A fraction of what I created during the 100 days
Tuesday (July 14, 2015) was the culmination of my 100 Days Of Day Break Play project. The quick project explanation is that for 100 days I played with craft within the beginnings of my day. I averaged about 35 minutes creating each morning spending over 55 hours total in time. Because making is something that fundamentally grounds me the goal of the project was to carve out time and routine in my day that would give me this space for making, EVERYDAY. I wrote a blog post at the project's start with some of my initial thoughts. You can also learn about the whole larger 100 Days Project here.
Having my project be tied to a specific time of the day was really helpful for getting it done. I could not procrastinate the activity because I knew that if I was not creating by a certain point in my morning there would be no going back in time. I could not let the morning slip away. There were only a couple instances where I fudged a bit. Like waking up on the forth day of camping after staying up almost 'til dawn singing and drawing by a campfire. I needed to hit the road home first thing so I decided that the spirit of my project had already been fulfilled.
I thought the beginning of the project would be the toughest part but at about day 52 I was surprised to find I'd hit a bit of a wall. This was after returning from the forest and I think I was feeling exhausted and grumpy with the constraint I'd put on myself. But I powered through and at a few days later it felt easier again.
The only other challenge was planning around travel and making sure I packed art supplies that would allow me to make wherever I was in the morning even if that was at the airport. (A bonus was it made waiting in the airport more enjoyable.)
Knowing I'd have my project to work on in the morning almost always brought a positive start to the day and flushed away any awkward feelings from the day before. Overall I felt rejuvenated each morning.
The circular Zendala pictured the largest was my mornings creation on the hundredth day. I combined imagery from the tiles and palms I was inspired by on my trip to Mexico.
Two weeks ago I went to Sayulita, Mexico which brought lots of creative inspiration for the sprint to the 100 days finish line. I stayed in a hacienda with an abundance of patterns that I could draw from (pun intended).
I am so thankful for the 100 days project and the routine it helped me to create for myself. I'll be keeping it up even if I don't share everyday on Instagram. Being able to see what others on Instagram were creating was also motivating combined with having my friend Ann along for the ride to reflect on the project milestones with. Do take a look at her paper experiments.
I've enjoyed the Instagram community aspect of the project but I'm also excited to see what I'll make without feeling the obligation of sharing everyday. Obligation might be a heavier word than I intend but not sharing everyday I think will bring a different type of freedom to my morning routine. But I do plan on sharing those morning creative stretches here and there because the sharing has become routine as well.
In the future I'd like to do the 100 days project with more focus. My project was focused on a new habit with very broad creative freedom... next time I'd like to try something with more parameters. Here are a few of the projects with specific parameters I enjoyed watching unfold over the last 100 days.
100 days of paper experiments
Grid the grid
100 days of Cafcaf
100 days of tiny things
100 Snuffys
100 days of people parts n flowers
100 days of costumes
And here are a few blog posts highlighting bigger projects within my project:
Explain the Sun
Gelatin printing — American flags and exploring the Playing with Surface Design book
Strike Away Show submission
