Growing Up Creative

Creativity!!!

I logged into typepad (my blogging platform) the other day ready to start a new post for a change, when I noticed  their slogan right on their login home page. This is what it said: ”typepad - share your passions with the world”, and I thought that was an accurate statement because that is what blogging is all about - sharing your passions with the world. 
Writing this blog, sharing my passions with the world, made me realize what I want to do when I grow up (at least for now) - I want to inspire people to be more creative every day, for their own sake and for their children, and after I do that, I can go and work in a bookstore or a vineyard.
3 years after I started writing growing up creative I finally changed my architectural practice from designing homes into designing and creating environments that promote creativity, making and play. 

In the process of writing and designing I read lots of books about creativity and lots of current research, and they all point to the fact that Creativity is the Number 1 Skill for the 21st Century. If you look around you will see how obvious this statement is. Infinite knowledge is at the palm of the hand of anyone holding a smartphone, but creativity is a skill one cannot find online. It must be nurtured and practiced.
Creativity is a mind set and an approach to life. That is why it is essential to provide kids with environment and experiences that ignite the imagination, promote creativity and curiosity. Providing them with this basis will ensure that they will grow to be independent thinkers, problem solvers, kind and caring to others and their surrounding.

What is creativity:
If a person or a child is considered intelligent or gifted, it doesn't mean they are creative. Creativity is the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships,or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods,interpretations, etc.
The synonym to creative is: originality, progressiveness, or imagination. (from dictionary)
For  example (always help): if a child is learning how to tie their shoes with some guidance that is not a creative act (dah!), but, if a child learns to tie their shoes without any guidance or without seeing how it’s done, that would be considered to be an act of creativity. This child just invented how to keep his shoes tight on his feet using the 2 things dangling from them.

I hope I was successful in getting my message across. If you want to read more about it, drop me a note and I will send you some great references.

So... go make, draw, invent, think something new

tali

M+M+M

 

Marina Muki and Me

I have amazing friends and family. Every time I get to work on a project it seems like I take them all along with me. My work is a big part of me and so are the people who are close to me, so it make all the sense in the world to mix it up together. I remember many years ago in my early 20’s, I was secured to a rope ready to bungee jump off a bridge 100 meters off the ground….crazy... I was sitting on the ledge for several minutes that seemed like eternity.  Eventually I told the person standing next to me that the only way I was going to jump was if he would jump with me. He had no harness so of course he didn’t think that was such a good idea. I didn’t make the jump, not by my self!

Marina is one of my good friends. She is also an amazing illustrator. Her work is all over the net, you can find her on creative market, shutterstock on the Muki campaign and more. She is the designer for the coolest Muki tattoos and the illustrator for the robot Muki in the video. She also illustrated a Muki for Zoe, my oldest, for her Bday.

^{temporary tattoos by Marina Zlochin}

In both the Robot and Zoe’s Muki she used sharpie paint markers (I used to be on the Sharpie squad so I still have lots of markers left). Here are some pics from a great afternoon over at Marina’s house with lots of Mukis friends and sharpies.  

Sharpie markers paint work great on cardboard. The paint marker is opaque, and the colors are brilliant.

So what are you waiting for, go get your own Muki so you can start painting.

 

xoxo

Tali

 

 

 

The beauty of material - honeycomb cardboard

I have been working with cardboard for a while, trying to stretch the limits of the material. I've made furniture, suitcases, hats, shoes, toys and more is yet to come….I work with double flute cardboard that can be easily found and manipulated.

While trying to develop MUKI - a cardboard dog DIY kit - I stumbled upon a different kind of cardboard. It's called honeycomb cardboard, and it is practically a dream come true. Changing material enabled me to find a solution for the kit. 
The idea behind it is very simple - honeycomb paper construction sandwiched in-between two layers of heavy craft board. The honeycomb is an extremely strong structure, which is very beneficial for construction.
The beauty of the process is how flexible the honeycomb is before applying the craft board on to it, almost like an accordion. Once mounted it is almost as hard as wood. The thickness of the material can vary between 1 cm to 20 cm thick.

During my first visit to the factory I was privileged to get a walk through, only after a healthy breakfast kibbutz-style, of course. The first thing I could see walking into the warehouse were towers, stacked panels reaching to the roof, forming a grid of what may be imagined to be a city. The rigid material forming huge blocks of texture. In the adjacent room one can see carts piled up with a continuous thick line of honeycomb acordeon, the flex and malleable inside of the panels ready to be fixed into the rigid material we need to make Muki. 

For security reasons I could only take a few photos. I love productions lines, and this one was truly inspiring.

I hope you had a chance to visit my indiegogo campaign and share it with your friends.

Thanks for your support

tali and Muki

 

Here I come, ready or not, introducing muki

I want to tell you something that I haven't told you yet. For some time now (not sure how long ago, 3 kids slow things down a bit), I have been working on Muki - my cardboard flat pack dog. Next week I will be kicking off a campaign on Indiegogo trying to raise funds to manufacture Muki. I’m not sure if I am more nervous or excited, my stomach is flipping and turning, and sleeping is not on my to-do list. I feel like I am not ready, but I don't think I can be more ready than I am. So here I come, ready or not.

Meet Muki, a friendly cardboard dog. He doesn't bite, won’t pee on your rug or chew on your furniture. He comes in a flat package and is easily assembled. Muki is a lovely mix-breed with a long tale, an offshoot/ byproduct of a project I designed and built for a local community center a couple of years ago. The project included a modular cardboard furniture system that was used for play as well as serving as a waiting area for the center. As part of the project I included 5 cardboard dogs of different breeds, one of which was Muki. The first Muki was made of corrugated cardboard with a grid inside for strength and yellow duct tape to seal the edges. I call it Muki classic. It was very strong but took some time and expertise to assemble.
Many people approached me asking me to do workshops that taught how to build a Muki, so I did.

Soon enough I started developing a Muki that comes as a kit and is very easy and quick to assemble, Ikea style, so people will be able to build their own Muki without the need for my expertise. It took some time and some help from Boaz the brilliant engineer. Until one day... it happened, I had the answer. I have switched from corrugated cardboard to honeycomb cardboard and that opened up new possibilities. Honeycomb cardboard enabled me to rethink my construction method and changed the assembly technique to slot connections, which are easy quick and fun to do. A little bit like magic.

I will tell you a little more about Muki next week as my campaign on indiegogo comes to life.

I would like to invite you for the kickoff of the project on ndiegogo via facebook this Monday Nov 3rd 3pm in Israel 8am EST. 

here is the link to the event

xoxo

tali