Table of contents for Creative Journeys in Creative Journeys

Creating a sphere from a flat piece of paper is tricky – you have to cut, bend, fold or crumple the paper. The reverse is also true: you can’t flatten an orange peel without splitting it, or an eggshell without destroying it. So how easy is it to accurately represent the globe on a flat piece of paper? If you painted all the landmasses of the world onto a spherical lightbulb, the shadows cast would be a projection – a world-map projection, which is a way of visualising a three-dimensional curve in two dimensions. But, just as the setting sun gives you an elongated shadow, the angle of the light creates distortions. All map projections are flawed in some way when compared to seeing the world on a globe. You…

During an episode of the web-based talk show Red Table Talk, actors Will and Jada Pinkett Smith discuss their marriage. Will talks of his love of travel and adventure, wanting to see the world and explore. “I want to go on an adventure!” he says. “I don’t ever want to go to the same place a second time.” Jada, however, prefers the inner journey, exploring herself rather than new lands. They laugh, and daughter Willow chips in, saying “Jada runs around the globe of her soul”. Even if you prefer to go on inner journeys there might still be a need for a map. Mind maps – quick scribbles to show a main idea and the routes we could take to get there – are a great first step, but…

In my 25 years, I have travelled by myself and stayed away from home alone just once. For one night. I forced myself onto a train at King’s Cross, London, and rode it to Edinburgh, where I spent one night alone in a family flat, solely to see if I could manage it or not. Most of my life has been dominated by panic attacks triggered by staying away from home. Sleepovers, holidays with friends, nights spent at my boyfriend’s flat – all of them have been avoided because of the terror that a panic attack would strike once I arrived. Even family holidays would send me into a state of anxiety. I remember a trip to Somerset, aged 13: I took down the posters from my bedroom walls in…

There was a time when all it took to assess a potential new friend’s compatibility was a quick scan of the Time Out, Rough Guide and Lonely Planet books upon their shelves. Scrawled with the phone numbers of fellow travellers met on whirlwind weekends in Barcelona or rickety long boats in the South Pacific, and stuffed full of receipts and ticket stubs, these hefty tomes were part journal, part souvenir and part badge of honour: been there, done that, got the travel guide to prove it. Held within those pages was a world of potential, and from the first tentative flick-through to the final rush to find a number for an airport taxi, our guidebooks made constant and reliable travelling companions. To say I love travel guides would be an…

When I started my personal blog ten years ago, I did so to plug into a global community of knitters, bakers, photographers and textile artists. We were all journeying through our making, with cameras and laptops to hand as we documented what we were creating and inspired by. The DIY blogging movement was a wave of creativity that helped establish craft businesses, run from the home, as a viable option for many. The visibility of making is huge on social media and a scroll through any traditional crafts hashtag from #blockingprinting to #papercutting will reveal thousands of makers who are sharing and connecting. And for all this ready inspiration, there’s also commercial value in exchanging centuries-old craft skills. In our modern, rapid-share communities, questions of identity, cultural roots and profit…

For Tove Jansson, life on an island represented freedom. She loved the sea, and wrote to a friend, “You become different and think new thoughts when you live a long time alone with the sea and yourself.” In an essay in 1961 she wrote, “An astonishing number of people go about dreaming of an island.” In 1947, Tove fulfilled her dream when she signed a 50-year lease to Bredskär, a tiny island in the Pellinki archipelago. She spent the summer living in a tent and working on a new Moomins book while she built a one-room wooden cabin. She called the house Vindrosen (‘wind rose’), the name for a diagram showing the relative frequency of wind directions. The cabin measured just four metres by five and had windows on three…

Eating flowers is not a new concept. In medieval times, flowers were used in many dishes, and were credited for their medicinal and magical properties. As gardeners, it’s drilled into us that it’s bad to let herbs and vegetables go to flower, but doing this allows you to benefit from every stage of a plant’s life, and produces another exciting ingredient: the edible flower. Before the days of refrigeration, humans preserved their food as a way of survival, bottling up many of a plant’s nutrients for the colder months when food was scarce. There are several ways to preserve the bounty of summer, from drying and freezing to steeping ingredients in alcohol and vinegar. Edible flowers can also be cooked and crystallised, or preserved in jams and syrups. What’s so…

