The virtual classes with Estela Saez have now sadly come to an end. I learnt so much from Estela, as well as from the Handshake 8 cohort. It was a period of intensive development of my making processes, as well as expansion of my thinking and creative comfort zones. The classes gave me many new tools in the exploration and generation of ideas.
I discovered that in 10-15 minutes I can generate a whole lot of different ideas, drawings and objects to follow. I came to realise that the short time limit helped get the overthinking part of the brain out of the way. There is no time to second guess. With the many creations there was an acknowledgement that not all of them would be great, but those ones help you rule out what you didn’t want to explore. This process also allowed me to move beyond the obvious solutions. It’s not to say the obvious ideas aren’t wonderful, and sometimes the first idea is the better one, but it is good to be able to confirm that with subsequent experiments. Previously, my drawings process was often prescriptive: ”this is what I am going to make”. In the classes the drawing exercises I was able to throw a broader conceptual net around ideas. I then chose one to explore by returning to the process above.
For me, this was a making process where there wasn’t a whole lot of planning ahead. I made in response to the piece or the ideas we explored. The results felt open ended. Often the first trial informed the second model, and so on. Each model accentuated an idea or proportion. It was an incredibly playful exploration and deconstruction of each idea. This iterative way of making allowed me to react to the last object and moving straight onto the next with an idea I wanted to explore. As I made questions would arise, such as: what would happen if I change one thing? What if I get rid of the facet, smooth out the form, will that make it feel lighter? What if I play with the edges of the strip, curve them to soften them a little more? What if I elongate the form to make it feel a little more paper or fabric like? What if I try and get that end to touch the ground lightly as if it is an object frozen mid motion? I came to see this process as “thinking through making”.
One skill that we have learnt and used every single classes was the gift of giving and receiving valuable constructive feedback. Estela created a wonderful space for receiving feedback on our work and importantly steered us to look at our own work critically along with how to give constructive feedback to one another.
I look forward to continuing to use and develop these processes for making and investigation. I cannot speak more highly of this process.
