No Age Limits on Creativity!

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artistic, Artwork, creativity, drawing, illustration

I was chatting to my hairdresser the other day about her young son. A keen artist, he had been persuaded by his school to nonetheless give up art studies in favour of concentrating on more basic skills like English and maths. She conceded his basic skills were more important, but was keen to encourage him to continue with his art in his free time, and we talked about good places to buy art materials locally.

‘Well,’ I said, ‘if he wants to draw, he’ll probably draw with anything.’

‘He does!’ she said, and it set me thinking about artistic creativity.

Here was a young lad, just starting out in life, and here am I, comfortably into my seventh decade – and we have something very much in common – we’re both full of artistic ideas just bursting to get out. I can honestly say that, far from winding down, my impulse to create is more intense than ever. The sense of urgency is quite overpowering at times. My young friend is probably not over-worried about his eyesight or steadiness of hand letting him down any time soon, but I am. So it’s important to me to get it all done, or at least, as much as I can manage.

It’s very much a key part of human nature to mull over an idea and ask, can I do that? Can I make it work? I was wondering recently, having written a story about a magpie, whether I could actually draw one. I drew birds all the time when I was young, but it’s been a long time. It will take a bit of effort, but I rather think my magpie will appear. The first rough sketch is already on my pad.

Do I stop and ask whether I’m too old to learn new arty stuff (or relearn old stuff)? Of course. But mostly I just get on and do it. The more I do, the more my confidence increases. And, increasingly, I find I just know how to get the results I want – the benefits of long experience kicking in, I guess.

If the creative need is there, it’ll burst out one way or another. There’s simply no stopping it. I have friends in their eighth and even ninth decades who still feel that intense need to be creative. It’s one of those things that makes you feel alive, however old you are.

There are no age limits to creativity, then, from the youngest to the oldest. I hope my young friend enjoys his artwork – and for myself, I’m looking forward to a highly creative future!

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Adventures in Bookbinding – The Herbarium

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bookbinding, plants, writing

Herb Paris – inspiration for The Herbarium

The story of The Herbarium begins in a beautiful Welsh woodland back in April 2017. I was walking at Dinas Powys with my family when I spotted an unusual plant, the Herb Paris.  I photographed it and moved on – but it had already given me an idea for a flash fiction story, True Herb, which I duly wrote. And then I forgot all about it.

A year or so later I was looking through my story files seeking ideas when I came across True Herb again. It was the sort of rather unconventional writing I enjoy most, and so I began to expand the story. By the summer, The Herbarium was taking shape.

Around that time I bumped into a writing acquaintance (Jennifer Hunt) who had written and illustrated her own book – and was inspired to create my own artwork for The Herbarium. The general style I wanted was that of the Victorian designer, writer and craftsman William Morris, so I studied his work and by the end of August I was producing my first attempts at illustration as well as finishing writing the book. It took all winter to complete the work, but by late February 2019 I had 24 drawings and a finished story.

Sewn and ready to glue…

In the meantime serendipity had intervened again. I had seen some books bound by my friend Carol Rochfort, and wondered if we might hand-bind some copies of The Herbarium. Carol loved the idea and so I set out on the road of choosing fonts, creating layouts, designing covers, finding out about paper and materials, and experimenting with the sewn-board binding style Carol recommended. It was a steep learning curve, and I couldn’t have done it without Carol’s knowledge, assistance and enthusiasm. ‘You’re very calm, Kathy,’ she said to me at our first binding session.

‘It’s all a front!’ I replied truthfully, as I fumbled inexpertly with the stitching.

Glued and clamped…

Since then my husband’s woodworking clamps, steel rules and cutting tools have been commandeered, scrubbed within an inch of their lives, and transported to my study, forming a sort of off-the-cuff bindery. We’re going to need a bigger house at this rate.

Cutting card has been the hardest thing to get right – I wrecked most of an expensive sheet before deciding I needed lots more practice on something cheaper. Getting all the angles right and the measurements correct doesn’t come easily to an unmathematical person like me. But I persevered, and wonky tops and ragged edges became rarer. In short, I figured out techniques that worked for me.

Finding the right threads to sew with had been tricky, too. Carol has a reel that is just perfect, but it has no identifying label and she ‘just picked it up somewhere.’ So the search continues.

It all requires serious organisation – at one point I found I’d sewn half the pages on upside down. It’s the kind of mistake you don’t make twice. I hope.

A book begins to emerge…

It’s all very much a work in progress and there is still much to learn (and, no doubt, many more mistakes to make) but I’ll get there. Still, miraculously, a book is beginning to emerge, and it’s all mine, from first idea to finished article. I’ve never been prouder of anything I’ve achieved – and now my study smells gloriously of beeswax, too. It makes me very happy.