John Bull Special

New eBay purchase ... A nostalgic treat to myself, as there was a set at my Nanna's for the cousins to share. Grandad was a litho printer, you see. We used to print and draw on paper samples and offcuts.

It was pre-owned by some small boy called Philip, and hails from, of all places, Chorley, Lancs, my birthplace. I feel I was destined to own this.

Love the 'John Bull' font: the rubber type is more like a pre-Helvetica simple sans serif.

Prepare for many a handprinted birthday-slash-Christmas card, friends and acquaintances!

Cutting and sticking

I do hate throwing away nice glossy magazines, so a bit of collaging was in order this evening.

I like a bit of cutting and sticking! No themes today, just random pretty thing that caught my eye... Yep, it's that unsophisticated!

The fruits of my labours:

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A weekend of making

It's been a hectic old summer, especially workwise, but this weekend I finally made some time for making.

I finished The Boy's bobble hat,

knocked up a very stylish (if I say so myself) knitting bag from an old skirt to prevent the cat from running around the house with my half-finished knitting in her mouth,

and baked this fantastic pistachio cake with cream cheese frosting, mmmmm:

Having swapped a creative marketing job for a responsible middle management job about two years ago, I really find these weekend things very satisfying.  I think it helps me bridge the gap between the "work me" and the "real me", which feel pretty separate these days. Now, to find a way to bring those two closer together ...

So it begins

So it begins…

The project is under way. Taking advantage of a visit by the Aged Parents to London Town, I grabbed a day of annual leave and work began.

The pattern, as anticipated, is somewhat fiendishly difficult. Thank heavens for Mother's dressmaking skills and experience, as I would have struggled on my own.

After one false start – it turns out 1950 size 16 is really not all that comparable to 2010 size 14 as I had optimistically hoped – and some tricksy work using greaseproof paper to adjust the pattern pieces to fit me (taking your own accurate vital statistics is an odd experience – on paper, the numbers look startling), we cut and basted and stitched, and then cut and basted and stitched some more.

So far, the pattern has required complicated darts (six darts of two different types) and rather sophisticated facing to get the boatneck perfectly flat and elegantly simple.  Next step is the skirt – all 2.5 metres of it – which is sitting gathered up tutu-style waiting to become one with the bodice.

All very complicated, but there's a really pleasure in being perfectionist and making a dress that will fit me – and only me – to a T. A very personal project.

Next step sees me going solo as Mum is back in Manchester and can only support remotely – fingers crossed!

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The Element

Creativity
Originally uploaded by sleepwithbutterflies

I am thinking a lot about creativity at the moment.

I am wondering if paid work and creative fulfilment can be compatible – by this, I mean looking for a way in which to bring the “real me” and the “working me” together, and still pay the mortgage and keep the proverbial wolf from the door.
Of course, for this I need to know what the “real me” is – where my natural talents lie, how to connect more fully with the things that drive and inspire me.

I have a strong feeling of being more and more divorced from my core passions (whatever they are!), as I grow older and messy old life gets in the way.

Reading Ken Robinson’s book “The Element”, about finding where talent and passion meet, I’ve found a fair few things to think about.

Robinson makes a few interesting points:

• The Western school system was designed at the time of growing industrialism, and principally works to churn out standardised workers. Therefore, the focus is on a hierarchy of key subjects – maths, sciences etc – to the exclusion and suffocation of creativity and natural talent.
• Academic ability measures only a handful of limited types of intelligence: to illustrate, he relates the story that the IQ test was originally a scale of capability, not intelligence, but was hijacked by the eugenics movement to prove their theories.
• The modern world favours standardised academic achievement but, in the future, as universal education grows, creativity will be more uncommon and more highly prized. Robinson foresees a creative economy arising from harnessing a synergy of human abilities rather than pigeonholing people.
• He defines creativity as “applied imagination”: where imagination is thinking, creativity is doing, so creativity, like literacy, needs nurturing and developing.
• The key, then, is cultivating non-linear thinking, and nurturing connections and analogies: To be fully aware, one must maximise chance opportunities, listen to your intuition and grow creativity through generating ideas and practising whatever is your talent, continuously evaluating and developing to improve.

Lots of lessons here for life, but how to apply them? My intelligences, I think, are around linguistic and interpersonal capabilities, but what to do? More thinking required, and I fear I‘m a little out of practice …

Watch Ken Robinson’s TED Talk for a neat summary of his ideas.

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