This year with my business Mini Mad Things, I wanted to do things a little differently. Instead of encouraging you to buy more stuff, I created a free gift for everyone who has supported my little business. I’m also in the process of moving my business away from selling physical items (although I do have a soft spot for art books, so I might keep selling those!) and focusing on selling digital printable activity sheets, which you can print at home and have minimal environmental impact.

I spent the last few days drawing 4 beautiful colouring in sheets that share messages of peace, unity and protecting our planet over the festive season, and throughout the year. These colouring sheets are free for everyone to download, just follow the link below to get your copy.

Festive peace & unity colouring sheets

I would love to share these DIY posters with as many people as possible, so print a many copies as you like, put them up in your community and share this article with friends.

Creative Spaces is a reader-supported publication. To allow me to keep sharing lots of ideas for free, if you can afford it, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, it’s only $6 AUD per month.

I have no idea! I have no definitive answers or sage advice.

Sometimes it feels like I have no space in my head for my own thoughts and ideas, let alone quiet time to pursue my own creative practice. Often the message we hear from those in the parenting advice world is that ‘you need to carve out time for yourself’ or ‘you need to look after yourself first in order to be the best parent you can’. I’m not saying this is bad advice, in fact it would be wonderful to have more time to myself, but it just isn’t possible for everyone. Some of us, myself included, have children who, due to neurodiversity or health issues, require more of our time and support. Some may have financial insecurity meaning they need to work extra jobs whilst also caring for a family. Others might have no family or community support to lighten the load. All of these things mean it can be difficult to find the time to pursue our own interests, hobbies or even finish reading a book. For me, the thing I would like to spend my time doing is crafting and making art. Not for any reason or financial gain, just because it fills my cup.

To fulfill this need for a creative outlet in my life, instead of having separate time to myself to pursue art making, which isn’t really possible for us right now, I have managed to weave creativity into the fabric of our daily lives. For the moment, while my children need my support and I need to contribute financially to my family, this will have to be enough. With purposeful action, I have woven artistic practices and innovative thinking through our home education life, through the community spaces we are building and my business Mini Mad Things. It’s not separate, just part of our everyday living.

Although I do feel the need to learn and grow in my own creative knowledge, separate from my life as a parent, (I really want to learn some pottery and painting skills), I love that I have been able shift my creative practice to fitting alongside being with my children and running my business. I love the work I do making art with kids, inspiring families to create and facilitating workshops. I get so much joy sharing art ideas with children and other families. This feels good enough for now and I know this period of my life, of more intense parenting, won’t last forever.

Why does creativity matter to me?

Even though I’m not regularly creating my own art or design work, outside of making art with my children, my hope is that the concept of creativity is permeating into my children’s lives. I hope that they grow up knowing that they to can breath life into their ideas through creative work.

Creative practice of all forms feels so important right now. Being able to make art, craft, build and fix things, sows the seeds of re-imagining the world we are living in. In her recent article, Sara Sadak shares:

‘In a time where the arts are censored, attacked, and surveilled, it is important for all of us to stake fierce claim on the capacity for our brain to imagine and create alternatives. This muscle is built through making of all kinds. And it is applied and extended to how we imagine family, community, education, healthcare, how we are to be with one another. Creating is a muscle we all desperately need to foster.’

I couldn’t agree more. Creative practices can help us make connections with others, build communities and imagine alternative systems for us to live within. Eventually, just maybe, we will be able to move out of the harmful and oppressive systems around us and step either partially of fully into these new systems we have built. Systems that have been build with creativity, care and mutual work.

Making connections with creative projects

We have just moved house and as a result, I was looking through and packing a big box of my children’s art. I wanted to share with you this super simple art project we created together years ago, when my children were 3 and 6 years old. I have fond memories of us sitting around the table together, with art materials spread before us, each making marks on a paper, creating art together.

It’s so simple, get some sheets of nice quality thick paper; one for each person taking part. Place a range of easy-to-use art materials on the table, like crayons, water colour paints, markers or pastels. You each start with a piece of paper and begin adding colour or making marks. After a few minutes, stop and pass the paper around to the next person, who then adds their marks. Continue the process until you have all added something to each of the pieces of paper and the paper is looking full. The result is a collection of collaborative artworks and a fun time chatting, making art together. All ages can take part, from babies to grandparents.

Happy art making friends!

Creative Spaces is a reader-supported publication. To allow me to keep sharing lots of ideas for free, if you can afford it, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, it’s only $6 AUD per month.

FURTHER READING:

Folkweaver

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a year ago · 5 likes · 4 comments · Sara

DrawTogether with WendyMac

Making Art During Fascism

Special Note: I’m removing the paywall to make this series on Creative Action FREE for all. We can only do this with the support of subscribing members. If you appreciate programs like this and want to support DrawTogether’s work in the world, please become a member. A little bit goes such a long way to keep DrawTogether’s work going and growing. Thank …

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a year ago · 283 likes · 26 comments · Wendy MacNaughton

Today I’m writing about the growth and development of our home education community space, PROJECT CREATE, since it’s beginnings one year ago.

You can read about our first steps building the community in these two articles:

I’ll start with a little background; PROJECT CREATE is a cooperative of home educating families who work together to facilitate a range of activities, create friendships and build community. We operate from a repurposed warehouse and office space in a semi-rural area of South Australia approximately 30 minutes drive from Adelaide.

The ethos behind the space is to build a respectful and inclusive community where young people’s person-hood is respected. We aim to create a space for learning and exploring our interests whilst also supporting social justice issues and divesting for mainstream capitalist culture. Together we learn, play, create art & music, attend protests, volunteer in our community and much more. Sometimes we create a lot of mess, but most importantly, we create friendships and a sense of belonging with other home educating families and the wider community.

There have been times over the last year when it has felt like a LOT to take on; building and running this ‘third space’ for our community. All the families involved have busy lives. We home educate, run businesses, support our neurodiverse children, write books, create art and music, volunteer in the community, whilst educating ourselves about new approaches to learning and parenting, all under the pressures of capitalism to just make ends meet. I’m not complaining, we are all pretty privileged with a safe home to live in and at least one family member with a stable income. However, living within our consumerist capitalist culture whilst also putting in the work to divest from that culture and build a robust, grass-roots community space feels like a LOT.

However, now we are starting to feel the results of all our hard work and it’s amazing!

A few weeks ago, we celebrated one year of using our space with a party. It was so fun to come together, share food, dance and welcome new families into our community.

HIGHLIGHTS THIS YEAR:

DUNGEONS, DRAGONS & GAMES

We have a thriving Dungeons and Dragons scene. We have just added a third D&D table, this one all girls, to the fortnightly sessions at our space. This is a particular highlight of our activities for my son, who has been playing with the same group of friends for two years now.

On the weeks between D&D, we have recently began a board games club, facilitated by one of the parents in our community, where the children bring new games to share with their friends. With the help of the funding we received from ASDE, we have been able to purchase lots more games for our community space.

WOODWORK MAKER SPACE

This month we revamped one of the rooms to create a woodworking maker space complete with tools, a work bench and lots of materials. At our first session using the space, it was so fantastic to see the kids inspired and the room was bussing with experimentation and creativity. The tools we purchased for the space, again were made possible with funding we received from ASDE.

Over the coming months, we hope to support the children in learning some simple woodworking techniques and to gain competency using different tools, to allow their creative ideas to flourish.

CREATIVE WORKSHOPS

Throughout the last year, myself and other parents have organised a range of creative art and craft workshops at PROJECT CREATE for our home education community. One particular highlight for my son, was a series of cosplay workshops to make fantasy helmets and swords.

WE PUT ON A PLAY!

A founding ethos of PROJECT CREATE is to center the children’s voices in the decision making and activities we host. Earlier this year, one of the young people in our community (age 11) decided she wanted to write and produce a play based on Greek mythology. She then invited other children to take on the acting roles. The adults were there to support and help facilitate the making of costumes and props. Although there were a few stressful moments when the kids weren’t sure it was all going to come together, they performed the play to a audience of friends and family, and felt so proud of their achievements.

WELCOMING NEW FAMILIES

The best part of the last few months in our community has been welcoming more friends into our space. It had been so wonderful to have new families joining our co-op group, who are excited by what we have built so far, and want to contribute their skills to the community. Those skills have included facilitating board games, running craft activities, cooking, cleaning and just providing support. The core group of families, who had started the space, got to a point earlier this year where we were all feeling quite depleted. So for us to have the support of new people and the energy they have brought, has been much needed. It is so fantastic to feel that others get what we are trying to build and want to contribute.

Over the last few sessions at our co-op meetups, each family has been making a poster about their personalities and interests to share with the group as a way of facilitating the building of friendships.

THE FUTURE FOR PROJECT CREATE

I’m excited about what the future holds for our community. Sometimes I feel that the kids involved take it for granted. They don’t realise quite how special what we are building is becoming. But that’s kind of the point; for them to grow up feeling its normal to contribute to and be part of an equitable and inclusive community, where their voices are valued and where we care for others and the world around us.

If you would like to know more or have any questions about how we began our community space, leave a comment below or send me a DM.

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My response to those comments is that: EVERYTHING IS POLITICAL!

