further education, instead of regularly integrated parts of everyday life. Artists and makers are seen as a breed apart, instead of recognised as the best of the creators among all of us.
How do we become more creative then- if we think we have lost the skill, or never had it?
Trying something new is a start. Be it mud handprints on a wall, a crayon and paper colouring, pottery class, dancing in your basement to a favourite tune, doing your own crazy hair style or experimenting with fashion choices, painting a picture- ANY picture, or singing a song, the essence of creativity is being brave. Brave enough to try. Creativity doesn’t care if it works, or what it looks like- at least not when we start our creative journey. Refinement comes later.
Be sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest for more ideas on how to develop your creative chops; whether you are an absolute beginner, an amateur maker or an experienced creator. We can enjoy this beautiful journey together!
June roundup + July’s creative prompt
As always, the onset of summer means the days get away from us, so this one is a little late, but better late than never!
June roundup:
June’s creative prompt was “flowers” and it was fun to see the different ways it got interpreted by our creative people. Above is a gorgeous image of the flower themed rain catchers that Emily made, using all recycled materials and they catch and then overflow with the rain creating a really lovely garden feature.
Jenny. K. sent us this fabulous flower creation image, she also used recycled pieces, this time vintage bowls and dishes, to create another gorgeous garden piece.
Another project by Emily (she was SO productive this month!)
And then there was Jess…. Jess shared on her instagram that she was feeling really stalled with this prompt, and after attempting to create a rather ambitious floral tulle collar, she ended up messing about with sewing onto vintage photos, with a plan to doing swirls of lines into flowers on paper, but ended up shooting off into a totally different direction. and yet STILL VALID as a fun creative project- it isn’t about the end product, it’s about the process!
July prompt: Ships
For July we’re taking a different tack and shifting to SHIPS for our creative inspiration (see what we did there?) Using ships as your starting point, just let your creative ideas flow- gather inspiration from books, images, movies, poems, real life, pinterest and then play around with ideas and materials and JUST MAKE SOMETHING!
Don’t forget to follow along with us on instagram and share your process and your projects with us so we can cheer you along
Tag us @cloudgazingcreatives
Introducing the monthly prompt for June: Flowers
We’re thinking about all things floral this month and using flowers as our starting point of inspiration to get creative.
We’ll be working through our creative framework:
Gathering Inspiration:
Pulling together images, words, textures, colours, ideas all related to flowers. Seeing everything that inspires us all in one collected place really helps us see ways we can follow our interests and get creative.
Seeing things differently:
We start looking around us and seeing how things in our everyday world could relate to flowers in some way.
Working with materials and making:
Getting our hands into it, trying different things out, making proof of concepts, testing how different things look or work and refining our project as we go.
Showcasing our work:
This can be so many different things, and of course depends somewhat on what we’ve been working on. Perhaps it will be a simple case of photographing it and sharing on social, perhaps hanging on our wall at home, perhaps tucking away in a sketch book.
Get stuck in, be inspired by flowers and let your inspiration guide you into making something creative!
You can follow along with us on our instagram feed and we’ll be sharing what we’re up to here as well!
Introducing May’s creative prompt: Clouds
For our first creative prompt, we thought it very appropriate to choose our namesake, clouds!
We’re going to work through our creative process to help guide us as we follow our creative curiosity!
step one: Gather inspiration
Whether it’s cutting images out and gluing onto a board, pinning on pinterest, creating a google doc, there are so many ways to gather inspiration , and doing so lets you see common themes, new ideas and possibilities.
step two: see things differently
We’ll start looking around us to see if we can find unusual ways to interpret clouds outside of the ordinary, this helps us move towards making something original and truly creative.
step three: Materials and making
The ” hands on” work of trying different materials, making proof of concepts, seeing what works and what doesn’t as we start making our creative projects.
step four: Showcasing
Showing off what we’ve made, even if its just to ourselves! It’s always good to have a “finish line”!
Making a course adjustment!
