CLEVERcreating - Balance between thinking and doing

A Creative Approach to Add Text to an Art Journal, 7 Tips

February 6, 2023February 6, 2023 by Hannie Mommers

An art journal can be created in 2 ways. The focus can be on images with added text. Or the focus can be on texts to which images are added.

That depends on your own preferences. Are you primarily visual or are you mostly text-oriented?

If you’re going to add text to an art journal, it’s a good idea to try both methods. As an artist, we sometimes have to step out of our comfort zone and challenge our personal preferences to take leaps forward.

In this article, I describe a number of ways to display text, but also to create text.

Creating Unique Text in an Art Journal and my Pages of January 2023

February 2, 2023February 2, 2023 by Hannie Mommers

My personal challenge, an assignment to make a collage daily for 365 days, is almost halfway.

This month I focused on the combination of text and image. You can make text in many ways, as I describe in another article.

Some methods require hardly any tools, others are a bit more complicated.

Either way, just as making images unleash a lot of creativity, so does making texts. 🙂

3 Ideas for DIY Valentine Cards that are Simple and Beautiful

January 30, 2023January 30, 2023 by Hannie Mommers

Even if you consider yourself as non-creative, as a lot of people unjustifiable do, it’s pretty simple to make something.

These 3 ideas for DIY Valentine cards will inspire you to have a fun afternoon beforehand and a great day on February 14th.

Valentine’s Day used to be about secret love, yet has turned into a commercial fest. Personally, I don’t like that. It’s so simple to go to a store and buy all kinds of stuff, or even order it online.

Profitable Selling Pictures Online? Which Problems and Possibilities Exist?

January 26, 2023January 26, 2023 by Hannie Mommers

One of the ideas in the article 20 Ideas on how to make money after retirement is to sell your digital pictures. Can you start selling pictures online just like that? What are the options you have? And equally important, what are possible problems you can encounter? I’ll elaborate on these in this article.

You don’t have to be a professional photographer nowadays to sell your pictures. Although it helps if you know what you are doing and if you maintain a quality standard in composition, use of colour and format.

Can you Make Ceramics at Home? Is Owning a Kiln Absolutely Necessary?

January 23, 2023January 23, 2023 by Hannie Mommers

When I was living in the Netherlands I made abstract, sculptural ceramics. You can see the sources of inspiration and the results of what I made in another article, but here I want to answer the question “Can you make ceramics at home?”.

In order to work properly, you do not need your own atelier – several of my students used their kitchen table – although a place you don’t have to tidy before every meal is an advantage.

The space I used was a small building located in the garden, which suited me perfectly. It was my atelier where nobody disturbed me and I could work quietly. And where I taught my students, so at times it was not quiet at all!

Ceramics in Magical Colours. How to Use the Colour of Clay Itself?

January 16, 2023January 16, 2023 by Hannie Mommers

Decorating your ceramics can be done in many ways. Your clay object can be glazed or painted with engobes and underglazes. Even screen printing or applying transfers are possibilities.

A pure way of working is using the colour of the clay itself with at most a transparent glaze to emphasize the colours and make the object watertight.

Clay has different colours depending on the substances in the soil of the quarry. The clay you buy in the shops usually has only a few colours: it’s white, red, or ‘black’ (rather dark brown) after firing. Due to the industrialized process, the tones are generally the same every time.

Dyeing with Plants, a Natural Way of Colouring Fabric or Paper

January 16, 2023January 16, 2023 by Hannie Mommers

Botanical colouring, natural colouring, or plant colouring are different names for dyeing with plants. All with the objective of having a toxic-free or almost toxic-free dyeing process.

When I was a ceramicist, I was very interested in the way colours are produced.

I made my own coloured slips for years and when I wrote my article about the different colours of clay my interest in natural colouring, in general, was aroused once again.

How to Clean Greasy Hands Quickly in an Eco-Friendly Way?

January 12, 2023 by Hannie Mommers

People today are living longer than they were a few centuries ago because of improved hygiene. But if you wash your hands and body too often, you run the risk of actually weakening your immune system. Exaggerating is never good.

Artists have to clean greasy hands a lot. And since the pandemic, we wash our hands even more than before.

In addition to being bad for the environment, many products are harmful to our skin as well.

How to Smooth the Surface of your Clay Object – 3 Affordable Tips

January 9, 2023January 9, 2023 by Hannie Mommers

Ceramics can be produced in several ways. Each method will result in a different surface.

You can press the clay in moulds, hand-build an object, or merge slabs.

Depending on completion or decoration it can be necessary to smooth the surface as best as possible.

How to smooth the surface of your clay object? I’ll explain my methods in this article.