Review of 2022 and plans for a creative 2023

I always like to do a creative review of my year. It's great to celebrate everything I've done and I loved gathering projects from around my studio to take this photo.

Check out my Instagram or FB artist page to see photos of all the projects and play I've had this year since I do give some of my creations away. What follows are my favourites in a bit more detail.

At the end of last year I was admiring the small monthly Daily Creative Practice journals I was seeing around (especially Willa's collected from 2021 HERE) and decided to make my own version.I did manage to create a book a month for the whole year. By October I was flagging creatively with doing the same format every month so joined Megan Whisner Quinlan's class Journal into your Art- it was fun to take a different approach to my November and December journals and I'm so happy I completed the year.

I love that each journal is a reflection of my month last year - the techniques from classes I was doing, the amount of creative time I had, the seasons and important events. You can see all my posts about the individual journals by clicking here. 

I decided to cover a box to house them and happily I was gifted the perfect size for a secret santa gift. Just shows you shouldn't plan too far ahead. I just cut the top flaps off, ran masking tape over the 2 raw upper edges and then went looking through my papers. As soon as I saw a leftover strip from my snippet rolls I knew that would be perfect. I added a few more centimetres of stitching and love how that looks glued to the sides.

I put a scrap of underpaper on the bottom so I could keep the details of this project (including my personalised stamp)

The inside measurements of the box is 12.5cm (a whisker deeper than the width of journals) x 13 cm across the front. The finished journals stand 18cm high.

I've done other journal projects in the past that last a whole year but I'm going to take a rest from that in the 2023. I've been really interested in Wendy Solganik's blog series about Finding your Artistic style. There have been some things that have really resonated there, the most recent being Tamara Jones : When you are taking a class and you think, “Wow, I could make a 100 of those.”  Listen to that voice!  You just found YOUR style!  Something that is part of you!  When you take many classes and keep hearing that voice with multiple different types of art, they are ALL your style. 

I felt like this with many of the book projects I made this year - this one is truly an example of my style : 

And this

And this 

And this is just the base but I adored this class and want to spend time on filling it in my holidays.

One of the things about Instagram that I love is that if I look at my page, I can see my style on display with the common colours and things I love to return to making over and over - books, including stitch and found words, paua colours, fabric and paper together, stencils. 

In my last project for 2022 which I shared here I was limited to not include as many layers and texture, but it's still a book form and it's still my colours and words. 

As I start 2023 I am continuing with Fodder School 2 but not signing up for anything else at present so I am free to try anything that feels inspiring to me as the year unfolds. The only exception is that I keep thinking it would be great to have a small stitching project to take to my Monday night quilt group (since you may have noticed I didn't do any quilting last year!). I did start a stitched roll in 2020 but it was too much for me alongside everything else that happened to me that year. I have recently seen Roxy's Journal of Stitchery for 2023 which is a themed large snippet roll called "Down the garden path". I have the base photoraphed here next to a mixed media roll I completed in 2018.

The project begins on the first Wednesday of January and there will be a new video each Wednesday from Rachel and Sarah with new prompts being announced every 2 weeks until June.  

See the project intro and gathering supplies videos on YouTube here. I'll share if this becomes a project that I love. 

You may have come across the Word of the Year concept. You can find yours with Susannah Conway's guidance free here (password delight) or through Ali Edwards who has developed a year-long course. My word since 2017 has been SHINE and I change the focus slightly each year as I use it as an acronym. 

As I continue to Shine in 2023, I am supplementing my definitions for my words of Self-care, Home, Intentional, Notice and Ease with the word Sustainable. So far it's led me to ask : Will I be able to keep up this weekly or monthly challenge or do I want more freedom? Do I need to buy that thing or do I already have something already in my cupboard that I can use or alter? I want to continue to find value in what I already have.

I'll keep sharing my main projects on this blog, and probably an end-of-month review, but please check out my Instagram or FB artist page for more regular updates of my projects in progress. What are your creative plans for 2023? I wish you creative joy and discovery in the year ahead.

December review

It's a little early but I'm ready to share my review of projects for December. I am very happy to say I am on my summer holidays. December is always a hugely busy time with school events and I don't get to create much in the first half of the month. I did manage to make birthday and Christmas cards which I shared HERE, and then went on to create a gift card holder inspired by BB Henry's instructions on YouTube

Mine has a wee variation in that my holder has a full lining

I've managed to start putting together my November Fodder School project and I'll hopefully get that finished to share soon...

