It's been a busy week.
I have been working tirelessly to meet personal and professional goals and my body is telling me to slow down and rest a bit. So today, the blog post is going to be short and without a lesson and complementary workbook.
In the summer, I became more focused on my goals as I was about to enter my last year of teaching. My retirement plan was to continue teaching in some way. At first, my dreams were to teach silk painting and ceramics at community art centres and over the summer I began to seriously think about studying how to launch an online course. My creative journey was about to follow a different path.
I had been following a few leaders in that field, I signed up for their helpful handouts and watched webinars and did the lessons. Finally, I bit the bullet and signed up for the course that offered it all. It was starting in September and only launches once a year. With excitement and fear, I jumped in knowing that I was a bit ahead of my planned schedule but that it would all lead me to where I want to be.
The course is Digital Course Academy, taught my Amy Porterfield. There is so much great information in the course and so much to learn. My main goal right now is to build a community of interested people through my email list. I'm learning more about my Ideal Customer Avatar, my mission and vision as well as Mailchimp, Instagram Stories and Reels, Facebook Pages, Facebook ads, email campaigns and sales. But the most important goal right now is to create consistent content for my blog. The articles are interconnected to my teaching and hopefully are helping people build their creative confidence with the downloadable PDFs.
In case you don't know yet, I have chosen to create a Learn to Sew & Embroider Course - Knots & Stitches 1O1. For the last few years, I have been teaching these skills in my Craft class and see the students' skills increase by the day. The immediacy of the results is the key to their success. The projects I am planning will allow people of all ages and skills to make satisfying felt crafts that will fill them with the joy of accomplishment.
This choice might seem different from my ceramics, but it too is connected. In my clay practice, I create two-dimensional templates, develop detailed textures and seam the impressed clay together to create three-dimensional forms.
At the beginning of the pandemic and much the way through, I found comfort and joy in creating needlepoint and felt-based crafts from kits from Kiriki Press and Aimee Ray and Punch Needle designs of my own making using the Amy Oxford Punch Needle.
For some reason, although I had all the supplies I needed, I was not able to muster the passion to connect in any way, to my beloved ceramics practice. I know I am not alone in this creative angst. I have never experienced this kind of disconnect and have been trying to climb my way out of it.
I have only been able to return to it lately, because I intentionally committed to two events: the Mississauga Potters' Guild Online Sale (November 21 & 22 @ 10am -5 pm) and being a Presenting Artist online for the Guild this week.
These two events have made me clean and organize my studio. They have made me show up and make the work. In preparing for the presentation, it has allowed me time to evaluate my journey and see my progress over the past 15 years. I plan to sum it all up in a brief artist talk, a studio tour and a demonstration of how I make my Linoblock Ceramic Ornaments. Wish me luck as I navigate a live Zoom meeting with a shared screen and multiple cameras angles to capture it all.
I've been going full speed ahead and am excited about what I am planning and can't wait to share more with you in the coming months.
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