Defining our values

 We have begun an interesting group coaching process, with professional coach in training and friend of the Works-in-Progress collective,  Amy Brown.  We met individually over the past month, and as a group last week.  We are her first group coaching experiment, so we are all moving forward in faith, as you do, in the usefulness of the process. So far, very interesting, and as we take steps, the path gets revealed.  Here's a link to a VIA strengths quiz, if you like that kind of thing... it's free!

Part of the process is identifying some core values of the group.  We are still working on it but on the list was play, creativity, sustainability, and an integrity of purpose. We want the collective to support our members and build a community. To that end we are doing artist talks, seeking funding to both host workshops and pay artists to create online materials.

One of our artists- Ines Scepanovic- has an annual gig as a butter sculptor for the Royal Winter Fair.  So awesome. This year they asked her to come back, online, as part of a nation wide online contest. So of course I offered to make a video with her, support her as she ventures into online workshop world.  But, should it be a Works-in-Progress thing because, of course, butter sculpture is off brand :) We wrestle with using food in other projects, like rice or flax in hand-warmers, both for the food waste and the cost.

It is a work-in-progress.  We are artists and want to make things because they are beautiful and sometimes that means using material that is not up-cycled or recyclable or even toxic, but materials and alternatives are always part of the discussion. 

For now, some play.  The skills Ines shares in this video transfer to working with other material  And, while butter sculpture is wasteful, it is not toxic, it is ephemeral and, in the end, as Ines says, if your hands were clean, you can always keep your finished sculpture in the fridge and use it on your toast.

 there is another video on our instagram feed- she did make the chicks in the end as well.

butter sculpture how to from tmurdoch on Vimeo.