Pressure-Free Crafting With Mighty Ugly

As I briefly participated in yesterday’s Craft Social over on Twitter, I stumbled on a new web site from Kim Werker via Diane Gilleland. Mighty Ugly is Kim’s latest endeavor and is rooted in the idea that pressure-free crafting can lead to some pretty profound experiences.

Since we’re able to wield a crayon, we’re praised for making pretty pictures. And once we reach an age when we can assess the aesthetic value of things, we begin to judge our ability to create pretty things – and we often judge harshly. So harshly that we ditch hobbies we used to enjoy, we put down our crayons, we insult our creativity. To all that, Mighty Ugly says, “HOGWASH.” Sit yourself down and put your all into making something ugly. Hideous. Revolting. What happens if you fail? Beauty? Feel the freedom.

The Mighty Ugly Flickr group is already filling up with all kinds of hideously fantastic crafts, and I’m looking forward to making some uglies of my own soon. This is right up my alley with my philosophy that settling in and just having some good old fashioned fun can be the most cathartic way to craft.