Mostly I've been trying to do a December monthly journal. I did some gatherings at the end of November and created my base on my last remaining file folder

I decided to stitch in a couple of lovely cards that were sent with my order for the fabulous Ellen Giggenbach calendar this year (she has an inspiring shop in Petone, New Zealand, plus online although closed until mid-January). They will be extra space to write about my December events and feelings.

My cover is inspired by my fodder school Christmas card project which I shared here. 

These pages are again inspired by some of the techniques from Megan's class Journal into your Art. This time I used a lot more quotes and photos to capture my month. These are my favourite spreads and I've done a flip-through for you too.

The back cover is included in the first picture at the top of this post, and there are a couple of pages at the end of this journal reserved for a family gathering on the 30th and whatever we do to celebrate New Year's Eve.

I'm going to do a review of the year post soon and I'll show you how I'm storing this set of journals from the year. 

Another reason to share a few days early : Did you know that if you sign up for Megan Quinlan's newsletter, she's dropping a free mini class on 1st January just for her newsletter subscribers?

I'll be back soon with a review of my year and looking ahead to what 2023 may hold. 

See more regular postings from me on my FB artist page and Instagram. 

November review

We've started December but I needed the break of the weekend to do my November review. I have been loving the warmer temperatures and the joy of roses that November brings. This was my first bunch picked on the first Saturday of this month

Although I'm sharing lots of creative joy in this post, I want to be real (cos this is All of Me) and say it's been a rollercoaster of a month : busy overwhelm at work but I love my job and am blessed with supportive colleagues; my eldest son left home to move to Wellington with his girlfriend - thrilled for them and it's time, but we were very close and I am missing his presence; hassles with bad neighbours; continued frustrations with insomnia and migraines and times of feeling utterly unmotivated; too much rain. I am grateful that art continues to be a way to work through issues, to find joy, and to make new discoveries. As I gather this monthly review, there is a lot to be grateful for. I loved this reminder from Liz Lamoreux on Instagram : You can feel grateful AND other feelings. We get to feel multiple things and no one can take that away from us. You can be grateful and still be grieving, or angry, or whatever you have to deal with that you are not grateful for. There is room for both.

On to the creative reviews : I got some new supplies - I found these lovely New Zealand bird stencils in Warehouse Stationery for only $5.99. I adore fantails (top left) so I'm sure that will get a lot of use - and wonderful to have a stencil rather than a stamp since I can play with them facing each other. .

For a while now I've been thinking about getting a custom-made stamp for my cards and book gifting so when I saw the suggestion for our December Fodder School lesson, I explored Rubber Stamps by Montarga in New Zealand and decided it was time to order. 

The customised one had its first outing when I did my annual making of bookmarks for my school librarians

I've spent some time thinking about my creativity and why I've not been motivated at times this month. I've been inspired to think about a December Daily practice and I shared some options here although it might be mid-December before I manage to do anything about it! I've been really interested to read Wendy Solganik's blog posts about finding your artistic style. Have a read and see what rings true for you.

I've also enjoyed watching Mary Beth Shaw's FREE Dirty Secrets class - sign up HERE. Available until 31 December if you've not seen it yet. Great for all stencil lovers and cool to be reminded of some techniques. 

Time to share my completed November monthly journal. 

In my October review, I mentioned I'd been struggling with my monthly journals, but using Megan Quinlan's techniques from her new class Journal into Your Art I was able to create some different effects and be reinspired with my monthly practice. 

My base file folder colour was a rather vibrant yellow, but I was very happy with the softened effects I was able to achieve and I loved gathering my stencils and rediscovering what I had and new ideas to use them for documenting.

I decided to try out other ideas from Megan's class and moved away from the Journal 52 prompts this month. It has been liberating to give myself permission to continue to finish my monthly journal project for the year but in a different way.  

Also loved how I could include layered effects with gelli printing from Fodder School classes too. This is such a lovely print it deserved to be on a flip-out page

I even managed to make a flip through video.

