Lacey Volk in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania creating 365 Days of Pattern...
Why did you decide to do this project? I was really inspired by Lisa Congdon's 365 Days of Hand Lettering on her blog, Today is Going to be Awesome. I used to draw every day and fill sketchbooks up with regularity, and the past few years had been pretty void of that. I was in a place where I thought, well, it's never going to amount to anything so you should be spending your time on other things. In 2012, I spent a lot of time feeling busy, overworked, and stressed, and I just realized that it wasn't working for me and I really wanted to push myself to get back into the creative habit
I've always been drawn to doodling patterns and as both a knitter and quilter I think about them a lot. I've often wanted to setup a small screenprinting operation in our basement to print fabric patterns, but just could never justify the start-up expense without a clear backlog of ideas. I decided to blend all of these things together and embark on a project to produce a pattern repeat in each day of 2013.
How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? The biggest thing I've noticed so far, at just 1 month in, is that it makes me feel as if there are more hours in the day. Something about being able to produce something tangible each day just makes it feel like it's possible to do even more. Usually I only have 30 or 45 minutes to finish a piece, so I have to think about it ahead of time and do a bit of planning. When I do have extra time, I can easily spend a couple of hours or more working on it (or re-drawing the same piece over and over until it's just right).
I've also learned that not every day produces a polished piece of work that I'm proud of, and that's totally OK. Ideally I'd have everything "finished" to the point where it's a seamless, repeatable design – but in reality, I don't have the time or technology on hand to make that happen. The first week or two I wasn't really happy about that, but I've gotten more comfortable with the idea of this being a sort of sketchbook and an ongoing process of idea generation.
See all of Lacey's Patterns HERE.
Why did you decide to do this project? I was really inspired by Lisa Congdon's 365 Days of Hand Lettering on her blog, Today is Going to be Awesome. I used to draw every day and fill sketchbooks up with regularity, and the past few years had been pretty void of that. I was in a place where I thought, well, it's never going to amount to anything so you should be spending your time on other things. In 2012, I spent a lot of time feeling busy, overworked, and stressed, and I just realized that it wasn't working for me and I really wanted to push myself to get back into the creative habit
I've always been drawn to doodling patterns and as both a knitter and quilter I think about them a lot. I've often wanted to setup a small screenprinting operation in our basement to print fabric patterns, but just could never justify the start-up expense without a clear backlog of ideas. I decided to blend all of these things together and embark on a project to produce a pattern repeat in each day of 2013.
How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? The biggest thing I've noticed so far, at just 1 month in, is that it makes me feel as if there are more hours in the day. Something about being able to produce something tangible each day just makes it feel like it's possible to do even more. Usually I only have 30 or 45 minutes to finish a piece, so I have to think about it ahead of time and do a bit of planning. When I do have extra time, I can easily spend a couple of hours or more working on it (or re-drawing the same piece over and over until it's just right).
I've also learned that not every day produces a polished piece of work that I'm proud of, and that's totally OK. Ideally I'd have everything "finished" to the point where it's a seamless, repeatable design – but in reality, I don't have the time or technology on hand to make that happen. The first week or two I wasn't really happy about that, but I've gotten more comfortable with the idea of this being a sort of sketchbook and an ongoing process of idea generation.
See all of Lacey's Patterns HERE.
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