Every choice we make about how we live our lives is political. How you treat your partner and friends, how we care for loved ones and neighbors, how we show up, or not, in our communities, if we give money to charity or volunteer our time to help others. All these choices have a political meaning and consequence.

Where we shop, what brands we buy or boycott, where we bank or save our money and even the type of job we do reflects how we show up in the world. Do we buy fast fashion or shop second hand; purchase from Amazon or support a local store? Do we fix and mend broken things or throw them out and buy something new? Again, political.

How we use or abuse the natural world around us is political. Do we pollute and destroy or try to preserve the natural world? Do we view ourselves as above or part of nature? Do we recycle rubbish? Do we care for animals?

The food we eat is political. Do you choose to eat meat, buy local or grow your own food? Do you share what you have with others?

If we decide to have children or not, and how we raise children is very political. Are we authoritarian, permissive or somewhere in between in our approach to parenting? Or do we choose to step outside that paradigm and raise our children with an emphasis on autonomy and consent?

How and where children learn is political. Do our children go to a private or public school? Does the school follow a specific pedagogy or share religious teachings? Or maybe you choose to step outside of mainstream education and home educate. Again, these choices are political.

Do you follow a religion and if so, the ethos of your place of worship you choose to attend is again a political choice.

The type of books, newspapers, magazines or websites we read effects how we think and has political consequences. Do we ban books or use literature as a way to learn about people from diverse backgrounds and lived experiences?

Our decision to use social media or not, and what kind of content we follow is political.

Do we choose to vote or protest?

Even our decision to talk about or ignore politics is political.

And yes, children’s art and crafts can be political too. The way we engage in creative projects with young people effects how they feel about themselves and can be a reflection of how we treat children in general. Do we create projects where we expect cookie cutter replicas or do we value personal expression and creativity? Do we correct, control, judge and grade? Or do we create a space for artistic exploration and creativity to flourish without judgement?

No only is our approach to art with children political, the kind of topics or artists we learn about is a political choice too. Do we just look at western, white artists or actively seek out diverse voices? Art has always been used as a was to express ideas and through engaging in projects inspired by artists from different cultures, we can empathize and learn about the experiences, opinions and experiences of others.

I will say it again, every choice we make about how we live our lives and show up in the world is political. If we avoid or ignore this, we become passive participants rather than actively shaping the kind of world we live in.

WE CAN USE ART TO PROTEST TOO!

On my website, I have a range of colouring pages and activity sheets exploring different social justice and environmental themes. All of these can be downloaded and coloured in to create posters to share in your home, school or local community.

Lets make some art and share some love with the communities around us! If you have a particular slogan or theme you would like me to make colouring sheets about, leave a message below.

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For paid subscribers, I will share links to download all my social justice and climate action colouring sheets below:

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So, this year we embarked on a project to read books from a diverse range of authors sharing stories from different countries and cultures around the world. We created a map to mark the places we had visited through literature. Some stories come from real life, others are historical fiction rooted in a location or period in time. We also love fantasies informed by different cultures and reading about mythologies from around the world. All of these can give us understanding and appreciation for the infinite mosaic of cultures our world contains.

BOOK-SCHOOLING (If that’s a thing!)

Four and a half years ago we stepped out of mainstream education, due to school not being a happy or safe place for my son, and began to home educate. I won’t sugar coat it, it’s been a hard journey but definitely the right choice for us. I think often the image conjured in our minds when we think of home education depicts large families sitting harmoniously around a wooden table, with art supplies beautifully arranged in baskets, studiously working together, interspersed with an occasional run barefoot through a meadow or frolic in the woods. That is not our life. Home education is not easy, not for us anyway. Some days it is utterly exhausting and my mind is filled with doubts that I’m screwing my kids up!

One thing that has always worked for us is books. I love children’s books, my son is an avid reader of all things and my daughter is following suit. In the home education world, there is a huge range of different approaches to education. For example, world-schooling which is traveling and learning from the world around you or game-schooling which leans predominantly on learning from playing board games or computer games. I’m not sure if this is a thing but we book-school. Most of our learning is done through reading a broad range of fiction and non-fiction literature. This is what lead us to the idea of traveling the world through stories.

Obviously you don’t need to be a home schooler to read lots of books, that is the awesome thing about books, they are for everyone. I strongly encourage you to get out there and support your public library or independent bookstore, if you have one.

OUR JOURNEY IN BOOKS SO FAR

The books listed below are novels and mostly fit in the 8-12 age range. Some to contain complex issues facing our world including poverty, migration, climate change, colonialism, racism and social injustice. I don’t shy away from these topics with my children, everything is open for discussion in our house, but I encourage you to research any books you choose to read to see if they are suitable for the age of your children.

(Note: In this article I share Amazon affiliate links so you can find the books we read, but if you can, please consider supporting your local bookstore or library.)

EUROPE

UK:

• Spies In The Sky by Beverly McWilliams is the story of a group of pigeons that were used to carry information during WW2. The story is set in Norfolk, UK and a Belgium.

• Storyland: A New Mythology Of Britain by Amy Jeffs is a retelling of ancient stories from the UK.

• Forest Folk Tales by Tom Phillips retells traditional folk tales from the UK.

• A Kind Of Spark by Elle Mc Nicoll is based in Scotland and tells the story of Addie, a neurodivergent girl who campaigns for a memorial when she learns that her small Scottish town used to burn witches simply because they were different.

GREECE:

• Homer’s Iliad and The Odyssey retold by Gillian Cross. A beautifully illustrated retelling of these Greek mythology stories.

• Greek Myths, published by DK.

• Monkey King And The World Of Myths by Maple Lam is a fun graphic novel that brings together Greek and Chinese mythology.

FRANCE:

• Safiyyah’s War by Hiba Noor Khan is inspired by the true story of how the Grand Mosque of Paris saved the lives of hundreds of Jews during World War II.

NORWAY:

• The Last Bear by Hannah Gold is set on an island in the arctic circle near Svalbard where a young girl befriends a lost polar bear. Through her relationship with the bear, she heals some trauma in her past and her relationship with her father. The story also covers climate change.

• Laila And The Blue Fox by Kiran Millwood Hargrave is set in Tromso, Norway and on a boat in the Arctic circle. The book explores themes of migration, climate change and family relationships through the eyes of the two main characters, Leila and Miso the fox.

• Riddle Of The Runes by Jamina Ramirez is a story of mystery and adventure set in Viking times.

• Norse Mythology, published by DK.

AFRICA

SOMALIA:

• When Stars Are Scattered by Omar Mohamed and Victoria Jamieson is a true story told in graphic novel form about a boy named Omar and his brother, Hassan, who live in a refugee camp in Somalia.

NIGER & LIBYA:

• Illegal by Andrew Donkin and Eoin Colfer is the story of Ebo, and undocumented migrant making a dangerous journey from his village in Africa to Europe, told in graphic novel form.

NIGERIA:

• Onyeka And The Academy Of The Sun by Tola Okogwu is a futuristic fantasy set in London and Nigeria about a girl who finds that her Afro hair has psychokinetic powers.

EGYPT:

• Egyptian Myths, published by DK.

I would love to read more stories based in Africa or by African authors, please give me your recommendations in the comments below:

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ASIA

INDIA:

• Nush And The Stolen Emerald by Jasbinder Bilan is set in colonial India and London. Nush travels to London to retreve a precious emerald that was stolen from her family by the East India Company. This book is a great for introducing destructive effects of colonialism to young readers.

• Asha And The Spirit Bird by Jasbinder Bilan is the story of a girl, Asha, and her friend who travel through the Himalayas to find her lost farther.

• Tamarind And The Star Of Ishta by Jasbinder Bilan is a sad but beautiful mystery infused with magic about a girl who returns to her mothers ancestral home in India after growing up in the UK.

• Ash Mistry And The Savage Fortress by Sarwat Chadda; think Percy Jackson but based in Indian culture.

• Tales From India by Bali Rai

PAKISTAN:

• Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed is based in Pakistan and calls attention to contemporary global inequities, exploring themes of social injustice and education. The story tells of one girl's courage as Amal struggles to regain her freedom and become a force of change for her village.

THAILAND:

• A Wish In The Dark by Christina Soontornvat is fantasy novel and retelling of Les Misérables by Victor Hugo with elements inspired by Thai culture.

VIETNAM:

• Inside Out And Back Again by Thanhha Lai is a story told in verse about a 10-year-old girl, Kim Ha, escaping the Vietnam War in 1975 to move to a new town in Alabama.

SOUTH KOREA:

• When You Trap A Tiger by Tae Keller is based in the US and tells the story of a biracial girl, Lily, who learns about her heritage when her family moves in with Lily's Korean grandmother.

CHINA:

• Where The Mountain Meets The Moon by Grace Lin is a fantasy-adventure novel inspired by Chinese folklore. In the story, Minli makes friends with a flightless dragon, a talking goldfish, a King, and a boy with a buffalo. The characters she meets all play a role in helping her find her way to the Old Man in the Moon. Throughout her journey Minli learns lessons about happiness and true wealth.

• A Ghost In My Suitcase by Gabrielle Wang is the story of Celeste, a 13-year-old Australian girl of Chinese decent. When she travels to China to visit her grandmother, she uncovers an incredible family secret. The story explores Chinese mythology and culture.