Walk With Me leather document holder. “This recycled leather pouch is made from one piece. It protects my papers, passport, recent finds and more delicate notebooks.” A Caran d’Ache 849 ballpoint pen. “It carries the Goliath cartridge, which writes 600 sheets of A4 – so it’s my back-up in case my ink pens run out!” Writing pens – usually a Lamy Safari fountain pen, the Stalogy Editors pen, which has a pencil and three colours of ballpoint, the Pencil Ball by OHTO and a Kaweco Lilliput fountain pen in the brass wave finish. “I recently discovered the singer Lou Doillon has the rollerball version of the Lilliput and felt very pleased, because she has excellent taste in everything!” Bindework linen notebook. “I keep this in my handbag for taking down…

The need to record our experiences – whether it’s through drawing, painting or keeping a diary – is part of human nature. And we have always collected objects as mementos, too. If we think about holiday souvenirs, keyrings and little bottles of spirits that get shoved to the back of the drinks cabinet might come to mind, but that’s not the whole story. The act of collecting souvenirs begins much earlier, with small rocks found on the beach ready to fill pockets, or pretty shells with a mesmerising sheen that can be bought from a shop a mere stroll from the water’s edge. Collecting trinkets – taking something from a place we’ve visited or buying souvenirs – are two sides of the same coin. The word ‘souvenir’ has been used…

Back in 2009, Christopher Kirkley decided to go to Mali. Departing from his home in Portland, Oregon, his intention was to combine two of his passions – music and travel. He wanted to capture the sounds and music of Mali on a cheap Zoom H2 Handy Recorder and then post them on his blog. What actually happened was something that changed his life forever. And all because of a homemade mixtape and some cheap mobile phones. When he arrived in Mali, Christopher discovered that the villagers didn’t use their phones to make calls – and that wasn’t because there was limited signal. Instead, they used them to store music, using memory cards and Bluetooth to swap and trade MP3s of songs recorded at festivals, weddings and gatherings, as well as…

The music I listened to during my overnight trip to Edinburgh has always stayed in my memory. Hiss Golden Messenger’s Biloxi was a beautiful accompaniment as my train travelled past the fields, and I can’t pretend its repetitious lines of ‘It’s hard Lord, Lord it is hard’ weren’t a comfort. Similarly, Karl Blau’s mesmerising covers of That’s How I Got To Memphis and Fallin’ Rain were also great company. Listening to them allowed me to pretend for a few moments that I was a carefree traveller, imbued with ramblin’ spirit. The evening before I departed for the city, I shared a kiss with my boyfriend. As such, songs that felt romantic or that reminded me of him were in plentiful supply. Anything by Lambchop, a band he introduced me to,…

TAJ MAHAL, AGRA, INDIA Top of the ‘must do’ list for most travellers to India, the Taj Mahal attracts over seven million visitors a year, and if you head there at sunset you’ll find you meet a lot of them. For a more relaxed view of the marble mausoleum, head to Mehtab Bagh gardens on the other side of the river where a perfectly aligned vista of the monument awaits. SIGIRIYA, DAMBULLA, SRI LANKA Towering above the plains below, the UNESCO-listed ancient city of Sigiriya is a Sri Lanka must-see, which, of course, means everyone else has had the same idea. Swerve the crowds by climbing nearby Pidurangala instead, taking in a magnificent view of Sigiriya from your crowd-free point. STATUE OF LIBERTY, NEW YORK, USA If a visit to…

With all great literature, the setting, scenery and landscape are as central to the tale as any character, and just as easily recognised. But exactly how does environment influence storytelling, character and our emotional response as readers? A sense of place isn’t just a description of a village, town or city. History and geography collide to create the physical location, of course, but to conjure up a sense of place authors have to go further. It has to convey a moment in time. An experiential journey describing the sounds, the smells and the feeling of a place isn’t easy to write. But it is what makes our favourite novels so rich to read. Whether it’s the formality of 1920s London so keenly observed by the sharp wit of Nancy Mitford…

