I made crafts for 8 hours
Floor Time
/flôr tīm/
noun
the 15-60 minute time period spent laying on the floor in the middle of the work day, typically as a relief from the soul-sucking reality of corporate America.
In 2018, I attended the designer-famous Adobe MAX conference in LA. For three days, I attended talks on everything from letterforms to brand design, was starstruck by my favorite designers, and celebrated being a creative professional at the closing party which consisted of a Beck concert? Confusing.
At that party, I spotted one of my favorite lettering artists and designers, Lauren Hom. She is an uber successful creative who I saw (and still see) as the gold standard for what a creative career can be. Despite my nerves, I approached her at that party next to the neon mushroom light display (I’m literally not making this up—the tech industry is cray cray), and to my delight, she ended up chatting with me about pivoting to the design industry (I was still working in tech at the time). I attribute my success as a freelance designer thus far with that weekend and specifically this chat with Lauren. Without her, I wouldn’t have been able to see the path to a creative career at all.
A year later, I ended up pitching an idea to my org for a social awareness campaign that Lauren could spearhead. Somehow through many contract negotiations, and campaign pitches, I got it greenlit and we brought it to life! If you’re curious, you can check out that collab here.
So that’s some background on me and Lauren. Then, fast forward to this week. I am coming off my capitalism-xiety hangover I wrote about in the last Floor Time. I am yearning to be shaken out of my woe. Suddenly, Lauren posts that she’s in town for her culinary school graduation (yes, she spent the year crossing off that bucket list item because it’s what cool people do), and wants to host two last-minute workshops, “Pantry as Palette: Intro to Food Lettering & Design,” and “Fruit Shaped Pom Pom Earrings.” I ran to register for the food lettering workshop and was kindly gifted an invite for myself and a friend to attend the pom pom workshop as a bonus.
The day was both exhausting and energizing—exhausting because crafting can take a lot out of you (especially 8 hours of it :), and energizing because I learned new skills I now have in my toolbelt. For the food lettering class, we experimented with making our own stencils and creating letterforms out of fine powders, like matcha and flour. I found this to be the most satisfying pantry ingredient to work with. But it was informative to play with the sauce-like ingredients, Hoisin and honey, to see the limits of what you can do with them (honey is a self-leveling substance so it spreads a ton, while Hoisin stays put and you can pile it up to get more volume).
Right now, you might be like the person who commented on my TikTok video and wondering, ok this is fun, but why? As did Andrew a la, “What is this for?” It’s for to add a little whimsy into your life, Andrew! OK?! No but actually, lettering in all its forms can be an avenue for new business1. Becca Clason is another tactile lettering artist who works with food and other 3D substances to make content for a number of brands and agencies. Her clients include heavy hitters like Amazon, Starbucks, and Kikkoman. Creativity pays! And the thought of pushing around flour to make the next big billboard for King Arthur Baking definitely beats other corporate jobs IMO. So that’s why.
And a similar thing can be said for the poms! While a relatively simple activity in theory, in practice it requires quite a bit of meticulousness when it comes to “pruning” the pom. I couldn’t help but think of dog groomers and topiarists who get to do this every day. It requires patience and hand strength to wield those scissors for hours on end. And now, not only do I have a super cute pair of strawberry pom earrings that got compliments immediately, but I also have another DIY idea for future gifting (and if I ever wanted, perhaps a product opportunity).
Sometimes it’s easy for me to get pulled away from design work because I think about what my other friends are doing. Should I be building an app? Should I be analyzing campaign KPIs? There’s nothing wrong with any of that, but it’s not me. Whether I like it or not, I am someone who will always be more excited to make the perfect flour flower than figure out a new Excel formula2. So if anything, perhaps the biggest takeaway from my Wednesday craft-a-thon was being reminded that there are others out there who are doing what I’m doing and feeling the highs and the lows of it in the same ways. I met a stop-motion artist, an animator, and other designers who are all working on different passion projects. Conversing with them reminded me that being a creative person means pursuing creative endeavors at whatever cost—because we have no other choice. The call to create is too great for those like us.
I’ll leave you with the Merrily We Roll Along lyrics that live rent-free in my head whenever I think about creative people and our work:
[MARY]
Here's to us—
[FRANK]
Who's like us?
[CHARLEY]
Damn few.
Something I Thought of in the Shower
At what age do women actually need to think about freezing our eggs?
Something Pretty
I played hooky one day this week to hike Breakneck Ridge. My friend, Raph, our two dogs, and I climbed 7.5 miles on the perfect spring day.
Something To Laugh About
Here are this week’s gems:
If I’m guaranteed to have a kid this cute, sign me up.
How old do you have to be to get this? Because I am definitely that old.
I must believe that Luca did this knowing how much Josh O’Connor loves Ratatouille.
^Related: I saw this so now you also have to.
Something for Clarice
Hey! This newsletter is free and I intend to keep it that way. That said, if you love it and want to show your appreciation, buy me a coffee :)
By the way…I’m reading this.
Still reading Project Hail Mary because I had barely any reading time this week what with all the hiking and crafting! But Lizzie lent me her “favorite book of the year," In Memoriam by Alice Winn, which I will be packing for this weekend’s getaway. I plan to do an H1 reading roundup sometime in the next few weeks so stay tuned!
And I’m watching this.
I have been devouring School Spirits on Netflix. It’s almost like a teen version of The Sinner season 1 and I’m having such a great time. Also, I am now caught up on the new season of Doctor Who, and while I was not impressed by the first two episodes, the rest have been awesome—like old Doctor vibes.
Hope you enjoy the perfect spring weather this weekend! Bring your pom materials and make a strawberry while you soak up the sun. Meanwhile, I’m having my first beach weekend of the season and I am determined that the salt air and vitamin D will solve all my problems.
Til’ next time, pom poms. Your friend,
Clarice
sadly it really do always be comin’ back to capitalism, huh? a girl’s gotta pay rent!
although ngl, as I was writing in this example I was like, wait but hacking the ‘countif’s is actually is one of my favorite feelings…ya girl’s got lay-ers *hair flip* 💁🏻♀️