• Guardians Of The New Moon series by Eric Huang explores the Chinese Lunar New Year myths and stories in fun and exciting adventures.

• Myths of China, published by DK

JAPAN:

• Peach Boy and Urashima Taro published by Tutle is a selection of traditional Japanese children’s stories.

INDONESIA:

• Berani by Michelle Kadarusman is set on the island of Java in Indonesia and follows Malia, Ari, and a captive orangutan named Ginger Juice in a story about environmental activism.

PAPA NEW GUINEA:

• The Shark Caller by Zillah Bethall is a spell-binding adventure of friendship, forgiveness and bravery, set on the shores of Papua New Guinea.

AUSTRALIA

• Runt by Craig Silvey set in outback Australia tells the story of Annie and Runt, a stray dog, who enter a dog show to try and raise money to save her families farm.

• Blueback by Tim Winton is an achingly beautiful story about family, belonging, and living a life in tune with the environment.

• Magic For Tigers by Michelle Kadarusman is set in the forests of Tasmania and is an environmental story about protecting the forest and searching for the now extinct Thylacine ( Tasmanian Tiger).

• The Song Walker by Zillah Bethall is fantastic tale which meshes modern life with ancient folklore to create a gripping, emotional adventure set in outback Australia.

NORTH & CENTRAL AMERICA

USA:

• The Lost Whale by Hannah Gold is the story of Rio, who moves from the UK to California to stay with is grandmother when his mother is unwell. In his search for a lost whale, Rio heals his relationship with his grandmother and tries to save his mother. This story touches on mental health issues in a beautiful and sensitive way.

• The League Of Secret Heroes series by Kate Hannigan is an action-packed adventure trilogy about a trio of young superheroes fighting for justice during World War II.

MEXICO:

• Folktales of Mexico edited by Neil Philip is a retelling of traditional folktales from Mexico.

COSTA RICA:

• Turtle Moon by Hannah Gold is an environmental adventure based in the jungles of Costa Rica where Kaia fights to protect a rare turtle nesting site and inturn heals her relationship with her parents.

We haven’t traveled very far through the Americas yet, please give me some recommendations of stories from North, Central & South America:

Leave a comment

OUR ADVENTURE CONTINUES

Our map of the world in stories is an ever-unfolding atlas of awe and adventure which we plan to continue throughout the year. If you have any story recommendations, please leave them in the comments below and I will share an updated list of books later in the year.

In her book Art Workshop for Children, Barbara describes process art as when:

‘Children sit down to create with no preconceived ideas, no ‘sample’ to look at or outcome to work toward, no right or wrong. It’s just them and the materials and the freedom to explore.’

In the same book, co-author Betsy McKenna further explains:

‘Process art represents the voice of the child, an authentic expression of what the child is thinking and feeling. It is through this free exploration of materials that a child can take risks, gain increased self-awareness and build confidence to experiment with new ideas.’

Along with resonating with Barbara’s approach to creativity, I also loved her use of up-cycled and junk materials. First up, they are free and readily available to all. Secondly, there is something much less daunting for a young artist to approach an old cardboard box than a pristine piece of white paper.

I was particularly inspired by this recycled materials art wall project and have since recreated it several time at home with my children and in creative workshops. Most recently, I built a painting wall for the younger members of our home education co-op. In this iteration, I built the wall and left it as a creative invitation to be decorated, but you could 100% invite the kids to build the wall as well.

I’m planning to leave the wall in our co-op space for a few weeks, each time putting out a different selection of materials. For the first 2 sessions, I will offer different colour paints, next soft wax pastels, then finally for a few sessions I plan to leave collage materials, like cut up paper, yarn, pompoms and magazine scraps along with glue. I’m excited to see how the artwork evolves!

We have recently had a few new families join our co-op, so I thought this was a super simple, low pressure activity for the younger members of the group to help them feel welcome in the space. I love how creativity can bring us together!

FIND OUT MORE

Barbara and her colleague Shannon are now here writing about creativity and play in their new Substack Art is Play:

Art is Play

Cultivating creative classrooms, where art is play and play is learning.

By The Creativity Project

EASY ART ACTIVITIES

Below, for paid subscribers (it’s only $6AUD per month), I’m sharing my new ART DECO SHAPES printable activity sheets for free. You can create cool collages and art deco inspired cardboard sculptures.

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This week I’m talking about showing up in our community, protesting and sharing some social justice colouring pages, which are free to download for paid subscribers.

For the last few months, in our home education co-op, we have been working together to support some environmental causes and show up in our community to protest. We decided to take part in a local sustainability fair event, where we had a stall selling up-cycled crafts and fashion, that the children and adults in our co-op had made. We screen printed secondhand t-shirts, tie dyed old clothes and made baskets from scrap fabric and twine. We then sold the items at the community event and gave 100% of the money to 2 environmental charities that the children chose to support; The Bob Brown Foundation, who are protesting the logging of native forests in Tasmania and across Australia, and the Australian Marine Conservation Society who have multiple projects protecting Australian ocean environments.

The children involved worked so hard making the crafts and selling them at the event; chatting to members of our community about how the items were made and the charities we had chosen to support. It felt good to be out in the world doing something positive.

The following weekend, several families attended a rally in Adelaide organised by The Bob Brown Foundation, protesting the ongoing logging of native forests. It was the first time I have attended a protest with my children. I was a little apprehensive if they would feel comfortable with the noise and business, but they did great. It was such a beautiful day being in community with others and showing up to support our planet.

I would never force my children to attend a protest or even to believe in the same causes as me, but I was keen for them to experience it once, so they can grow up with the knowledge that when we feel like things are unjust, we have a voice. Attending a protest is one of many options available to us to make our voices heard. Others might include writing to members of parliament, voting, donating time or money to a charity, direct action in our community supporting people or nature, or even becoming a politician!

If you are looking for fun and easy ways to make protest posters with your children or in your community groups, I have a range of colouring in pages with can be downloaded from my website MINIMADTHINGS.COM

These include climate action posters, anti-capitalist colouring pages, children’s rights activities and Pride colouring pages. I will share links to download all of these for FREE for paid subscribers to Creative Spaces. (It’s just $6 AUD a month if you want to subscribe!)

I love seeing my printable activity sheets and colouring pages out in the world. If you download any, leave me a message below or send my a photo on Instagram @minimadthings

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Through these collaborative artistic endeavors we can build friendships and support systems, reignite inter-generational connection within families, deepen our connection with nature and create a sense of belonging within a community. We can also use creative practices to combat and dismantle oppressive systems, support marginalised communities and protect our planet.

There are so many ways we can use art and creativity to build a better world; let's explore and share ideas together!

If you have a community project you would like to share, please reach out in the comments, I would love to hear from you.

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COMMUNITY MURALS

Today I’m chatting with Jen Bloomer about creating community murals. Jen is an artist, a workshop facilitator, and mother that's work and life is focused on creativity, connection and community. She is based in Berkley, California, USA where she facilitates creative workshops, both in person and online. Jen is part of a team of multi-racial expressive arts therapists and educators who has developed Co-Create to Liberate which brings the spark of creativity to diversity, equity, and inclusion in schools, workplaces, and communities.

She also creates beautiful print based artworks which you can find on her website and my kitchen wall!

To begin our interview, I asked Jen about what lead to her current creative practice and community work:

Jen responded: I worked in a lot of non-profit jobs and for schools and kept feeling like I was trying to find the "most impactful" work in addressing systemic issues of inequity. I realized that the most impactful work I could do was to follow my passion for creativity and art, and work to share that with others.

Next, I asked Jen to share an occasion that she has used a creative practice to contribute to, strengthen or grow her local community:

Jen responded: The school my kids go to doesn't have a full time art teacher so the kids don't get much art. I worked with the principal, garden teacher and school staff to create a mural with all 400 kids on an old shipping container in the back of the school by the school garden.

The project took place in 2022 so many of the school events had been shut down due to COVID so it was a really powerful way for the whole school to come together and work on a something to make the school more beautiful for all.

What was your favourite part of the project?

Getting to know the kids and feeling connected to the school community.

If you’re feeling inspired and want to create a mural in your community, Jen shared some great tips:

You don't actually have to be an expert painter to create a community mural. A lot of the process is about coordinating people and supplies. I think it's most impactful when the community gets a lot of say in the design. I suggest priming the area you plan to paint with a primer and then using Acrylic paint (Nova paints are my favorites!) and finally varnishing with a UVA protecting varnish at the end.

I asked Jen about any future creative projects she has planned:

I have a whole series of designs I would love to paint at large scale as murals. The series about how we gather and how we come together across difference as humans- it's about our shared humanity.

Finally, we chatted about the future. When things seem bleak, what gives you hope?

Any time I go to listen to someone playing music, see a play, see a dance performance, see new art, and see someone putting their voice out into the world, my hope in humanity is re-instilled. The arts give me hope!

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT JEN BLOOMER

• Head to her website Radici Studios to read more about Jen’s creative workshop offerings and shop her beautiful print artworks.

• View more of Jen’s murals and large-scale artworks in her portfolio.

• Follow Jen on Instagram @radicistudios

• Subscribe to jen’s Substack, Creativly Rooted.

  Creatively Rooted

  Creativity as a source for regenerating, reimagining, healing and thriving. Art, graphic newsletters, coloring pages, prompts and reflections from artist Jen Bloomer.

