How my experience in training design helped me in a new creative experience

Last week I attended a Mosaic workshop. I’m a creator by nature and love having the opportunity try out different crafts (in particular).

As part of my prep I looked for examples of mosaics to get an idea of what I might like to do. Obviously, I would only be making a small one and the teacher, Tracey Cartledge, was quite clear that we shouldn’t bring in a photo of someone elses work to copy – we should create our own design.

Initially, I wanted to create a scene of one of my favourite places – the Italian Lakes, but realised after trying a few ideas with AI, that would be too complex for a beginner. A picture of cheese and wine was (after some playing around in Canva) also dismissed as too difficult for the time available.

In the end, after a walk in the woods, I decided on creating 4 trees, merged together depicting the 4 seasons. I had plans to include a lake in the background and embellish the forest floor with bluebells, fallen leaves and snow, but knew this might be ambitious for a beginner, in one day.

The creative process: from idea to completion

So I took my design and discussed it with Tracey. She said that overall it was good and we could definitely create something like that, and this is how we did it.

Firstly we used a pencil to sketch out our design directly onto the board to make sure the proportions would be right. She explained how if the design was to be precise, there were ways of transferring a design from paper to the board (and other ways involving mesh and brown paper that were more for experienced hands).

Sketch created, I asked where it was best to start.

“Where is the focus of the piece?” she prompted.

“Well, the trees” I replied.

“So start with those. Get your trunks in place and then think about how your want to bring the leaves to life. What textures and colours do you want there? You can fill in the background with whatever time you have left.”

And so I began. The trunks were glued into position and then I started cutting small pieces of glass to make the leaves – starting on the left and moving right. BUT I realised that the sketched proportions were encouraging me to create a ‘hard’ like between one tree and the next. Thankfully I noticed in time and was able to make the line more intertwined.

It was totally engrossing cutting and finding pieces to bring my picture to life, and before I knew it, it was 4 o-clock and time to finish. I hadn’t done the sky OR the ground.

But I now knew what I was doing and was able to take the pieces to finish at home, which I did quickly and easily. I’m pretty pleased with the result (which still needs grouting!) I was also glad that with hindsight, I didn’t try to overcomplicate my design with bluebells, fallen leaves and lakes. The board wasn’t big enough, I wasn’t skilled enough and it would probably have spoiled the picture – as well as taken lots more time.

Lessons for Learning and Development

Designing training is also a creative art, and there are lots of parallels to be drawn:

• Do your research and get inspiration from what’s out there, but never try to copy something directly.
• Talk your ideas through with key stakeholders, or peers, to sense-check your thinking.
• Be realistic about what you can achieve with the time, resources and experience you have.
• Start with a sketch (rough outline) but remember the lines can change a little as you build up the detail.
• Be clear about what your focus is – spend most of your time and energy on getting that right.
• Don’t try to overcomplicate (or over-fill) your design. A simple thing done well will be far more effective.
• It will ALWAYS take longer than you expect!
• Every time you design something you take learning from the last time and your confidence, skills and results will all improve.

Could I have created a mosaic all by myself? Yes, of course – but it would have taken WAY longer to learn how to use the tools, understand the materials and might have wasted lots of time (and materials) working things out for myself. Tracey let me make my own mosaic my own way. She never once told me what I should do. She DID help me to get to grips with the tools and offered suggestions so that I enjoyed the experience and made something I was ultimately pleased with.

And if you think light touch support with your training design might help make things quicker, easier and less stressful, you’re right! Join our VIP community and/or enrol on self-guided courses to give yourself a head start, or take things to next level.