I am a brave clay adventurer. I am joining Louise from Jaqudy Clay on her 100 Day Challenge.
100 days is not a challenge. It is a pilgrimage. A small, colourful expedition across Texture Mountain and Technique Valley with glitter in my pockets.
Because I am at the beginning of my polymer journey, my theme needs to feel spacious. It must allow wobble. It must allow experiments that go slightly sideways and turn into something delightful.
Thoughts to keep in mind as we embark on this journey:
It should be simple, honest, and powerful, while allowing exploration over perfection.
Curiosity is my main goal.
As our clay community creates together, we must remember to be gentle with ourselves. We are all here to grow and learn.
To try and fail.
To give ourselves permission not to produce masterpieces.
I am certain I will have many “well, that didn’t work” moments, and a few “okay… that didn’t work until I tried…” breakthroughs.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
I am beyond excited that these 100 days will turn our craft rooms into laboratories where we are the scientist, the quality controller, the designer, the client, and either the gift-giver or the wearer.
Daily themes I will explore include:
• Skinner blends
• Simple canes
• Advanced canes
• Mokume gane
• Texture impressions
• Surface techniques
• Basic sculpting forms
• Only two colours
• Only scrap clay
• Only circles
• Only miniature scale
• Only hand tools
This is going to be such a beautiful body of work by the end.
One hundred tiny steps.
One hundred fingerprints pressed into time.
We will most likely notice improvements in:
• Clean edges
• Smooth finishing
• Consistent thickness
• Proper baking
• Strong joins
• Confidence
• Joy
Above all, let’s remove the pressure to be perfect, the pressure to already know, the pressure to get it right the first time.
See you at the fist mile marker…
These three image were generated by the AI engine on my blog.
I hope to see you all on the journey. Have a lovely week, and take care of each other. xx