How to Decide What to do for your 100 Day Project

I got a question on Instagram about how to decide what to do for your 100 Day Project; here’s what I said. It needs to be something you’re willing to do a lot, obviously, and also you want to think about… what counts? Is it a finished project each day for 100 days, or is it 100 days of crocheting? Making progress? It could be 100 stitches each day (I don’t know anything about crochet, I just made that up…).

And you want to build in some flexibility. Time before last I did 100 Days of Gelli Plate Printed Mandalas, bit too specific. Some days I just couldn’t get into the studio, so I made mandalas with found objects, pretzels, toys, pine cones, whatever was at hand.

So a better theme would have been “100 Days of Mandalas,” as that’s more flexible.

And, you can also think about: How do I want to challenge myself? How do I want to grow through this project? Or What BIG project do I really want to make progress on, and how could this help me?

Hmmm. I guess I’d add it should be about process, not product. The great thing about committing to making a category of thing is that in repeating the task, over and over, in a focused way, you discover things that you wouldn’t have otherwise. In pushing yourself to make just one more today… in getting bored and saying, “How can I approach this differently?” you make things that you wouldn’t have made otherwise.

Additional advantages include meeting new creative people online and being part of a community of fellow adventures, each of us in our own little homes or studios, whacking away at our creative projects. It’s nice to connect, and in February, during a pandemic, connecting over creativity seems better than ever.

That’s right, The 100 Day Project will be in February this year instead of April, by popular demand. To participate, just post one thing a day related to your project and use the hashtag #the100dayproject. It starts January 31, 2021.

The official website is here: https://the100dayproject.org

What will my project be this year? I haven’t decided. For my arts business, I’ve moved into making stickers and greeting cards, and little shadow boxes in mint tins that one boutique owner saw and declared them to be 3D cards. I might do 100 days of art in mint tins. Or maybe I want to work a bit larger and use cigar boxes? Or boxes in the shape of houses? I’ve worked with house forms for years.

Or maybe it will be 100 days of collages that will go inside of the the house form shadow boxes. Collages and shadowboxes? Flexibility is important!