  By Jen Bloomer

I want to say a huge thank you to Jen for sharing her creative ideas and experiences. I always feel so inspired after hearing stories of how creative practices can help build robust communities around the world.

Thank you all for taking the time to read.

Eleanor X

ART TABLE

A few weeks ago I painted an old wooden coffee table white, placed a basket of acrylic paint pens on top, wrote the invitation ‘Hi I’m Table, please draw on me!’ and left the table in our home education community space.

Initially the children were hesitant, some even double checked before drawing with comments like ‘You mean I can actually draw on the table?!’

‘Yes, you can draw on the table.’ I replied.

It has been wonderful watching the table evolve with everyone adding their own little pictures and messages. What is most exciting though is how, in some small way, it has brought uus together. The children, and adults are drawn (sorry for the bad pun!) together by the simple act of sitting across a table, doodling and chatting.

The ART TABLE has even provided opportunity to practice conflict resolution skills. One child was upset when others had scribbled over a drawing she had created. She raised this issue in our weekly home education co-op meeting. We chatted as a group about how this made her feel, shared ideas about how we could resolve the issue and came up with shared agreements about what we could do in the future to prevent a similar situation happening.

I love how simple creative practices can bring people together and strengthen our communities!

CLIMATE ACTION POSTERS

This week I created 10 new colouring pages, depicting different environmental causes, for you to colour and create your own climate action posters. You can download the posters from MINIMADTHINGS.COM or paid subscribers can download them for free from the link at the end of this article.

I would love to see the posters out and about in the world in your communities. Send me a message with a photo and I’ll share them in my next Substack article.

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For some context, I have two children, H who is 10 and F who is 7. We currently live life and home educate in South Australia, along with my partner.

It’s been a slow start to our year. I feel very privileged to be able to say that. I feel for many in the world it has been a chaotic and scary beginning to the year. Here in Australia mid December through to the end of January are the summer school holidays. Although we home educate and don’t really follow school terms, the school holidays still effect our weekly rhythm. Lots of the activities we attend stop and it’s also our opportunity to catch up with friends who do go to school. After a long break, I’m ready to get back into our more regular weekly routine.

For me, and my children, having a gentle routine to our weeks anchors us. It makes our days feel a bit more predictable and flow easier. It’s a balance between having some regular activities that we attend and having some downtime at home. We are fortunate that we live in an area with a thriving home education community. You could fill each day 3 times or more with different classes, activities and meet-ups. For us, being that busy would be too much. Its a juggling act of compromising between my son, who’s default is to stay home, and my daughters preference to go out and be with people at any given opportunity. I’m somewhere in between socially, but generally feel like I’m stuck in the middle just dropping all the balls!

THE CREATIVE STUFF

Over the summer we have launched into a variety of creative activities. I will share some with you below. At the end of the article I will share some links for paid subscribers to download lots of printable activity sheets for FREE.

PAPER MACHE CLAY

In the last few weeks we have been exploring all the things we can make with paper mache clay. I love that it's a pretty cheap material to make, dries really hard and is so versatile. I'm not an expert, but I will share what I have learnt and a few projects we created below.

If you want to delve deeper into this topic, I recommend checking out Ultimate Paper Mache>>>

Paper mache clay recipe:

• 1 1/4 Cup of soaked paper pulp with some of the water squeezed out

• 1 Cup of dry wall joint compound

• 3/4 Cup PVA glue

• 1 Cup flour

Making the clay:

To make the paper mache clay, first rip the paper you are using and soak in water. Absorbent paper like news print or toilet paper is easiest but you can use other paper, you will just meed to soak them for longer first.

Once you paper is fully soaked and the fibers have broken down, drain the mixture and squeeze out about half of the water. This isn't very exact, I recommend checking out this video for a more detailed explanation.

Put the paper pulp, dry wall compound and PVA glue into a bowl and mix. You can either mix with your hand or use a stick blender. Gradually add the cup of flour until you reach the right consistency. A softer consistency is good for spreading thinly over surfaces, ticker is best if you want to sculpt more textured surfaces.

Now your clay is ready to use. You can store it in an air tight container in the fridge for over a week.

Making a structure to cover:

With paper mache clay, you need a base structure to cover. This can be made from cardboard, wood, masking tape and even molded aluminum foil. If you're using cardboard, I recommend using a double layer of corrugated cardboard, otherwise the moisture from the clay will make the card structure warp.

So far we have created mirror frames, a tigers head and Yayoi Kusama inspired flowers. To create the Kusama flower, we used a template you can find in my Yayoi Kusama printable activity bundle. I will share a link for paid subscribers to download the printable for FREE at the end of this article.

FANTASY MAPS

Creating fantasy maps has been another great project we have loved over the last few weeks. This simple activity inspires so much imagination and creativity. Plus you can learn about all the elements used to create a map like a key and coordinates at the same time.

You can find the Fantasy Map Printable that we used here on my website. For paid subscribers to CREATIVE SPACES, I will share a link for you to download the printable for FREE at the end of this article.

PLANET PROTECTORS CLUB

My daughter recently began a new club with her friends called the Planet Protectors Club. She made a plan of all the materials and equipment she would need, researched relevant books and documentaries and prepared everything to take with us to a recent home school camp. At the camp she invited friends to come and join the club, to colour in animals pictures and create climate action posters.

In a world that feels like it is spiraling out of control with countries actively choosing to go in the wrong direction with regards to tackling the climate crisis, this little moment of a 7 year old deciding to take action, organise and do something positive felt good. The problem is, if we the adults, leave it to our children to sort out, it will be too late!

BOOKS WE HAVE LOVED

I love to travel. However, partly due to living where we do (flights from Australia to anywhere are expensive), partly due to not having disposable income and partly due to the environmental impact of travel, in the last 6 years I have only left Australia once. Sometimes in our quiet little corner, I feel very disconnected from the rest of the world. So, in the last few months we have been taking a journey in the books we read.

We have chosen books that feature stories from different locations and cultures around the world and it has been wonderful. My favourites from our growing collection have been The Last Bear and Turtle Moon by Hannah Gold. Both are environmental stories about a child’s connection to nature and how this effects their relationship with their family. One is set on Bear Island in the Arctic circle, just south of Svalbard and the other is set in the Costa Rican rain forest. We also enjoyed Asha and the Spirit Bird by Jasbinder Bilan which is about 2 friends’ journey across the Himalayas in Northern India. If you’re looking for a story about Australia, I would highly recommend Runt by Craig Silvey which tells the tale of Annie and her dog Runt who try to save their outback town and family farm.

We created a map to record the locations of the books we have read and will continue adding to it throughout the year. If you have any book recommendations for me suitable for 8-12yr olds that feature a specific country, let me know in the comments.

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SIMPLE KID-MADE CRAFTS

I will leave you today with the message that creative activities with kids don’t need to be expensive or involve complicated processes and instructions. Kid made, up-cycled crafts are the best!

My monthly ‘Tales from our Table’ articles will always be free, but if you are looking to more creative ideas, to delve deeper into art techniques or to receive free printables, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to Creative Spaces.

Below I will share links for PAID SUBSCRIBERS to download my Yayoi Kusama activity sheets and templates, the Fantasy Maps printable, Climate Action posters and Endangered Animal printables.

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Through these collaborative artistic endeavors we can build friendships and support systems, reignite inter-generational connection within families, deepen our connection with nature and create a sense of belonging within a community. We can also use creative practices to combat and dismantle oppressive systems, support marginalised communities and protect our planet.

There are so many ways we can use art and creativity to build a better world; let's explore and share ideas together!

If you have a community project you would like to share, please reach out in the comments, I would love to hear from you.

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FOLKWEAVER ZINE

Today I’m chatting with Sara Sadek and Lesley Numbers who collaborate on the Folkweaver Zine, a four-volume calendaring journal that allows the seasons to guide us in an active practice of weaving together more robust, interdependent communities of radical care.

Sara Sadek, founder of Folkweaver, is a writer, educator, advisor and community builder exploring connection, care, and creative freedom as a pathway to co-liberation, particularly in motherhood and childhood.

Lesley Numbers is an artist, educator, mother and earth-tender who loves to co-create projects and experiences that nurture creative exploration and a shared sense of belonging.

I asked both Sara and Lesley about what lead to their current creative practice and community work:

Sara responded: Motherhood really opened up my liberatory community-building and creative practices. I felt so isolated in the early days of mothering, and everything in my bones told me this was not the way we were meant to move through the journey of motherhood. So I sought out an aligned community of parents, which started a decades’ worth of community-building work and creative practice centered on reconnecting to ourselves, each other, our planet. In 2018, I started a screen printing-as-activism project called Radical Matriarch, where we made politicised screen prints in community, and that project has morphed into what I now call Folkweaver. I look to motherhood, community and creative practice as my pathways to shaping a more liberatory, care-centered future.

Lesley said: Like Sara, becoming a mother empowered me to embrace a creative practice, centered around printmaking, and share it with others. When I was pregnant in 2012, I felt a strong desire to connect with others through creative practices and build a life with my daughter that felt aligned with our values. Since then, I’ve engaged in a number of collaborative and community-based projects, which include, co-creating murals, risograph printing zines, screen printing shirts and posters for protests, teaching all ages and abilities a variety of printmaking processes, as well as committing to an art practice rooted in a sense of spirit, curiosity, gratitude and love for the living world.

