Making Friday: a 2014 review

My Making Friday rule has become a little more flexible lately, largely because my ceramics class is on a Monday morning, and also because my back pain has caused me to take steps to spend more time away from the computer. So there’s a lot MORE MAKING going on, but not necessarily on a Friday, and here’s a quick summary of the year:

First up, ceramics. It’s been such a treat to spend my Monday mornings with a great bunch at Louise Gelderblom’s studio in Tamboerskloof. I seem to be tending towards making things with very little function, but a lot of form, like this bunch of Oddjects. Search for the #HeatherMooreCeramics hashtag on Instagram to see lots more (and lots more in 2015 too!).

In April and May, still with ceramics, but a bit more of a structured project, I was invited to participate in the Spier Architectural Arts Half Square project. In collaboration with ceramicist Karen Kotze, I got to design a giant tile panel and work on a vast array of beautiful green glazes. That really was a treat.

Read all about the process here, and see the final panel here.

The point of Making Friday is to do studio work that isn’t related to deadlines or other pressing things. It’s all about creative freedom, and just making stuff because it’s what I like to do best.

Of course, when it turns out that the thing you made just for fun turns into an actual product, that’s best of all, and that’s what happened when I doodled in ink around spots of light coming through the studio blinds one day, and before I knew it, the doodle had become the Feather Leaf print in my Yoyogi Park fabric collection for Cloud9. 

Another ‘just for fun’ that turned into a product was my Stig design, which I made as a papercut one Friday, in homage to Stig Lindberg’s wrapping paper design for Gustavsberg. Now it’s available as a lasercut, it’s one of our tea towel designs, and its’ on cushions too.

Read all about the process here, and find a lasercut version of Stig, as well as cushions and teatowels for sale in our stores.

During August and September, I spent a lot of studio time working on my block printing technique in preparation for my trip to Jaipur with Ritchie Ace Camps, and I’m spending even more time block printing now that I’m back!

And sometimes Making Friday is just for fun…

… especially when my niece Izzy joins in!

Here’s looking forward to lots more fun (and useful) Making Fridays in 2015, no matter which day of the week!