The last year has flown past. My lack of updates here has in no way been a reflection of stagnation on the creative front. In fact, I would venture to say I am creatively quite energised.
So what have I been up to?
Over the last year, I have worked through several projects. I thought it would be worth mentioning what they were here, as well as where the creative future is likely to go from here.
LARP
I helped write and run a weekend game, part 1 of our small campaign. This game had been a long time coming, after being delayed for a full year by Covid. I was our GM “on the ground”, which meant that I was in an NPC role where people would know where to find me for out-of-character questions (such as rules clarification, or notifications of intent to do something that would need a degree of scene setup) as well as in-character RP.
It was exhilarating, overwhelming, and exhausting. I am glad it went as smoothly as it did. It is a lot of work to run a LARP, and I would like to think that I learned a lot.
A few months after our weekend game, we ran a day game for the same LARP. This was many times faster and less complicated to write, given we needed less plot, although we did run into logistical issues when we discovered that flooding had caused the entrance to our planned location to collapse in a small landslide! Our Plan B location worked out, and we managed to run the game in between a cyclone, road closures, and delayed flights (I had wonderful weather 1400 kilometers away from the cyclone and got back just in time to fulfil my end of last minute game prep).
Looking towards the future, game 2 will hopefully be later this year. That will involve a significant amount of writing and general preparation.
Art
My work ran a paint and sip style midwinter party in mid-August, where we painted a sunset harbour scene with the silhouettes of buildings poking up between the sea and the orange sky. I drew inspiration from the colour gradients and silhouettes later in the year and painted a special gift using gouache with techniques I had not tried before on my own. It is a little messy in places, but came out almost exactly as I had imagined it in my mind’s eye. I am probably the most proud of this out of everything I drew and painted last year.
I also did some digital art with the intention of printing it as small, A5 art prints. As with the above picture, these were gifts and only ever intended for one person. I did enjoy trying something familiar with a new framing surrounding the awareness of how well the colours involved might print. I struggle somewhat with getting my digital art to look crisp, and it lacks some of the passion that my art done in a physical medium posses. This tells me I should practice more.
Once again with my work, I also made a small pottery piece. For something that I made with severe time pressure on account of needing to leave early, I am quite happy. It took me back to when I had a potter’s wheel and abundant clay as a child, although there were no wheels involved for this. It is neither fired nor glazed, so I do need to be careful with it.
I have also been working on a heavily ambitious art-related Secret Project. Hopefully this is something I can talk about later in the year in regards to how well it turned out (or things that went wrong). Either way, I have learned a lot so far.
Writing
If I’m honest, I haven’t managed a whole lot of novel writing, nor have I finished any of the short stories that I was hoping to share here. That is, ultimately, fine. I have been working on other things and only have a set number of hours in my day.
I did, after all, write my part of the aforementioned LARP.
This month, I have been reviewing my novel writing and how I can work it into the routine of my day a bit better. When I was working from the office, I found that I could write during my lunch breaks. But an hour is just long enough to get truly into it, and I would find that I would often get snatched away from my world just as soon as I had warmed up. I have some ideas, although I do need to also be mindful of the upcoming LARP and make sure I leave sufficient time set aside for that.
Camp NaNoWriMo next month looks similar to how I treated NaNoWriMo when I last did it back in November 2021. I am seriously considering using that to direct a writing-focused portion of time.
Sewing
I made a costume inspired by the New Zealand blue mushroom – the werewere-kokako. It is one of my favourite mushrooms and I jumped on the opportunity to make it into a LARP costume.
In full, I needed to make trousers, a corset, wings, and a shirt that would work well with both the corset and the wings. I don’t yet have nice photos of the costume being worn (that is on my list!) However, I am incredibly happy with my wing design and the way they naturally sit like a flowy cloak when not spread wide. I wanted to design something that would stay out of the way when not in use, and look striking when I did want people to look at them. I also knew that, ideally, they shouldn’t stick too far out behind me, as I would constantly whack them into things otherwise.
I currently have a couple of different fabrics set aside to make button up shirts. I have the pattern waiting and ready to try as soon as I feel like starting the project. I’m interested to see how making something that is not a costume (for once) would go.
Photography and Video
I don’t consider myself to be amazing at photography at present. That aside, I made the conscious decision last year to improve. There is no better way to get good at something than to practice, so I have been taking photos of some of my costumes (amongst other things).
At present, a lot of that involves becoming familiar with the self-timer feature.
I started with my extremely simple Gideon Nav costume and friendly neighbourhood witch at Halloween.
Various croppings of this second Gideon photo have become profile pictures across scattered social media sites.
I am hoping to photograph my werewere-kokako costume in the near future.
On that note, I did video some of the elements of making that costume. All footage I need to review and see if a sensible video can be salvaged from it. I was under some time constraints and setting up the camera for key parts of the sewing was often forgone in favour of speed (potentially a good thing, as I literally finished it, put it on, and arrived at the LARP with bare minutes to spare).
I did manage to review and make a video from the footage for making a Regency style dress, which was from ages ago. They take quite a long time to edit, so I think I need to be okay with the fact that they are simply done when they are done and not a moment sooner. Most of the sewing videos I make are focused around how I did something, rather than being a tutorial. In many ways, this does mean that they will be enjoyable whether I finish them in the same year I make the costume or much, much later.
That’s all for now. I shall aim to update in less than a year’s time. Hopefully with good creative progress, perhaps even some insights.
Creative Adventures 