The best waste is of course no waste, but as long as that is a utopia, there is nothing better than coming up with creative ideas with waste materials.
One of the most beautiful sayings I ever saw was: Waste is only waste if you waste it.
And once you get used to thinking in terms of reusing and not wasting stuff, a huge flow of ideas will start, I can assure you.
In this article, I list a number of ideas for inspiration or imitation.
If you start a new hobby, you will make mistakes. That’s part of the game, also when you make cyanotypes, and it’s okay.
Some mistakes are final, but that’s “tuition money” most of the time. Other errors can either be covered up or corrected. And some mistakes have a surprising effect. Beautiful results came from accidental errors.
The most important tip is to keep a log so that you know what you did. By the way, a log is also convenient to repeat successful results.
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.
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.
In this article, I explain how to make a handmade frame and combine it with layers in Photoshop in an easy way. The end result appears to be the outcome of masking, but it is actually the result of selecting and deleting.
In the starting years of the availability of computers for everyone, I met a professional illustrator who said he had bought a computer and some illustration programs because he was sick and tired of getting dirty hands while drawing.
Working with your hands, and especially with clay, is a great way to relax. It is also a way to develop your creativity and is very satisfying. And it does not have to be expensive at all.
Over the years I had collected a lot of professional tools for my clay processing – wire tools, knives, hole cutters, kidneys. Some were bought new, others in a secondhand shop, and some came from my kitchen drawer.
You can start making ceramics right away because most of these utensils you have in your house anyway. Buy some clay and you’re ready to go.