See all my posts about my monthly journal project HERE and previous posts aboutJournal 52 HERE. I'm looking forward to creating a December journal but these next 10 days are going to be crazy busy so I'm just going to try and do what I can and be grateful for my pockets of creative time....I have started to bring together a project from Fodder school too - more of this soon I hope

See more regular postings from me on my FB artist page and Instagram. Wishing you creative joy and peace this holiday season.

October Review

Time to share my completed October monthly journal and I've decided to include a review of all I've been doing during the month. I began October by completing this gorgeous book which has it's own blog post and more photos here. 

It was our school holidays for the first 2 weeks of October. I had a wonderful time getting started with Gelli printing lessons with Rebecca Sower in Fodder School 2. Although I adore colour, I'm especially happy with my neutrals since I often forget to print these.

See my other printed papers from this session on Instagram here or my FB Artist page. I haven't managed to do Rebecca's project which is making framed collages (I love the ones Lucie Duclos made, and check out Megan Quinlan's results) but I know our next teacher, Drew Stenbrecher, is also a gelli print artist and will have more ideas. Plus I have papers and projects from Fodder School 1 which I can have fun combining when I get the urge.

I managed to finish some more cards created from this master sheet with inspiration from Laly Mille using metallic watercolours. I really enjoy what happens when you cut a master sheet into smaller pieces and can appreciate beautiful details.

My base file folder colour for October was Green. I used a piece of the master sheet above on the cover

and a few techniques from fodder school 1 for the base pages. 

Stencil layers on a sticker sheet begins 2 spreads 

I was really lucky this month to have some trips away to our national quilt symposium and the annual WOW - World of Wearable Art - show - incredible. Lots of artistic creative goodness to fill me up.

My art in my monthly journal is created in response to Effy Wild's Journal 52 cards for 2022. My rules : each piece will include stitch, a found word, and be inspired by the project I've been working on that week or what's lying leftover on my work table. You can get access to the prompts by joining Effy's Wilderhood group on FB or subscribe to her newsletter. 

Week 39 : Harvest. Spring in New Zealand - harvesting lemons and eating delicious asparagus

 

Week 40 : Tender. I adore Klimt and was thrilled to purchase some lovely papers during my holidays. This image is a favourite of mine, perfectly representing the word "Tender". I also used some of my gelli prints (mentioned in the session above)

Week 41 : Dissent. With a nod to the collars of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 

Week 42 : Believe. Struggling these last couple of weeks to be motivated to make art and that must be why my face looks a bit sad. Face Stencil by Dina Wakley.  This prompt was a reminder to believe this is just a temporary state for me and the feather is a reminder to be gentle with myself. 

My back cover included a piece of one of my book pages from the beginning of the month. It will be an instant reminder of that project when I see this.

In general, I've been struggling to be as excited about my monthly journal - it's a big commitment to do the same format for a whole year. I decided to take a photo of them all together so far, and that has motivated me to not give up on completing this project for the last 2 months of the year so you will see one for November (Yellow) and December (Red).

However, when Megan Quinlan announced her new class Journal into Your Art I decided to take the leap and join with the early bird price and my subscriber's discount (Get the subscriber discount code if you sign up to her newsletter - this extra discount available until 31 October - and early bird discount until 6 November). 

See her video on Youtube about this class here. So far I have watched all the videos and got re-enthused about my stencil collection and how I can use this class to reignite my art journal practice. Watch this space....

Writing this post was good for me as I realised that I've actually had a really creative month, even though I don't have many finished projects to share. It's been a month for absorbing lots of new ideas and filling my creative cup. And writing that reminded me that another thing that happened this month was a free livestream weekend to promote the new Wanderlust 2023 class (only $99 USD until 31 October). 

I watched some really cool sessions with Claudette Hasenjager, Francisca Nunes, Rachel Greig, and I really related to the conversation that Kasia had with Consie Sindet - it is still up on youtube HERE as I publish this post (and there's a link to join Wanderlust there). My takeaway reminder from this : A Daily Art Practice doesn't have to be just doing. It includes being inspired by watching a class, listening to an interview, reading a book or magazine, checking up on insta/FB posts, touching supplies and thinking about what's next. On that basis I definitely have an almost daily art practice. I saved this a while ago and it's so good : 

Only 9 weeks left of the year! Remember to make time for creativity and self-care 💜  See more regular postings from me on my FB artist page and Instagram.