Collaborative Creatures

The other day I discovered the e-zine UK Handmade. I can not really tell you what it is about this magazine that has me all in a twitter, but I have been devouring back issues of it for the last 24 hours. I appreciate the attitude towards crafts as real actual things, and not some silly unskilled hipster side project that people do. They interview people who have thousands of hours of skill under their belt and are making a serious living out of making things by hand. They don't just interview the "cool" people as it were. They also have articles on the business side of making a living as a craft person and little "how to" on small neat projects. Craft seems to have an alternate meaning in the UK compared to North America, and I appreciate the difference.

While reading the Summer 2011 issue I ran across mention of a collaborative project called The Creature Round Robin. You can read about one participant's description over at her blog Hand Knitted Things. Basically it is a collaborative group effort to make stuffed imaginary creatures, where each person contributes to one stage of each creature created.

I have participated in similar things before, where a bunch of people (usually around the world, connected via the great Internet) work on a project together or swap projects with each other. My issue with these types of round robin projects or swaps is two fold. My first issue is that I never really get to share the collaborative process. I only hear bits and bobs of each person's contribution to the project or swap package. Part of collaborative creative process for me is the sharing of inspirations and hearing ideas that would never have occurred to me. It is connecting with other people in creative ways that lends inspiration and motivation to my own creative endeavours. My second problem with round robin or swaps is that effort and care put into the project does not seem to be a constant across all people participating. This fact always leaves me feeling slightly disappointed and confused. After much thought I have chalked at least part of it up to the "stranger" factor. If I don't know you, I may be less invested in putting in significant effort into a project that you will end up with. I may do a messy or half-ass job on my part of the project (such as not bothering to check my gauge when adding my 4 inches to a collaborative scarf, thereby making the whole scarf look ridiculous).

When I read about The Creature Round Robin I got very excited. I immediately thought of several people who would potentially be interested in participating in this with me. If I could do this with friends I may be able to avoid my two main issues with collaborative creativity. We could share our creative process with each other throughout the whole project and we would be invested in each other and all our final projects because we already deeply care for each other.

So, I sent out an e-mail to 9 people I thought might be interested. With-in a few hours I got the three responses I needed, all from people who live or work in the same block (so we see each other often). Our first stage of the project is due next weekend, and I am so excited to see what creatures we come up with. I am stoked to be doing something creative with members of my close community.

I will keep you all posted on the fantastical beings that will emerge from this collaboration.