This week’s special featured artist is of particular interest. To me anyway. Well, it is me. So perhaps that’s why. You can read all about it   here…

A couple of weekends ago I shared the stage with Gever Tulley of the Tinkering School (enough already Bernadette!) and my partner in Slow Family Living, Carrie Contey. The theme of the night was innovation in education and it was a great synchronistic trio of talks. My own talk was on creating with kids, or, making stuff together. And the idea that it’s about the process and the connection built and not necessarily the end result.

Through our classes and through our crafty sessions with our kids,  Kathie and I have  learned a thing or two about what works and what doesn’t when creating with kids – when to push forward and when to back off and let well enough alone. In our current pause from studio classes, we’ve learned a bit more as well, and are grateful for the collaborative effort that lets the ideas get ping-ponged back and forth as opposed to just lying dormant in our brains.

Do you like to make stuff with your kids? Someone else’s kids perhaps?  After you read the points below, I’d love to hear what you’ve learned in your own process. Because as we write our book, Make Stuff Together, we’d really like to know what everyone out there is seeking and experiencing in the making stuff together with kids. Here’s what we know so far and right now…

• Remember that the process is the goal. Not the finished product but the process of creating. If you have a vision of how something should look, make your own.
• Creativity is not mimicry – inspiration not imitation. You can show an example if you like but allow their own expression to shine through.
• Set boundaries that work for you. If you are comfortable with chaos, go for it. If you’re not though, it’s not a necessity of the creative process. If you’re tense, it’s not going to exactly encourage their most creative selves.
• Use materials that work for you in the setting you’re in.  Watercolors vs. tempera or crayons vs. markers. If you let yourself go a bit with certain materials as opposed to others, go with that. They can explore the others some other time in some other place.
• Allow enough time for the project at hand. A rushed craft session is a recipe for familial disharmony if ever there was one.
• Work where it works for you. Does outside let you let go a little more? Go there. Kitchen table? Floor? What do you like?
• Look for signs that the end is near. Catch it before it breaks down. Remember that frenzy does not equal creativity. Be willing to put it away and call it a day.

And what I learned from Gever’s talk, is to remember that we are collaborators, not leaders. It is sometimes hard to do, to let go, but it is definitely an idea worth working towards. Because our kids have some pretty cool ideas of their own if we give them a chance to express them.

Our winner this week is Heidi with random.org’s lucky number 21 and as soon as we get her mailing address, we’ll be sending a fine fabric stash her way.  Thanks to all who left a comment. We love reading your words and knowing you’re out there. Keep coming back because we’re really enjoying the process.

So leave a comment for next week’s drawing. Our question this week is, what project are you working on that fills your proverbial cup?

Something along the lines of the fabric used for this project.

It’s a dream for Kathie and I to get to work together on a regular basis. (Right Kath? Huh? You like it? Right?) And we can’t wait to begin the process of bringing our connection into our book.

So, as we enter this Thanksgiving week, Kathie and I have an endless list of things we are thankful for and we definitely count all of you who have visited our site and our work so enthusiastically. So thanks guys.

And remember us at Christmas 2011 when you are seeking just that perfect gift for the family crafter in your life.

And this month, just in time for Halloween, we present our Halloween t-shirt Trick or Treat bag. Check it out. Whip up a few and get ready for some free candy!

We’re back on Craftzine this season with a new collection of projects under the heading, Reduce, Reuse, Refashion. Our first project out the bag, (pun totally intended) is for these super cool, lightweight and breathable produce bags made from sports jerseys. Get on over there and check ‘em out. And while you’re at it, check out the newly revamped Craftzine site. Full of super crafty ideas for your itchin’ to craft fingers.

In addition to working, I mean, um, volunteering at school, we’ve got a few good projects up our sleeves and we’re just now starting to once again don our Future Craft hats, and a few other hats we wear, and gear up for some fall fun.

Starting September 25th look for us on Craftzine with our new monthly “Reduce, Reuse, Refashion” projects. Each month we’ll be taking some item and refashioning it into something else. I’ll give you a hint for our September project. It has to do with football jerseys.

Kathie just finished up a weekend of Handmade Nation fun including a book signing and a showing of the film, featuring filmmaker Faythe Levine.

This Thursday, September 10th, I’ll be hosting the first Collective Craft Night from 7:30-10:00 pm. If you’re a lady looking for some crafting action, come on out and join us as I set the stage for a night of collage and card making.

We’ve also got a little writing project we’re working on, but that news will have to wait until we’re given the go ahead for a full blown release. We’re excited though!

If you’re in the market for an uber unique and amazing custom made personalized western shirt, you can always check out Kathie’s Ramonsterwear site. Her latest creations have been nothing short of jaw droppingly beautiful!

And finally, my other endeavor, Slow Family Living, has a few classes, workshops and fill-ups lined up for September and October. If you’ve a hankering to slow things down a bit on the home front and spend some intentional time connecting with your family, go check it out.

In the meantime, we’d love to hear what projects you’ve got lined up for fall…

And now we’re both back in Austin, TX. A little weary of the crazy heat, but glad to be home and glad too to be back together gearing up for what’s ahead. Dare I say gearing up for fall? Crazy as that might sound, it’s true.  Perhaps thoughts of fall will keep us here in Austin from fretting about another month or so of 100+ degree days.

Our first big event will be our 2nd annual Back to School Clothes Swap held at our kids’ elementary school held on Texas’ Tax Free Weekend. The principal is even letting us move things into the cafeteria this year which is bigger than the gym and hopefully a wee bit cooler too. It was hot as be-jeepers last year and, well, you can only guess how hot that is. Our volunteers were tireless in their efforts though and the swappers just kept coming.

Here are the details…

• Saturday August 22
• 9:30 am – 2 pm
• Zilker Elementary School 1900 Bluebonnet Lane Austin, TX

We are seeking volunteers to help us sew, silk screen, sort and of course swap. So come one, come all sizes. Bring your cast-offs and dig through the abundant piles of clothes and shoes to get yourself set up for the new season ahead.  It’s not only green but it’s tax free too!

And if you’re not in Austin but you’d like to organize your own Back to School Swap, check out our tutorial here with step by step instructions for organizing your very own.

We’ve been talking so much with the kids in class about enjoying the process and not just rushing towards the finished product. Ben Livingston is an Austin glassworker who loves the process. He is in the history books now for inventing a whole new process of glass work that involves mineral phosphors and for that he’s been invited to participate in at Corning in a worldwide conference on innovative glass works. As he was pondering just what he would share with the nearly 3000 people who would gather, he decided to tell the story of his process. The only thing is, the process is such an evolution, he’s not really sure where the story begins.

I love when the story of process is pondered and the question of where it all began can not really be answered.

“How did you come up with this project? This process? This style?”

“All I’ve done before has brought me here.”

All of what we do and have done informs the rest and so the story begins really and truly at the beginning. Of time. Of our time and then even before.

Think of something you do today. When did you start doing it that way? What led you to that decision? Can you know? Can you even stop going back and back and back and back? Imagine learning as a 9 or 10 or 11 year old that everything we do today, leads us to the next.

The future is now. And now. And now. So begin your process right where you are. Who knows where it will lead you!

You can listen to it here on Craftypod.com