Kate McGhee in South London, UK is creating a Cup A Day...
Why did you decide to do this project? When I started, I was a veteran of two Creative Sprints. I was completely sold on the benefits of having a daily creative practice. On my second #CreativeSprint, I stuck to a single theme. Despite my natural preference for freedom, flexibility and spontaneity, I enjoyed it even more. So, I knew I wanted to try a #Make365, but was keen to find a single theme that would keep me interested and inspired for a whole year.
Why cups? A couple of months went by, and my theme of cups found me. I have a fondness for ceramic design, especially from the 1920s. I love speciality teas, coffees and traditional afternoon tea. Cups are so ubiquitous and I felt the subject ought to spark lots of different creative ideas.
I’ve not told anyone this, but a minor first-world disappointment of mine is cafés that serve coffee in glassware, so to have a year-long homage to cups, proper cups, seemed even more appropriate.
How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I’ve met a host of lovely new people, both online and IRL; particularly those completing their own 365 projects. It’s a very supportive environment and you learn a lot from each other, if you take the time to look at others’ projects. I’ve become more involved with creative members of my local community, which is terrific. I’ve pulled some out-of-character stunts during Make 365 such as crowd-sourcing ideas for milestone Instagram posts, like my 100th post, encouraging people from around the world to help me celebrate my birthday by making celebratory cups and starting up a Sunday Guest Cup slot.
I’m not a professionally trained artist or photographer. I come to this from a business and marketing background; so it’s been great to strip off the suit, so to speak, really tune into my creative side, and adjust my commercial/analytical instincts. I’ve also used tons of different art materials/media and been far more experimental and risk-taking in my approach. After doing this for several months, undertaking other major projects seems much less daunting.
I’ve modified my tempo consciously. When you lead a busy life, it’s easy to side-line the moments for creativity. However, the more creating you do, the faster you become and the less you feel stuck for ideas, and this translates to other problem-solving areas too. I genuinely see it as a valuable brain workout. It opens up pathways that you’d never get to, if you just carried on with your normal routine.
I love the fact that the rest of my family seems to have caught the creating bug too. My husband started his own Make 365, my 9 year-old daughter is flourishing as an artist and my 5-year old son is into model-making. After being reluctant to even pick up a pencil, he has started producing wonderful work. Seeing creative contagion take hold of others is very rewarding.
Want to see the benefits of your own daily practice? Get the new book Creative Sprint: Six 30-Day Challenges To Jumpstart Your Creativity.
Why did you decide to do this project? When I started, I was a veteran of two Creative Sprints. I was completely sold on the benefits of having a daily creative practice. On my second #CreativeSprint, I stuck to a single theme. Despite my natural preference for freedom, flexibility and spontaneity, I enjoyed it even more. So, I knew I wanted to try a #Make365, but was keen to find a single theme that would keep me interested and inspired for a whole year.
Why cups? A couple of months went by, and my theme of cups found me. I have a fondness for ceramic design, especially from the 1920s. I love speciality teas, coffees and traditional afternoon tea. Cups are so ubiquitous and I felt the subject ought to spark lots of different creative ideas.
I’ve not told anyone this, but a minor first-world disappointment of mine is cafés that serve coffee in glassware, so to have a year-long homage to cups, proper cups, seemed even more appropriate.
How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I’ve met a host of lovely new people, both online and IRL; particularly those completing their own 365 projects. It’s a very supportive environment and you learn a lot from each other, if you take the time to look at others’ projects. I’ve become more involved with creative members of my local community, which is terrific. I’ve pulled some out-of-character stunts during Make 365 such as crowd-sourcing ideas for milestone Instagram posts, like my 100th post, encouraging people from around the world to help me celebrate my birthday by making celebratory cups and starting up a Sunday Guest Cup slot.
I’m not a professionally trained artist or photographer. I come to this from a business and marketing background; so it’s been great to strip off the suit, so to speak, really tune into my creative side, and adjust my commercial/analytical instincts. I’ve also used tons of different art materials/media and been far more experimental and risk-taking in my approach. After doing this for several months, undertaking other major projects seems much less daunting.
I’ve modified my tempo consciously. When you lead a busy life, it’s easy to side-line the moments for creativity. However, the more creating you do, the faster you become and the less you feel stuck for ideas, and this translates to other problem-solving areas too. I genuinely see it as a valuable brain workout. It opens up pathways that you’d never get to, if you just carried on with your normal routine.
I love the fact that the rest of my family seems to have caught the creating bug too. My husband started his own Make 365, my 9 year-old daughter is flourishing as an artist and my 5-year old son is into model-making. After being reluctant to even pick up a pencil, he has started producing wonderful work. Seeing creative contagion take hold of others is very rewarding.
Want to see the benefits of your own daily practice? Get the new book Creative Sprint: Six 30-Day Challenges To Jumpstart Your Creativity.
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