Learning to be Creative from an Early Age

Ann Strecko Koeman has learnt to love and hate the gooey sticky stuff since she was allowed to use paste from a young age. As a child she used that yellowy syrup sticky liquid, looking like clear honey or diluted maple syrup, but it did not smell yummy.The stuff was messy and wet, but it worked for her construction paper crafting.After all it was the ’70’s! There was less care about acid free and archival quality.

Over the decades she has learnt different types of arts and crafts that all use a variety of adhesives; some smellier than others and some more convenient than others. She has also learnt that glues could be used as more than an adhesive when it comes to art making. It is only recently that she purposely started playing around with hot glue gun.  This is because whenever hot glue drips, drizzles and is left to dry on a hard non porous surface such as tile or a silicon mat,it tends to lift off easily when it is completely cool. She has purchased a better quality glue gun that has a precision tip, is dual temperature and can be used without its long electric cord for short periods of time.

There is even glue like sticks that contain resin that can be melted in your glue gun and shot into these moulds to make super cute embellishments. Ann is pleased with all her experiments as their effects are so interesting.  The possibilities of being creative for her are endless.

Wondering what Came First?

According to Mixed Media Art, being a crafter is something that you should be proud of because from the many arts available today like journaling and scrapbooking, old techniques of doing so are slowly coming back into the market. On the other hand, there is more description of the primitive tools used in the in the early days as highlighted below and which will depict how the artistic industry has grown:

• The acrylic paint which was used in the late 1930’s is still available today and in this case for many more uses.
• Permanent ink markers have since replaced the ancient Sumi painting
• Encaustic which was one of the earliest Greek arts but has apparently become one of the newest darlings on the art scene. This is because it can be used with embellishments, collage, fiber, papers, and textured or glossy surfaces.
• Oil was carefully prepared in the studios by apprentices. Syringes and pig bladders were considered the early tubes to use then.
• Tools required that you are creative and anything that would make a mark would literally be used.

So far many artists have found themselves using primitive tools and materials to make their artistic dreams come true. Moreover manufacturers have created design labs which will supposedly take care of the demands for more papers, embellishments, texturing tools, paints, stamps, inks, books, etc.