Lesley and Sara, who first met at high school, reignited their collaboration and friendship in recent years through their Palestinian solidarity work coupled with their shared experiences of motherhood and community care work. Their first collaborative project was designing a series of prints for Palestinian Mutual Aid Fundraisers (which you can see here). They continued to connect over dreams for weaving more robust communities of care and liberation. That’s how their first zine, Germinating Dreams of Community, came to life.

I asked, What makes you both feel passionate?

We’re both so passionate about how to live and breathe liberation into being with our actions and the way we live our lives, modeling those values for our children, and seeking out and connecting with others similarly invested in shaping a kinder, more caring, more liberated world. We see art as a way to both process all that’s so hard and broken about our current world, but also as a tool to radically vision what’s possible. We believe we get to weave a better world every day together, and our work is an active practice of that.

Next, we chatted more about they ways they are using creative practices to build community and the process of launching their zine Folkweaver:

Sara and Lesley responded: I think a lot of us have been circling around how isolated and separate our current society has made us, and are actively seeking ways to reconnect and radically care for each other.

This past year, we started having honest, vulnerable conversations about our current reality and the world we wanted to live in, which in and of itself is a radical act of connecting. We went from inhabiting similar space for so much of our formative years, but not knowing each other very well at all, to establishing an intimate collaboration based on deeply shared values and a belief that a different way of moving through this all is possible.

Our zine emerged from that.

We wanted to create a zine that reconnects us to the seasons, the cycles, and each other: a project that would actively help us build more robust systems of care in our real, actual lives.

We envisioned this first zine as volume I of IV, releasing one each season to nudge us toward each other in creating radical systems of care.

We wanted to ask: What happens when we do this intentional work together in community after a full circle around the sun, after a full year? How might our communities look different?

After releasing our first winter zine, Germinating Dreams of Community, we’re already so heartened by the ways folks are engaging with it in their real, actual lives, as a nudge toward finding and deepening relationships within their own communities, and we’re finding it such a helpful tool in our own lives to anchor our active practice of community building.

The second volume of their zine, Sowing Seeds of Creativity, is now available to pre-order. It is a calendaring journal from the spring equinox-summer solstice that harnesses the energy of springtime to bring our creative visions of community to life.

I asked, what was your favourite part of the project?

Sara and Lesley responded: The deep connections we continue to form both with each other and our wider community, and the connections we’re hearing about from others engaged in the work.

It is so beautiful when we get a message from a community member telling us about their latest bonfire, or organizing a circle in their living room, or printing the zine for all their co-workers. We dreamed it as an active practice and it’s really joyful to see it as a catalyst for folks to gather.

To end our conversation, we chatted about hopes, plans and dreams for the future.

Lesley and Sara shared: We’re really curious and excited about how our communities will look after we’ve created, shared out, and engaged with four seasons of our zines. We’re creating one zine per season, and are mid-creating our Spring zine right now. We’re hoping to continue to collaborate with other artists and creatives who want to contribute prompts, art, recipes to the zines, and are just hopeful for the possibilities of connection the zine can bring for all of us.

Tell me about something in your community that gives you hope for our collective future?

Lesley: I feel hopeful about all of the folks I know who are actively building communities and networks of care; from weekly meals with friends and neighbors, to seasonal gatherings around a fire, to mutual aid organizing, to parents figuring out how to share childcare and enjoy time together, to artists navigating how to share resources and uplift one another, to humans re-learning ways to feel more connected to the land, plants and animals that support us. I am hopeful about shifts I can see and feel in our collective thinking and ways of being from scarcity to abundance, independence to interdependence, charity to solidarity and a willingness to be vulnerable, navigate fears and embrace more loving lives together.

Sara: I feel hopeful when I work with school communities, educators, parents and community members radically re-imagining ways we can be in relationship to our children.

I get excited about actively practicing connection as a pathway to freedom in our relationship with our kids, and about school communities that actively disrupt power hierarchies between adults and kids by giving kids connection and agency steeped in a container of liberation. When kids are treated in a way that honors their freedom, within a culture that’s rooted in anti-racism, cooperation, interdependence, and mutual care, they in turn grow up to be adults who know in their bodies what connected, interdependent freedom feels like, and can walk through the world with an unwavering commitment to wanting that for every being.

Seeing that in practice in the communities I’m a part of gives me so much hope.

You can find out more about Folkweaver and pre-order your copy of the new spring zine here»

For my southern hemisphere friends, the zine is following northern hemisphere seasons so we just need to wait a few months until we head into winter, then we can begin with the first winter zine.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT SARA & LESLEY:

Both Sara and Lesley currently live in the US, Sara is based on the Ohlone land known as San Francisco. Lesley is based in Madison, Wisconsin on ancestral Ho-Chunk land.

You can find their zine collaboration at Folkweaver.com

You can see most of Lesley’s art at lesleyannenumbers.com and connect with her on Instagram @lesleyannenumbers and on Bluesky @lesleyannenumbers

You can subscribe to Sara’s weekly essays at the Folkweaver Substack, learn more about Sara’s advising and community building work at sarasadek.co and follow along on Instagram at @folkweaversf or on Bluesky @folkweaver

I want to say a huge thank you to both Lesley and Sara for sharing their stories, ideas and experiences. I feel so inspired after hearing their stories to continue the creative community building work I do in my own community and to hear more stories from other community builders around the world.

Thank you all for taking the time to read.

Eleanor X

MAKE YOUR OWN MINI ZINE:

Creating zines is such a fun activity to do with young people, to ignite creativity and story-telling skills. I’ve created a fun and easy printable zine template and guide which can be downloaded from MINIMADTHINGS.COM

It’s not OK just to stay in that comfortable place without acknowledging that others are not so fortunate. But just acknowledging is not enough. We have to take action and try to make the world a better place for everyone. After all, we are all connected, particularly in the face of the climate crisis.

It’s hard to know where to start. How do we approach learning about the challenges of the climate emergency with our children but not end up in a place of hopelessness and inaction? How do we share the realities of what needs to be done to ensure a livable planet for their future without damaging their mental health? Should we even share the realities of this with our children? After all, it is our mess to tidy up.

Faced with the enormity of the task ahead of us, remaining hopeful is hard. We decided that small actions in our daily life were the way forward. Little changes bit by bit gradually built into our daily life was the best way to take action. These small projects that we work on together in our community feel like a positive way to approach the topic of climate crisis whilst safe-guarding the mental health of our young people the best we can. This feels like a more sustainable way to approach what feels like an insurmountable problem. For my children, I hope it feels positive and empowering. The problem is big but we can all contribute and together we can have a significant effect in changing the way we live now and for future generations.

So in the next few months we have chosen 2 projects to focus on. We are working together, kids and adults, to make up-cycled crafts and clothing to sell at a local sustainability fair. There will be screen printed second had t-shirts, tie dyed old clothes, woven baskets made from rags, up-cycled soft plastics made into bunting and much more. All the money we raise will be donated to an environmental or social justice charity of the children’s choosing. I’ll share the crafts with you in the coming weeks.

Our second project is to make protest signs and artwork and attend a protest organised by the Bob Brown Foundation to protect native forests here in Australia.

Our hope is that these small actions will show our young people (and the adults involved) that we can make positive change in the face of the climate emergency. I recently finished reading It’s Not Fair by Eloise Rickman (which I highly recommend). The book talks about adultism and the way we view and treat children in our society. One of the chapters deals with our responsibility, as adults, to ensure a safe and livable planet for our children. In the chapter Eloise outlines some simple and achievable actions we can take to give our children the opportunity to have the safe future they deserve.

ENDANGERED ANIMALS

Over the holidays I spent time creating new colouring in sheets depicting 15 endangered and critically endangered animals. Did you know that more than 46,300 species of plants and animals are threatened with extinction. Than includes 71% of cycads, 44% of coral reefs, 41% of amphibians, 37% of sharks and rays, 34% of conifers, 26% of mammals, 21% of reptiles and 12% of birds. The ICUN Red List of threatened species is a great place to learn more about the challenges facing different habitats and animals around the world.

These colouring sheets are designed as a super gentle way to engage in learning about the dangers facing many animals and habitats across our planet with young children. The drawings are available for you download from MINIMADTHINGS.COM, alternatively paid subscribers to CREATIVE SPACES can download then for FREE below.

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I’m very fortunate that I enjoy most of the work I do, both paid and unpaid. (Apart from cleaning, I hate cleaning). I am also fortunate that I have autonomy in choosing the work that I do. And because I have been able to chose this work, most of it feels meaningful to me. A large proportion of my time is spent caring for my children, which can be very challenging and exhausting, but I remind myself that I chose to have children and although it’s hard, I find the work of caring for them very fulfilling. All of the work that I do, including caring for my children, home educating, building our co-op, running my business, contributing to our community, cooking for my family; all of these activities are freely chosen and fulfilling, but they all have a purpose. They both give me pleasure and have a purpose. In fact, it is exactly this meaningful purpose that makes them pleasurable and fulfilling.

