At the end of January 2021 I started the 100 day project. I had thought about doing it before but hadn’t taken the plunge. This year seemed like a good time to try, especially as we were in another national lockdown and I find the dark days of January and February quite hard going.

I thought a lot about what my focus would be, I wanted it to hold enough interest but not be so broad that I got a bit lost. I chose 100 days of mark making and collage; two aspects I really enjoy and felt would encourage me to try lots of different tools and techniques, including stitch and printing.

As I got into a flow I found I really enjoyed the practice of creating something everyday towards the project. I would work on whatever took my fancy, perhaps inspired by a walk I had been on. Often a page or a piece finished one day would start me thinking about another idea and I would follow that. Some of these ideas were things I had been considering or felt were calling me to do for a while. The 100 day project was the excuse to try all the things! I painted lots of khadi paper, I made some drawing tools and cola pens, I cut up some large drawings and began constructing them back together. Mark making in stitch was something I hadn’t done for a while, I got my sewing machine out and did some stitching through my papers and collages. The collages in khadi paper and stitch got me thinking about a more 3 dimensional way of working and I began to construct pieces in cardboard. My leftover paint sketchbook started to become more important, as I worked back into painted pages with marks or collages

It sounds like it was all going really well, so you might be surprised when I say I only got to day 57! However this is also the longest time I have ever focused on a challenge! So I didn’t finish my 100 Day Project but it feels like it just became the way that I work, if that makes sense. The process of doing what I feel like doing, having an idea and trying it out, noticing things I am enjoying and want to do more of.

So if you feel like the project is something that calls you, I would definitely encourage you to try. Listen to yourself, change things as you go and see what happens. It’s exciting! Who knows where it will lead……….