Last week Hazel was concentrating on one stitch and pushing the possibilities of it. So here in the paper blog this week we are going to do the same thing – but with a mark. This is one of the creative warmups we use with students on our year-long courses; these are a great kick-start if you want to do something creative but don’t know where to start or are out of ideas. Once you get doing something, anything, you’ll find the ideas start to flow. You might even decide to start a daily practice… (more on this next week).

Today we are going to look at just one of the many ways of exploring and playing with mark making. It's one of our favourite ways of adding interest to sketchbook pages and stitched pieces, and makes great personalised paper for collage, card making  and even wrapping paper!  And you might have noticed that many of the covers I made for my little books had just one mark - a very simple brush daub.  

Inspiration for marks is all around us - the variety of shape and arrangements is endless.

Multiple marks build to create textures or pattern and can add interest and liveliness to your work.
I love circles and you can find them in many of my wallhangings: they can represent ripples on a rock pool, pebbles, bladders in seaweed, small shells, rusty bolts, life-cycles, unity, the earth, wholeness etc. Dashes can represent grasses, seeds, groynes, ripples on sand, birds flying, dressed stone, stitches, thoughts, counting, time passing, music … you get the picture… 

​Today’s approach limits your choices and provides direction when you are stuck for ideas. And most importantly, it’s fun!

If you made a book last week you might like to use that, but I prefer to work on individual sheets and bind them into a book later. That might just be because I’m messy, but it does mean you don’t have to wait for pages to dry before you can move on to the next thing! And some of the prompts (see below) will demand bigger paper!

​Prompts – one of the things that prevents us from doing creative stuff is not knowing where to start, or what to do next, or simply having too many options. This is closely linked with a fear of failure. We have put together some random prompts for you to use to bypass that self-doubt. Feel free to add your own...

​What to do
​1. Write each prompt on a small piece of paper (adapt them to suit your tools), fold them up so you can’t see the words and place them in a basket or similar, raffle-ticket style.

2. Shuffle your pile of paper so you get a random selection  each time.
3. Choose a tool to start with, eg one of the pens, and take a sheet of white paper. Fill your paper with your chosen mark. If you have plenty of ideas, move on to another sheet (same tool or a different one - you choose). I started with the wide pen and then moved quickly on to the white paint because I wanted to see how that would look on the coloured papers.

​4. Keep on till you run out of ideas. Then draw a prompt and do what it says. You can just start fresh with that instruction or combine it with what you were previously doing.  Below you can see tiny and big marks, overlap and solid.

5. Depending on the prompt you might stay with the same tool or change to a different one – it’s much easier to make a solid mark with a foam brush than a feather for example, and you can’t make a white mark with a black pen! ​
​Broken (with a foam brush), manky brush and delicate (with pine needles dipped in paint) below...

6. Keep going, try several sheets of each idea (it’s OK to deviate from the prompts if ideas start to flow). Don’t forget the backs of the papers...
Various combinations below - on the right the large scribbled circles were inspired by the smaller ones on the brown paper.

7. If you pick a prompt you have already explored, you can ignore it and pick another BUT that’s not an excuse to ignore the ones you don’t like the look of!

Let's build our creative online community, we would really love to see what you are up to.  Post to Instagram and use the hash tags:  #institchescreative2020 and #institches2013.  Don't forget to follow both us and the hashtags to see what everyone else is creating too! 

On Facebook reply to the relevant week's post with your comments and images. And don't forget to actually follow InStitches on Facebook to see what everyone else is up to.

Until next time - keep the creativity flowing...

Last week when I was up in London I popped into a large well known art shop with the intention of buying a few bits and pieces as a treat for Terry and I to use in the Studio. There was so much choice and I felt overwhelmed; In the end I left empty handed.

​With so much choice these days it's good to sometimes go back to basics and keep it simple and this week in the Studio we did just that!

As you can see - I gave the Inspiration to Stitch students a selection of mark making tools - all three of them: half a wooden tongue depressor, half a lolly stich and half a cosmetic bud plus 3 inks - Quink writing ink, a drawing ink and Indian Ink; in any colour they wanted - as long as it was black.

At first the mark making was safe

I’ve been on Auntie duty this week and my three nieces are all dedicated creative play girls – paper and pencils, cutting and crafting and glitter - lots of it, everywhere. And now, care of the 12 year old, this summer will feature slime production on an epic scale– don’t ask, just Google it!

But have you ever watched young children when given a selection of paper and coloured pencils/ empty boxes and glue/ scissors and a bag of fabric scraps - there’s no hanging back! They’re straight in and off into their own creative world, making up drawn stories, building the next generation of intergalactic space craft or crafting clothes for teddy. To them they are just having fun, seeing what they can do, enjoying themselves: there’s no ‘I can’t draw’, ‘I’m no good at…’ or ‘I don’t do art’.

Why should the little people have all the fun? Our mission is to create courses for people who love stitched textiles, design and sketchbooks: we want to inspire you to a more creative life! However we know that not everyone can come on one of our year long courses and we also know sometimes it can be difficult to get started – you know the story: everyone wants a piece of your time, there’s nowhere to call your own creative space, you can’t summon up the energy.

So, how can we help? Well, we thought we’d share some of our simple creative warm-ups with you: see if we can tickle those creative juices, point you in the right direction or at least delay the ironing mountain for 10 more minutes. Go on, join in – you never know where it might take you!

Drawing without looking

We both love this warm-up and use it frequently with our students. It’s a great way to improve your observation skills.

For this you will need a large sheet of paper – about A3 size, a couple of pens, one thin-nibbed and one thick (we like Sharpie markers, but remember they can go through the paper!), a few things to draw – keep them simple everyday items eg, banana, mug, pen, your hand etc.

Without looking at your pen or your paper, use your eyes to “trace” the edges of the object, while, at the same time, using your pen to draw the outline in a steady, continuous line.

Don't look at your paper, and don't lift your pen!

Go slowly...

Your drawing probably won’t look anything like the object. That’s okay! However you’ll find that if you repeat the exercise several times (no need for a new piece of paper, turn your page around, over or upside down!) you’ll find your accuracy improves – you may even recognise the object you’ve drawn!

If you give it a go do write us a comment and let us know how you got on!

Hazel & Terry