Doing something that has no purpose, other than pleasure, is rare in my life. Pleasure was the sole purpose of my drawings. They won’t earn me money, they are not a product to be consumed, they don’t help my community, or put food on the table.

The idea of making something without a purposeful outcome; of using your time on something that is purely for pleasure and relaxation feels radical to me. It feels like a big ‘fuck you’ to the idea that we continually need to be hustling, producing, consuming and accumulating. It is in oppersition to the idea of productivity.

Doing something that has no purpose, other than pleasure, is often viewed negativly in white western capatilist culture. When writing this article I searched for words to better describe an activity that was ‘lacking purpose’. The synonyms I found like adrift, pointless, meaningless, senseless, hollow, inconsequencial or going through the motions, all have such negative conertations. I then searched for a word or phrase that means ‘doing an activity that is pleasurable but lacks purpose’. The phrases ‘mindless indulgence’ and ‘idle passtime’ came up. Again negative. Being idle in white western culture is percived as a bad thing.

How about we change that? I like the phrase ‘mindful indulgence’ to describe an activity that is done with no purpose other than pleasure. How would you describe it?

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I don’t want to fill my life with purposeless pleasure or mindful indulgence, that would feel empty and meaningless. However, I feel it is important to make a little space to do something just because it gives you joy. It’s all about balance. It’s about resetting ourselves and not letting the pressure to be productive take over our everything.

Mindful indulgence is a small but radical way to counteract the hustle culture of capatilism.

Taking the to time to do something with no purpose was an easy step for me whilst on holiday. The next step is to incorporate more of this radical, mindful indulgence into my daily life. For me, this looks like making art for no purpose that no one will see, for you it might be something else.

I grew up in the UK in a Christian family, so Christmas was a fairly big deal during my childhood. There was the religious aspect, that was important to my parents, but there was also the part that involved getting together with family, playing board games, staying up late to watch movies and eating lots of tasty food. I loved being cosy at home by the fire during winter, the smell of a pine tree being brought into your house and I loved putting up decorations. I have many happy childhood memories from this time of the year. And I also have memories of disappointment when the hype didn’t quite meet expectations and I remember a feeling of flatness after the festivities had ended.

As an adult, I have never really found my place with Christmas.

In my teen years, I actively chose to move away from religion; it just didn’t resonate with me and wasn’t how I wanted to live my life. This was the beginning of questioning; Why am I celebrating this religious festival in this way?

In my late 20’s, I moved from Europe to Australia and have been living here ever since (with a 2 year stint in Hong Kong when my son was a toddler). This move to the southern hemisphere was another nail in the coffin of Christmas for me. It removed the cosy ‘sitting by the fire’ seasonal celebration aspect of Christmas that makes sense in the northern hemisphere. It’s the middle of the summer here, why do many Australians have decorations of Santa, snowmen or snowflakes on their houses??? These trappings of Christmas may make some sort of sense in Europe, but to me here in Australia, they feel meaningless to me and shine the light on the fact that it’s all made up.

So what am I left with? We are secular so the religious part of Christmas is a no go. We don’t live near family so big family gatherings are out. The northern hemisphere winter celebration aspect of Christmas with the trappings of pine trees and decorations don’t make sense here in Australia. So the only thing I’m left with is a capitalist festival of excessive consumerism.

That part receives a big NO THANK YOU from me.

So, getting to the point of my anti-Christmas rant, this lead me to question why and how we celebrate not just Christmas, but other Christian holidays. (Don’t get me started on Easter and the Easter bunny!)

The problem with all this questioning is that it can leave your feeling empty. You take away the things that don’t make sense to you but that leaves you with nothing. Having points through the year that are meaningful and celebratory feels joyful to me.

This lead our family to embark on the idea of creating our own traditions around these holidays that feel meaningful to us. Last year I proposed the idea that, at the end of each year we create a family artwork representing something that has been important to us throughout the year. It all started well and at the end of 2023 we created a really fun collaborative artwork.

This year the whole idea has fallen flat. We (mostly me) came up with the idea of painting all the different species of birds that we see in our garden. There are lots and, coming from the UK, the birds here is Australia are pretty spectacular. I gives us all lots of joy watching them around our house.

It started well, I sketched the birds, began painting and my daughter joined in. I asked my husband and son if they would like to contribute to the painting and they declined. I left it a few weeks while we were away camping and tried again. Still no. The painting now sits half finished leaning against the kitchen cupboard.

It was supposed to be something joyful and it has totally fallen flat. I can’t force it to be meaningful to everyone in the family but I have to admit I’m feeling very disappointed. I could guilt them into contributing but then, I might have a finished painting, but every year I look back on it I’ll remember how I had to coerce the family into painting. That would completely kill the idea of it being a joy filled and meaningful family tradition. I have no choice but to move on.

With the pervasive nature of holidays like Christmas in white western culture, it’s really hard to go against the grain. It’s hard to do something different. It’s hard to find a tradition that feels meaningful to everyone in our family.

I’m still left feeling lost around Christmas. Maybe it’s best to just ignore it completely and go the the beach!

Do you have any family traditions that you cherish? Please share to give me a little inspiration!

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WHATS NEXT FOR CREATIVE SPACES?

Over the last 9 months of writing and sharing ideas on Creative Spaces, I have formed a more cohesive idea of what I’m doing here. So, moving forward there will be a few small changes. I will be shifting my focus from sharing craft ideas (although there will still be lots of that), to writing about how we can use creative practices to build robust, grass roots communities. I will be sharing interviews with creatives, community organisers and agitators on how they are using creativity to support their local community. I hope you all stick around.

THE DETAILS...

For FREE SUBSCRIBERS, you will receive weekly articles rotating between the following topics:

• Articles sharing an insight into our personal creative family life and the art projects we get up to at home, like these Tales From Our Table articles.

• Articles sharing creative community projects, community building and workshops I’m involved with, including ideas for fun collaborative art projects.

• Articles sharing interviews with creative people, organisers and agitators from around the world on how they are using creativity to support their local community.

For PAID SUBSCRIBERS (it’s just $6 per month), you will receive all of the above PLUS the following:

• A minimum of 2 free printable activity sheets or colouring pages for you to download and use at home or in your community spaces.

• Access to archived articles which include links to download all the past printable activity sheets I have shared.

• My gratitude for supporting all the work I do in my community and all the creative ideas I share for free here.

Reflecting back on the ups and downs of 2024, I feel the year has been similar; we have all been buffeted by the winds on external happenings in the world. There were parts of the year that felt exhausting and hard, but others that were filled with adventure and joy. I’m ever an optimist, so when looking back, I can see that even the hard parts lead to learning and growth, for which I am thankful.

TRYING NEW THINGS

Starting writing this Substack in March 2024 was a big step outside my comfort zone. I’m not a writer. I have always preferred communicating my ideas and feelings through images and making. Through pushing myself out of comfort, I have learnt so much.

Read about my reasons for beginning Creative Spaces and my relationship with writing in the articles below:

BIG STEPS IN BUILDING COMMUNITY

One of the things I am most proud of in 2024 are the huge steps we have made in building our home education community space. In the past I would have shied away from launching into this kind of project which involves developing a close relationship with others. I am more comfortable going it alone. Although I have always struggled with forming close friendships and feeling dependent on others, I also recognise that going it alone all the time is not good for my mental health. I need others to thrive. And my children need friendships and a sense of belonging to a community.

Taking the steps to home educate, moving outside of the conventional structure of school, can at times, feel like flapping in the wind. Like you are out there all alone doing this different thing with nothing to anchor you and no support. I know that to make our home education life sustainable and for my children to thrive, I needed support and they needed community.

Read about the process of dreaming and building our home education community space in the articles below:

LOOKING FORWARD

Now I’m drawn to my favourite pass time; dreaming and planning. It’s time to come up with the next project or adventure for 2025. I’m a person that thrives on moving forward, so even through the future can look pretty bleak at times, I’m excited for what we can build together this year for a better future for all.

WHATS NEXT FOR CREATIVE SPACES?

Over the last 9 months of writing and sharing ideas on Creative Spaces, I have formed a more cohesive idea of what I’m doing here. So, moving forward there will be a few small changes. I will be shifting my focus from sharing craft ideas (although there will still be lots of that), to writing about how we can use creative practices to build robust, grass roots communities. I will be sharing interviews with creatives, community organisers and agitators on how they are using creativity to support their local community. I hope you all stick around.

THE DETAILS...

For FREE SUBSCRIBERS, you will receive weekly articles rotating between the following topics:

• Articles sharing an insight into our personal creative family life and the art projects we get up to at home, like these Tales From Our Table articles.

• Articles sharing creative community projects, community building and workshops I’m involved with, including ideas for fun collaborative art projects.

• Articles sharing interviews with creative people, organisers and agitators from around the world on how they are using creativity to support their local community.

For PAID SUBSCRIBERS (it’s just $6 per month), you will receive all of the above PLUS the following:

• A minimum of 2 free printable activity sheets or colouring pages for you to download and use at home or in your community spaces.

• Access to archived articles which include links to download all the past printable activity sheets I have shared.

• My gratitude for supporting all the work I do in my community and all the creative ideas I share for free here.

Thank you all for supporting my work.

Eleanor X

For some context, I have two children, H who is 10 and F who is 7. We currently live life and home educate in South Australia, along with my partner.

