creative

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I bookmarked these pictures ages ago thinking I would try and make something similar (but this is a bit like buying fabric you like to make a dress and it sits in the cupboard for 5 years untill you decide to turn it into a cushion). I think that it is a UNBELIEVABLY briliant idea but I wouldn’t choose it for my work space. You know those moments when you are feeling less than inspired to work? Well I think that the globe would just depress me by encouraging me to imagine travelling instead. It could work the otherway and mtoivate by reminding you that work brings in money which allows you to travel. I don’t know….I still love the concept of a globe lamp irrespective.

5 years ago…

The merry-go-round topic for this month is a question: Did you think you’d be doing what you re doing now (craft/selling) say 5 years ago?  What has surprised you the most?

5 years ago I was 20 and in my second year studying surface design. I was so sure that by the time I was 25 I would be some big hot-shot in the design world. I never in a million years thought that I would be helping design students with their creative ideas and running my own bag label and blog (and I have to add, just making ends meet).

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The thing that suprised me the most was how different I am to what I thought I was. I thought I would love the corporate world of smart clothes and high-heels. I soon realised that dressing smart everday is tedious, that clocking in a 7.30 to leave at 4.30 is soul destroying (note: this leaves Saturday as the only day you can shop and you have to shop becuase afterall you are in the fashion world and you better look the part or else). I could not stand the office politics either. I hated how systems slowed things down and that every idea I had to improve things was shut down because it simply took too much effort to make the change. There was too little to do and this left me with too much time to think and becuase I was being paid to do a job, I could not create or allow those thoughts to become real. It killed my creativity and me.

So to nobody’s but my own surprise, I resigned and learnt that my dream could not have been more mismatched. Now I love what I do. I hardly have time to think with all my running-around but every idea I have I am able to try out. I love writing for this blog. I love sharing ideas with the students and most of all, I love having my life back.

It’s funny how things turn out. Now my life philosophy is that I will ‘make it up as I go along’ becuase after all, you really have no idea what will happen that will change your stars.

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Check out the merry-go-round blog posts on the same topic: Le Bar du Vent, EasteryaFlorcita, Beaded Zen, Crafts of Texture, Jenny Karlsson Design, Beaded Zen Designs and Birdland Creations.

The 1st year Surface Design Students at CPUT did a project called the “Paradigm Shift Project”. The aim of the project was to challenge the way of seeing and knowing objects as. They had to take a ‘known’ object and unlearn what it has been learnt to be and recreate its purpose. They had to find one household object to work with, were allowed a maximum of 4 extra objects (including glue etc) to make this ‘new’ object of use and were encouraged to spend very little (if possible, nothing) on their objects.

I was so excited by the results of this project we organized a professional photo session for their products (and them) to be shot. Here they are:

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Above: This bottle-top opener and cork-skrew all in one device is made by Micka Chisholm. It was originally a thick metaled fork.

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Above: Amanda Wababa made a filing system out of South African cereal boxes. I think I need to make one of these for all my posting envelopes.

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Above: Isabelle Manyuchi cut and stuck scoring blocks together to make a seat cushion. She called it “score a seat”. It is colourful, comfortable and an extremely affordable cushion. Love it!

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Above: These are placemats made from old diary covers. Lara Stanford took used diaries, removed all the pages and then stuck chopsticks onto them as heat insulators. They are also reversable.

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Above: Monique Arnold took her broken bar bridge and turned it into a herb garden for her flat. She fitted it with a full watering and lighting system.

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Above: This jewelry organiser is made by Anri Vercuiel by turning a coat hanger upside down, adding an extra metal foot for stability and nails to help organise the jewelry.

I think these objects are brilliant, clever and fun. I wil post the rest of the class tomorrow….

This is the most fantastic video I have yet to see on creativity.

Ken Robinson asks how we can educate for the future if we do not even know what the world will be like next year? This and others are valid questions and his answer lies in creativity. For any mom, educator or creative person, this is a must.