It's a new year coming up – heck, it'll be a new decade! – and there's no better way to start fresh than to do it by embracing the imperfection and occasional downright ugliness that comes along with doing creative things.
Join me from January 6 – February 7th, 2020, and together we'll work through my book Make It Mighty Ugly.
Through guided discussion, prompts and live chats, we'll fight our creative demons and kick the new year off with a focus on prioritizing the meaningful creative projects that make us happy so we can spend the rest of the year making and learning and not worrying about it all ending up perfect. Because perfect is boring and imperfect is fascinating.
If you're a supporting member at the $5-or-up level, be sure to enter your discount code.
Once you've registered, you'll gain immediate access to this group, and you're welcome to get to know your fellow adventurers before the workshop begins.
Be sure to grab a copy of the book before January 6th! (And please do feel free to request a copy from your local library. We love libraries!)
The only time I do Mighty Ugly with kids is at the University of British Columbia's annual girls-only Maker Camp. It's an incredible weeklong day camp run by Dr. David Ng, whom I met years and years ago through Vancouver Mini Maker Faire, and whom I'm so grateful to for inviting me to be a part of his awesome STEAM-focused camp.
It's so different doing this exercise with tweens versus adults. Hopefully introducing them to deliberate ugly-making at this stage in their lives will help to head off some of the negative experiences we adults have with self-doubt and perfectionism.
[Kim] hosts these really cool sessions around the concept of making “ugly” things. This is a great mindset, especially in various professional fields where failure is actually a worthy experience, whether it's to emphasize the importance of reiteration, or where new valuable perspectives are forged when a person goes against their natural inclination (to make things look “good”).
I brought Mighty Ugly to UBC Maker Camp for the second year in a row, and it was a blast! The weeklong camp, associated with Make Media's Maker Camp and supported in part by the Vancouver Maker Foundation, is for girls entering grades 7 or 8, and it's the only exception I make to my adults-only rule for Mighty Ugly.
It was such a great group of kids, and I had almost nothing to do while they made their creatures. No prodding or prompting needed! Within a few minutes, they'd even invented a whole society for their creatures to belong to, complete with a supreme ruler, royal children, and a hierarchy of dignitaries and servants.
I love that there's a girls-only Maker Camp in town, and that the organizer, UBC prof Dave Ng, includes crafty pursuits alongside the mechanical and coding projects.
A couple of months ago, I got a Twitter mention from the Chattanooga Public Library in Tennessee, about a Mighty Ugly workshop they were going to host for Valentine's Day. And I nearly fell out of my chair. I mean, how perfect is that?! It's totally perfect. So of course I told the librarian how excited I was, and I sent her a signed book to give away, and I recorded a wee video intro for the event.
Here's the video (in which I explain why Mighty Ugly and Valentine's Day are a perfect match, natch) and some tweets from the event that made my heart sing. (If you're a librarian who thinks this idea is swell, or you're just an average person like me and you'd like to ask your friendly neighbourhood librarian to host a Mighty Ugly event, check out this link with loads of info to help!)
I'm still finding my way around Periscope, and one of the things I love most about it is that people can comment as you record, so you can respond to what they say or ask. I just love it. Anyway, as I've been experimenting with the platform, I find I've been chatting with people more and more about daily making and Year of Making, so I did a scope highlighting five reasons to do a Year of Making. The video of my five reasons is below, as is the link to get the free worksheet I promised in the scope!
Scope Notes
I mentioned my friend Meighan O'Toole (whose scopes are ace, btw), and this post she linked to from someone doing a Year of Making.
My online not-really-a-class: Daily Making Jumpstart. (That's what you'll find at the website I mention in the scope: camp.kimwerker.com. In a few weeks, I'll launch my next class on there; sign up for my weekly email to be the first to find out about it!)
Hi! I'm a writer and editor, and also like a camp counselor for grownups. I help people have way more fun making stuff. Learn more about how right here.
Hi! I'm a writer and editor, and also like a camp counselor for grownups. I help people have way more fun making stuff. Learn more about how 