It’s been a few months since I have written one of these articles sharing the creative projects we have embarked on at home. Life has been busy and although we have been doing a fair few crafty things, I just haven’t had the time to sit down, reflect and write.

Over the last month, my children have been preparing for an annual child entrepreneur market they take part in. The market is run by some families in our local home education community.

This year we collaborated with another family and decided to share a stall. That last sentence made the process of deciding to work together sound very simple. It was far from simple. The journey to collaborating began with a conversation I had with a friend (the mother of another home education family). We (the adults) thought it would be a nice idea to work together, lightening the load of work needed to prepare, sharing creative skills and making fun crafty products to sell together. Sounds great right? Well, when we proposed this idea to the children, we were not initially met with enthusiasm.

Let me set the scene a little before I continue. All the children involved are home educated in a very non-competitive, self-directed and supportive culture. We actively avoid comparison and judgement against peers. Their education is about their personal growth, not their position in graph compared to other children. We are also all families that actively divest from capitalist ideas around hording wealth and buying all the shiny things.

Back to our proposal of collaboration…

When we suggested the idea of working together, we (the adults), proposed that we would all contribute in making items to sell and all the money earned would be shared equally between everyone involved. This simple concept, that seemed fair to us, was met by many (totally valid) questions. Questions like, ‘What if I make more things than someone else, shouldn’t I get more money?’, ‘What if the things someone makes don’t sell, should they still get paid?’ and ‘Do the younger children, who aren’t as good at making things, still get the same amount to money?’ A few of the children involved were very upset at the idea that they would have to share their hard earned money with others. Their immediate response to our proposal of collaboration and sharing was met with a NO. They wanted to go it alone. They wanted to have individual stalls and keep all their own money, even if it meant being in competition with their friends. The idea that they ‘could’ possibly make more money than their friends was very appealing.

Myself and the other mum involved were a little caught off guard by their reaction to our proposal. It was surprising to us that, these children who have been raised is a very non-competitive, anti-capitalist families, chose capitalism. They wanted the chance to win; to beat their friends and keep all the money themselves.

This lead to a very interesting discussion. I put forward a question to the children; ‘What happens if you don’t win? How will you feel if you go it alone and don’t sell anything?’ They hadn’t really considered the other side of the story, that for some people to win, others had to loose. I explained that there was a finite number of people attending the market, each with a certain amount of money to spend. Working alone, there is a chance that you might be able to get a larger slice of that money pie but there is also a big chance that you might get less.

I explained that we all have different strengths and weaknesses. Some people have awesome crafting skills, others might be really good at talking to people and selling, some might be great at calculating change and handling money, others might love working on the display of our stall. If we pooled our skills and resources; if we worked together and supported each other, as a whole we would be stronger. Working together as a collective, we might get a little less money each, but we would be working with friends not against them.

In the end the kids chose socialism. We all worked together and had a great time.

During the discussions, I also proposed a communist approach to running the stall; the parents keep all the money and resources for themselves, giving each child and very small but equal amount of money for their work. This idea was met with a big NO thank you!

UP-CYCLED SOFT TOYS

Let’s get to the creative stuff...

One of the products my daughter made to sell was some soft toys, she called Squishies, made from the fabric of old t-shirts and sweaters. I helped her cut all the fabric, then she stitched the little creatures together on the sewing machine, stuffed them, glued on the eyes. She worked all day making these cute little critters and was so proud of her creations.

BADGE MAKING

One of the most fun bits of craft equipment I have purchased over the last few years is a badge maker. The kids absolutely love designing and creating their own cute badges. For the market, my son made 100’s of cool badge designs.

UP-CYCLED SCREEN PRINTED T-SHIRTS

This was my favourite project we worked on together for the market stall. We brought lots of second hand t-shirts and screen printed cool designs. We chose a very simple method of screen printing, creating paper stencils which we then used to mask the ink going onto the t-shirts. Keeping it simple meant that the kids could come up with their own design ideas. I also made a few of my own designs too!

FINAL THOUGHTS

I’m not sure why I was caught off guard by the children’s initial gravitation towards capitalism. Capitalist ideas are pervasive in everything we do; in children’s TV shows, music videos, magazines, books, computer games and in every town main street. In every community event we visit, celebration or show there are snacks, souvenirs or trinkets to buy. You can’t just go to a local Christmas pageant or community fete without there being stalls of plastic rubbish enticing children (and adults) to spend money on stuff they don’t need. We can’t just enjoy an experience, there has to be stuff to buy too!

It feels like an uphill battle to counteract that capitalist consumerist message our children hear and see every day. We try to not buy things that we don’t need, to purchase second hand or repair items we already have, to give freely to charities or our community without expecting anything in return. We try but I’m not sure it is enough to counteract the shiny newness of buying stuff. It is an uphill battle but I’m not going to give to trying to live a different way.

My monthly ‘Tales from our Table’ articles will always be free, but if you are looking to more creative ideas, to delve deeper into art techniques or to receive free printables, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to Creative Spaces.

Next year I aim to step back from a few things, (not Substack, I love sharing my creative ideas here), and to streamline other parts of our life to give us a bit more space and time. I would love to actually have time to read a book, and not just 3 pages at a time before I fall asleep!

To make up for my lack of articles recently, today I’m sharing 3 free printable activity sheets (for paid subscribers) which include lots of fun festive crafts and DIY toys.

DIY FESTIVE DECORATIONS

I’m not the biggest fan of the festive season. We are secular, so the religious side of Christmas isn’t meaningful for us. We live in Australia away from all our family in Europe, so we don’t have big family gatherings to look forward to (or dread!). All that is left is rampant consumerism, of which I am definitely not a fan.

One thing I do like about the festive season is making DIY decorations and gifts to give friends. I also kinda like the food!

Last week I created some new printable templates for making pretty paper decorations. I will share a link below for paid subscribers to download the printable for free. If you’re not a paid subscriber, you can find the printable on my MINIMADTHINGS.COM website.

Christmas decorations create SO MUCH waste, most are plastic, with lost of dyes and chemicals used in their production. There is an region in China devoted to the production of Christmas decorations with over 600 factories producing 90% of China’s and 60% of the worlds Christmas decorations. This article is a little out of date but it gives you an insight into the scale of production and waste.

With our printable templates you can create pretty paper stars and baubles, which you can either keep for next year or pop in your recycling after the festive season.

UPCYCLED TOYS

We have always loved a cardboard box creation, so much so I wrote a whole book about it. When my kids were younger we made so many cubbies, castles and cool constructions from recycled materials. My daughter loves imaginary play, so recently I created a printable filled with dolls house furniture and cute decor to help with the making of up-cycled cardboard box dolls house. I love that we can create our own toy from cardboard boxes instead of buying more things.

Just paint your boxes, colour in the printable activity sheets, cut out and glue all the decor on to create a fun upcycled dolls house to play with. I’ll share the link below, for paid subscribers, to download the printable for free, everyone else can find it on my website.

HANDMADE GIFTS

I love giving and receiving handmade gifts, I also love a bit of up-cycling so I created a printable and instructions for creating lots of fun cardboard jewellery creations.

My daughter and I had fun making and wearing all these cool, colourful jewels. You don’t need lots of fancy materials, just glue, cardboard, colouring materials, cord or ribbon and a few beads. Adding Mod Podge to seal your creations makes them look great and more durable but it’s not 100% essential.

I’ll share the link below for paid subscribers to download the jewellery templates, alternativly, you can find them on my website.

I hope you enjoy all these craft ideas for the festive season.

Creative Spaces is a reader-supported publication. To allow me to keep sharing lots of ideas for free, if you can afford it, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, it’s only $6 AUD per month. Paid subscribers to Creative Spaces also get access to our printable activity sheets for FREE and access to all archived articles.

Thanks, Eleanor X

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PROJECT CREATE - A community space in the making

It has been 3 months since we began using our newly cleaned and refurbished home education community space and it’s wonderful in so many ways. It’s amazing what we can do when we come together for a common purpose; when we give freely our time and resources and just get shit done. The space, which was initially filled with junk and rat poo, is now filled with creativity and life. The early stages of the process included a lot of hard work cleaning, clearing and dreaming. Next came creative projects to bring our community together, and filling the space with furniture and resources. Now, we are at the stage of evolving our community though implementing workshops and activities based on our children’s interests and creating new processes for shared decision making.

SPACES & WORKSHOPS

From the early dirty rooms and mess, the space has come so far. Ideas have evolved and we have now collected resources and set up lots of different spaces. These include a book sharing library, second hand shop, art room, hang out space, tinker room and more.

BOOK SHARING LIBRARY

Through donations of books from families involved, we are building up a sharing library. We operate the library on a ‘give a book - take a book’ honesty system.

THE ART ROOM & MAKER SPACE

We are gradually building up a wide range of resources for art and craft which have either been collected or gathered from local buy nothing groups. These materials are free for all to use in our art room and maker space.

I have been running a weekly ART CLUB where I offer art project ideas based on different creative techniques and we make art together. For the next 8 weeks we are looking at lots of different printing techniques. It has been such a pleasure seeing how our art space is evolving and all the creative project embarked on.

COMMUNITY KITCHEN & MEETING SPACE

The central space in the building is a kitchen, meeting and hang out space. This is where we come together to make lunch and have our co-op meetings.