Well, this is exciting! We’re happy to tell you that we’re evolving and adjusting and morphing into something new! Building on our ideas about how EVERYONE is creative, we just need to let go of our ideas about perfection & comparison & find our own unique way of making. We’re going to do this through our podcast chats, including interviews with creative folks about their creative process; blog posts of course; upcoming online courses; AND each month we’re going to give ourselves and YOU a creative prompt, that we will then work through each week with you, breaking down the creative process each week and digging in to all aspects. Do we know exactly what we’re doing? Heck, NO! But, we’re having a ball while we do it! This month we’ll be introducing the steps we take to work on creative ideas, and giving real world examples of them. Then we start on our first creative prompt in May, each week using our creative framework to explore ideas and hopefully inspire you as we all work on our own unique creative project.
Because, together it’s a lot more fun!
Podcast Season One Episode Seven- The Psychology of creativity
Podcast Season One Episode Six- Taking part in creative Challenges on Social Media
Mentioned in this episode:
Jess’ #okcoolchallenge from @colourworship on instagram
Jess on instagram for her #100daysofawkwardguitar challenge
The Good Ship Illustration challenge
Em’s Good ship Illustration double handed drawing clip
Yan Skates ( of the Big Flower Fight) on instagram
Jess’ projects for Yan’s creative challenges in the past
Combine food, flowers + a random household object into a still life.
create a pollinator in any medium you like, include some floral pieces.
Take a pair of shoes and decorate them with flowers
Creating your very own #oneminuteofplayaday toolkit
“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, If This Isn’t Nice, What Is?: Advice for the Young
When it comes to fitting in a few seconds of play, as adults it can be hard. We recommend pulling together your own “toolkit for play” that you can easily keep in a drawer on desktop, at work or home, to make it super easy to take a break. Try to work in the habit of taking a simple minute or two to just play, maybe when you realize you are avoiding or procrastinating or having trouble concentrating, that’s a great time to give your brain a break. Then you can just take something out of the box and fiddle around with it. No rules, but remember, no one is grading you on this- make a weird object, play around with paperclips to make a fun design on your desk, use post it notes to create a colourful grid on the wall and move them around till you like the design. Then simply put the supplies away until next time!
It can feel daunting sometimes when told ‘have a toolkit for play’ available for use. What goes in it? Where do I get this stuff? What do I do with it?
For ultra creative types, just about any material can be played with, but for the rest of us when a creative block strikes it can be hard to focus on things to do for fun. Here is our carefully curated list of items to collect, store in a tote or tackle box, smartly labelled “playthings’. No, your mother in law won’t understand……
Modelling clay- available at most dollar stores or discount play stores. This is a vital piece as it is massively open ended, AND it provides sensory input for your hands. There is evidence that manipulating resistive substances such as modelling clay, sensory balls or tennis balls can actually lower your systolic blood pressure.
Toothpicks- again, available for a dollar at your local store. Useful with the modelling clay for building, carving, gluing, poking and writing with.
A glue stick- not essential, and if you really feel like it, go for PVA glue instead- it sticks more stuff!
Ball of string or yarn- raid your Granny’s stash or again, visit your local dollar store.
Aluminum foil- this stuff is awesome! You can sculpt, fold, and draw on it, lus super fun sensory input.
Markers- kids markers are just fine, but if you really want satisfaction go for Sharpie brand permanents….smooth! Better yet, try both.
Paperclips- for more than just paperwork!
Elastics- bright colours. Use for wrapping, pin board art, making a bouncy ball….so many uses!
Lego blocks- now, these are pricey. If on a budget you need to find a friend with kids who is ready to give away some of the four billion blocks they have. You don’t need a huge amount- even twenty or so can make things.
Mixed cardstock: you’ll get this at a dollar store or craft store, usually in the scrapbooking/craft area. Great for drawing, folding, poking pin holes in.
Thumbtacks- I recommend the type with a plastic end as they are easier to use- you can make all types of art using the tacks, string, elastics and markers, as well as use them in the modelling clay and cardstock.
Chalk or oil pastels- okay, these are harder to find; your local art supply store or craft store may have them, sometimes larger department stores as well. These are well worth the investment, these are sensory heaven and versatile to boot.
A variety of junk drawer items such as;
A pickle fork
Skewers
Old keys
A tennis ball
A ping pong ball
Coffee filters
Dressmakers pins
Old photos
Buttons
Playing cards
Poker chips
These become the ‘extra’ in your play. As your play skills blossom, so will the ideas that you can add to the play experience.
