For Joy Alone

We crocheted, we sketched and painted. For joy alone.

Sometimes, we stumble across something that feels like what we’d been searching for, without even knowing we were searching.

Sometimes we end up places that we never imagined.

Sometimes we find ourselves hosting a Because Creativity Live session, meeting wonderful new people, just trying things out and having fun and creating with no purpose other than joy….

Gently guided and free spirited

We gathered on Zoom for the first Because Creativity session last week. We chatted, some of us crocheted, while others sketched and painted.

Lezel Simons

was crocheting a beautiful jumper for her son and helped me with some advice on joining in new colours to my granny squares, something that I’ve been struggling to work out! Lezel shared her love of crochet and how it has helped her to feel calm and relax.

Lezel is an indie author, love warrior, poetic heart and infinite soul, who writes what her soul wants to express - mostly poetry! You can read Lezel’s beautiful writing here on

Lezel writes

.

Sara Santa Clara

and I tried out a granny square pattern from Lucy at Attic24. Sara created a beautifully unique crocheted flower in gorgeous multicoloured yarn of picks and purples and blues. Neither of us had crocheted for years, but we gave it a go and I was delighted to see how our creations turned out so uniquely lovely.

Sara is a daughter, mother, friend, potter... and now a writer too! Sara writes

Clay on my mind

, about her love of pottery and other musings.

Kiran Zeeshan

used the time to paint colour swatches for a picture that she’s working on and we chatted about family and creativity and life in general. Kiran promised she would share pictures of her finished painting with us and I’m so looking forward to seeing it.

Kiran writes

And Theres More to the Story...

sharing Muslim musings on life as a person, parent and immigrant.

After the live session, we carried on the conversation in the While I Was Drawing Chat, where we shared photos of what we’d created with each other.

Kiran’s colour testers and Sara’s crochet flower

What happens when we just surrender to our creativity?

For a while now I’ve been wandering. Meandering. Not really knowing why, but just enjoying it. Only worrying what was I up to every now and then.

Writing words about my drawings, drawing pictures to accompany my words, crafting and creating and sharing it with you.

And without trying, without a direction, but just by surrendering to my creativity, I find myself here, having done things I didn’t plan, and planning to do more things I never thought I would…

I wrote a short story about a fairy named Nox, who was afraid of the dark. And now I am planning another, about a little witch searching for her gift.

I’ve been recording voiceovers for my posts for a little while, cringing a little less each time I hear my own voice played back to me. In March I had a HUGE amount of fun adding sound effects I’d recorded to the voiceover for my post The Music of March. And now I am busily planning to host a podcast!

In writing about failing as a full time creative, I stumbled across the point. My reason.

I write about things that I draw and I draw to accompany things that I write and I share my pictures with paid subscribers in my ever growing illustration gallery. And of course I would love my paid community to continue to grow and for that to be enough to pay the bills. But again, that’s not the point. I draw and write and create because it lights my soul and makes my heart sing.

The point is, because, creativity.

I wrote about playing the clarinet and my love of music, art, inspiration and creativity. How it was rooted deep in my soul, from a life surrounded by creativity. And I rediscovered doing things for joy alone.

I’ve started collecting together creative treasures that I have seen and delighted in recently to celebrate creativity of all kinds. I’ve realised that it’s not just my own creativity that lights me up and enthrals me, it’s the wonder that I feel when discovering and exploring the creativity of others.

And so here I am, And I have so many things I can’t wait to share with you.

While I Was Drawing letters

I have half written letters and drawings about secret ingredients, exploring off the edges of the map, failing at things, stitching things together and much more, that I am so excited to share.

Because Creativity Guest posts and podcasts

I will be sharing more Because Creativity Guest posts and starting a Because Creativity podcast, about crafting and creating for joy; about making things and baking things and singing and dancing and much more.

Celebrating Creativity posts

I’m collecting together many more creative treasures that I’ve been discovering to share in future Celebrating Creativity posts.

Festival of Creativity

On my adventure to explore creativity of all kinds, I am looking for Substack posts and Notes written for the joy of all types of creativity to feature in my virtual Festival of Creativity. I’ve been having mad ideas of organising a live Festival of Creativity, but for now, I think virtual is more realistic!

Because Creativity Live sessions

And following the success of our first Because Creativity Live session, I am planning the next one for Friday 5th July at 11.30am BST.

After last week’s Guest Post from

Vanessa Simpson

- the Lure of Clay, I thought we could play with air dry clay.

It will be a quiet and informal session where we can chat about the creative activities we love to do and share ideas and inspiration. So whether your creativity is a free spirit or you’re looking for some gentle guidance or just some mindful colouring-in to do, there will be space for everyone.

We’ll carry on the conversation in the Subscriber Chat afterwards, where you can share your creations with the community, if you would like.

I so hope that you can come.

Would you care to join me?

If you’re not already a subscriber to While I Was Drawing, subscribe for free to join us in this creative community, where we are exploring and unearthing the creative treasures in our soul. When you subscribe, you’ll get a beautiful bundle of illustration assets as a gift in my Welcome Letter.

Or you can upgrade for the cost of a couple of yarns of wool or a paint tube or two, and become a patron of my art. I am so grateful for every paid subscriber, each one granting my creativity another moment of freedom to explore creative adventures that light the soul. You’ll also get access to my every growing gallery brimming with gorgeous illustrations, and a new gift each month. The peacock butterfly dividers used in this post is one of the illustrations you can find in the gallery.

Bye for now,