Top 3 from a magical Craftcation

We’re back from a beautiful, refreshing weekend in the serene gardens of Wij trädgårdar. The sun shone and we took in the colours of all the flowers and greens that still bloomed. We may have gotten creative overload from all the creators and projects that happened in the studio over the weekend. To gather old and new friends that love to create as much as you do, and go all-in for three days makes you wonder why you don’t just do this all day, every day. (I know, you have to work, earn money and all of that, but still…) It was a magical weekend. But what did we do, you wonder? Here is our top 3:

Stina’s top 1 The gardens

I kind of had an idea of what was waiting for us at Wij trädgårdar, since we were there in February for the first Craftcation. But I could never have guessed how magnificent the gardens would be. And the fact that we had full sunshine the whole weekend. As a new garden owner, I took the opportunity to study my favorite flowers, to see how the garden was laid out, and to get inspiration for my future potager (French fancy word for kitchen garden where you combine beautiful layout with edibles and flowers) Everything was in full bloom and we were allowed to pick as many flowers as we wanted. A dream come true!

Stina’s top 2 Shadow sketch

My plan was to work on my mixed media projects, but after the overwhelming garden experience in full sunshine, I suddenly got the idea to pick up a little quick creative exercise I did a few years back. Since the sun was so bright and cast beautiful shadows I had a perfect opportunity to try it out again. It’s really a simple technique where you follow the outlines of the shadow, it also helped that I had brought my Chinese inks. The result wasn’t perfect, just the way I like it, but the paintings will remind me of that beautiful weekend and they are a  precious memento from Craftcation.

Stina’s top 3 Flower unconference

Did I hear flowers + workshop? Can’t say no that! So if you didn’t get my excitement about flowers, I can just tell you again. It was pure pleasure. We had such a great build-up for the unconference where we all picked our favorite flowers.

Anna, @pysselliv, had prepared a few different table pieces and gave us a few ideas on how to assemble the decoration. She also impressed us with fancy florist jargon. My take away from this unconference was 1. Choose one hero flower and build everything around that. 2. Your piece needs to look good from all angles. Something that sounds quite easy proved to be very tricky. All of us had so much fun doing the decorations and the results were stunning.

Malin, @created_by_malin, is very focused when arranging her flowers.

Ann-Charlotte’s top 1 Abstract art workshop

We held one of the two unconference workshops during the weekend. We decided to share our love for abstract art. Some of the participants were new to acrylic paint and hadn’t painted that much before. Or as they said, “only painted ugly”. But as it turns out, you can’t really do ugly stuff using this process. We had a great time slabbing paint on paper. And the result, as you can see, turned out great!

Johanna, @vardagsfix, in action.

Ann-Charlotte’s top 2 Working on my projects

I do create a lot in my everyday life, but to be able to sit for a whole weekend and really get into my projects gives so much more. You are in the zone for a longer period of time and don’t get disturbed with making dinner and that stuff. I have so many things to continue work with, from this weekend.

Ann-Charlotte’s top 3 Inspiration from others

I think it is valuable to meet other creators. To get to know people who love the same things as you do is really inspiring. And when you get stuck you have people cheering you on or help you see how you can continue. Because they know exactly what you’re going through. The inspiration you get when you are in the same room as 12 other creators are just magic! And I will take it with me for the rest of the fall.

Thank you!

Thanks all of you who joined us and also a big thanks to our sponsors: Creative Company Created by Malin Bokförlaget Semic Beckers Folklore Company Studio Lisa Bengtsson Aco Numera Mässor Bokförlaget Natur & Kultur Wij Trädgardar

We all got a goodie bag full of inspiring material to use. And we also had a table full of fun things to use during the weekend. And also a lottery of some extra goodies.