GARDEN

We are gradually converting a unused outside space into a community garden. So far we have added big planters filled with herbs, vegetables and flowers. We plan to add larger vegetable beds, a fire pit, benches and a large table to create an outdoor seating area.

TINKER ROOM

This room is a work in progress. We have lots of tools and old electronics for the children to pull apart and experiment with. For the younger children, they love just smashing things up but we are finding that the older children, who attend our home education co-op, are looking for something more. They want to build and create. So our next step is to implement some electronics workshops for them as well as creating a woodworking space.

SPORTS & GAMES

In the large warehouse area of our space we have pool and ping pong tables along with bikes and scooters.

PLAY ROOM

One of the smaller rooms we have converted into a play space dedicated to younger members of the group. We have a big cubby house, dress up costumes, books and toys.

D&D GAMES ROOMS

Each week we run a Dungeons & Dragons and board games group for about 15 children in our home education community. The children involved have taken ownership of their space and added posters and decorations to their rooms.

SECOND HAND SHOP

We have opened a second hand shop which is run by the children in our community. Collectively they worked out how the shop would be run, they wrote their own rules and staff jobs. All the money that they raise will go to buying equipment for our community to use whilst at Project Create.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY - The opening of Project Create

To mark the opening of our space and celebrate all we have achieved as a community, we held an open day for friends and family. It was wonderful to welcome the wider community into our space.

During this time we held an Acknowledgement of Country with Deanne Hanchant, a life-long Adelaide Hills local. Deanne is descendant of the Tanganekald and Ramindjeri (Ngarrindjeri) peoples of the Coorong through her grandmother, and of the Barkindji peoples through her grandfather, Deanne also has family connections to the Narungga and Kaurna people. She works as a consultant for Aboriginal employment and development with a background in education, archaeology, ancestral remains and SA history. During her talk to us she shared the history of possum skin cloaks and a boomerang which had been found in our local area.

The children also shared some of the activities we have been doing at Project Create which included a choir & band performance, art exhibition and opening our second hand shop.

IMPLEMENTING SHARED DECISION MAKING

Our next step, as our space evolves, is to implement a better system for shared decision making with a focus on centering the children’s voices in the running of our space. In the past a lot of our decisions were being made over a group message WhatsApp chat. This meant that the children’s voices were being lost in the process, with the adults taking over the majority of decisions and planning.

We have now implemented a morning meeting at the beginning of each co-op session where we will check in with each other, plan activities for our day and have the opportunity to share exciting news, resolve disputes and plan future activities.

Making space for the children to contribute to the running of our space is super important to me, but it hasn’t been easy. It is so easy as adults, with the best of intentions, to just to take over. This is such a big learning process for me. I didn’t grow up in a family, school or community where children’s voices were ever really listened to. So I am having to be very intentional with my actions to create space for our young people to contribute in a meaningful way.

I’m so excited about the possibilities Project Create holds for the future of our home education community. But the most exciting thing is what I have learned about the power of people coming together to make shit happen. Whilst I would always advocate people vote, I don’t think we can then sit back and wait for electoral politics to save us. We have so much power in our local communities to create positive change, to build a better future and support those in need, if we just come together and get shit done. The skills I have learnt so far, and continue to learn can be applies to any grass roots community project, not just creating a home education space.

Creative Spaces is a reader-supported publication. To allow me to keep sharing lots of ideas for free, if you can afford it, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, it’s only $6 AUD per month. Paid subscribers to Creative Spaces also get access to our printable activity sheets for FREE and access to all archived articles.

Thanks, Eleanor X

My approach to creativity is all about exploration, playfulness and learning through the process of making art. It’s not about being perfect or even the end result at times. For me, it’s about the journey. Thank you for joining me as we embrace the mess and explore together.

Today I have a few pattern-covered project ideas for you inspired by the architect Antoni Gaudi. I aim to share my creative ideas with you, in the hope that they inspire a little creativity in your home or community spaces. Most of the projects can be adapted to suit all ages, including adults, creativity isn’t just for the kids!

In the workshops I host, and here in these articles, my aim is not for you to produce cookie cutter replicas of an artwork or idea. The projects I share are very open-ended. They are designed as a starting point. Through the process of making art, each artist will explore their own creative ideas and create their own unique interpretation of the initial project idea.

GAUDI INSPIRED COLLAGE MIRRORS

MATERIALS:

• Cardboard

• Hot glue

• Masking tape or paper & glue for paper mache

• Paints

• Colourful collage materials including old paintings and coloured card cut up into pieces, beads and glass gems

• A small hand-held mirror

• PVA glue or Mod Podge

Begin by creating a base for your mirror using cardboard. We then added a frame shape that fits the size of our mirror onto the larger card base. After adding more cardboard shapes to decorate our base, we made the construction stronger using masking tape. You could add layers of paper mache, which create a stronger finished product, but we chose a quicker, mess free version using layers of masking tape, which I call tape-a-mache.

After completing our mirror frame construction, we started to paint. We used acrylic paint but poster paint would work fine. Once the paint was dried, we added a mosaic of colourful card ‘tiles’, beads and gems.

The final step, once everything is dry, is to add a layer of ‘varnish’. You can either use Mod Podge or PVA craft glue to seal your paint and mosaic. Finally glue the mirror into position in the frame.

GAUDI CARDBOARD BOX TOWN

MATERIALS:

• Cardboard boxes, cardboard tubes and egg cartons

• Hot glue

• Paints

• Colourful collage materials

• Other small componants like corks, wooden shapes or wooden craft sticks

Get creative with all your ‘junk’ materials to build curvy Gaudi inspired buildings with lots of turrets. Once glued, paint and decorate your imaginary buildings with bright colours and mosaic collage.

SIMPLE GAUDI CITY COLLAGES

If you are looking for a simple Antoni Gaudi inspired art activity, I have created a set of printable activity sheets for you to download, print out and get creative with as home. You can colour, cut and create city collages or use boxes to create a 3D city. You can find this printable on my website or I have shared a link below, for paid subscribers to this Substack, to download the printable for FREE.

Thank you for taking the time to read Creative Spaces, I hope the activity ideas I share inspire a little arty fun in your Creative Spaces at home, school or in your community.

Recently I have reduced the cost of my monthly subscription to just $6 AUD. Those who choose to subscribe (or continue with a subscription) will receive 2-3 printable activity sheets for FREE each month PLUS access to all the past printables I have shared in previous articles.

All the other articles I write will be FREE for anyone to read. Sharing creativity for FREE makes me happy.

Going forward, this is what Creative Spaces Substack will look like:

FREE SUBSCRIBERS:

• I will share 3-4 articles each month with a strong focus on using creative practices to build community spaces as this is what I most love writing about.

• I will share occasional ‘Art in practice’ articles sharing art project ideas.

• I will aim to write a monthly ‘Tales from our table’ article sharing a more personal insight into our home education and family life.

PAID SUBSCRIBERS:

• Will receive all of the above PLUS 2-3 printable activity sheets for FREE each month.

• You will have access to the archive of articles and all the past printables I have shared for FREE.

• Paid subscribers also receive a warm feeling for supporting all the creative work I do here and in the wider community.

FREE GAUDI PRINTABLE ACTIVITY SHEETS FOR PAID SUBSCRIBERS BELOW:

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Look through my archive of articles to find more ideas for fun community art project ideas. (Access to archived articles is for paid subscriber only.)

Today we are making abstract collage art loosely inspired by Yayoi Kusama. This is a great activity to do as an ice breaker at a creative workshop, as a family game or with friends.

MATERIALS:

• A3 sheets of cartridge paper

• Coloured paper or old patterned painting that you are happy to cut up

• Dot stickers

• Colour markers

• Glue sticks

• Scissors

HOW TO:

Set out the sheets of A3 paper around a large table, one sheet for each participant. Place the other materials in the centre of the table within easy reach of everyone. The facilitator calls out the list of art-making ‘commands’ one by one for the participants to follow.

The idea behind giving ‘art-commands’ is that it removes the decision making process, freeing up the artist to be spontaneous with their art making and to use their instincts. It’s also really fun.

After the first round, following all my commands, I usually do the process again with a fresh piece of paper and allow all the children to, in turn, shout out their own commands for everyone to follow. This time they got so wild in their creative commands with children saying things like ‘draw 100 elephants’ or ‘draw poo!’

ART COMMANDS:

• Cut out 2 large shapes from patterned paper and glue onto your page

• Add 3 smaller coloured paper shapes to your page

• Add dot stickers around shapes

• Draw dashes inside a shape

• Draw a large triangle

• Add squiggles inside shapes

• Draw lines connecting shapes

• Add dot stickers inside shapes

• Draw squiggles

• Draw eyes inside shapes

• Create a border around your page

• Add 8 more dot stickers

(Feel free to alter the commands to suit the materials you have available.)

I hope you enjoy playing these drawing games with your friends, family and community groups. Happy art making, may it bring you a moment of fun and connection with others.

Creative Spaces is a reader-supported publication. To allow me to keep sharing lots of ideas for free, if you can afford it, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, it’s only $6 AUD per month. Paid subscribers to Creative Spaces also get access to our printable activity sheets for FREE and access to all archived articles.

Thanks, Eleanor X