Potiki is iconic in the New Zealand literary landscape for its vivid evocations of contemporary coastal Maori life, as well as its searing depiction of the way land and sea are seen and held so differently by indigenous and non-indigenous New Zealanders. It tells how a Maori community is threatened by a land developer who wants to purchase ancestral land and begin construction. Its narrators include Roimata, a woman who describes the community’s concerns and their quiet, concerted efforts to rebel; her husband, Hemi, a man who has been laid off from his job but then has the opportunity to reconnect with the land, his culture and his family; and Toko, Roimata and Hemi’s adopted son, who is physically handicapped but also has the gift of supernatural sight or matakite.…

Petals thrown at weddings. The celebration of new jobs and homes. The formality of longstemmed lilies, sent to those who are grieving when words cannot be found. Flowers feature at every milestone like a beautiful currency. And from the first wink of a snowdrop in the dark days of January to the festive flaunt of a gaudy poinsettia, the calendar year has its own floral rhythm. While many of us light up at the first glance of daffodils in early spring, all around the world people are celebrating the seasons in many brilliant ways. From the evocative scents of the Rose Festival in Bulgaria to the world-famous cherry blossom season of Japan, join us for a trip through the seasons, following floral festivities across the globe. ROSE FESTIVAL KAZANLAK, BULGARIA…

For Jenni Sparks, her post-university ambition was simple: to work as an illustrator, get paid to draw things and to live in London. Little did she know the three would come together in one project that would change her life. “I thought it would take me at least five years after graduation to get to be full-time freelance, but because of a stroke of luck I was there after six months!” Jenni explains. “When I left university, I kept a little book where I wrote down some of the things that I wanted to achieve. I had some other aspirations such as making things to sell such as T-shirts and I also made a dream list of clients to work with. This really helped me to envision the future and…

For Sahel Sounds boss Christopher Kirkley, discovering Mdou Moctar after hearing one of his songs was a bit of a challenge. “After some internet sleuthing, sending the song and a message to every Facebook profile in Abalak that had a guitar in their profile picture, I found his number,” he explains. “We talked and he played the song for me over the phone. Two years later I went to Niger to meet him, and we recorded his first album. We followed that with a film, which led to a tour, which led to more tours. Mdou has become well known in African music. It’s amazing to be a part of this conduit that not only shared his music but also the culture with listeners from other places.” We spoke to…

In 1997, British artist Tacita Dean was invited to take part in the Annual Screenwriter’s Lab at the Sundance Institute in Utah. While there, feeling inspired, she drove out into the sun-bleached Utah desert in search of The Spiral Jetty, a work of art that has inspired countless journeys. Built in 1970 by the American land artist Robert Smithson, at Rozel Point off the north-eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake, this mythical work rises and falls from sight, submerged and exposed according to the changing water levels. When Dean made the pilgrimage, she used a two-page fax of instructions supplied by the Utah Arts Council, but today’s visitors can simply punch the location into satnav. They may miss the ‘pink and white truck (mostly white) and an old army…

The Japanese archipelago, with its steep alpine and forested interior, narrow strip of livable space around the rim, three fertile rice-growing plains and 6,852 islands, has long played a key role in the country’s literature – for example, in the terrifying isolation of Kobo Abe’s The Woman In The Dunes, the unspoiled purity of Yasunari Kawabata’s Snow Country, Shusaku Endo’s dark coasts and dangerous roads in Silence, and Hideo Furukawa’s postmeltdown Fukushima in Horses, Horses, In The End The Light Remains Pure. But perhaps more than any other Japanese author, Yukio Mishima was in tune with the shades and meaning of the landscape. His 1954 novel The Sound Of Waves is a strident example. It’s a classic of the ‘love triangle’ genre and a book that has held such romantic…

This is my favourite flower to craft. Every time I make one I remember all the beautiful roses growing in my mum’s garden when I was a child. A rose works well as a single flower or with a few clustered together as a bouquet. This tutorial makes a single stem with a large rose and a smaller opening rose bud. The project looks great in any colour or printed paper. For the perfect gift and keepsake, you can use found papers such as old letters, book pages or vintage maps. You will need Paper pieces (see page 121): Large rose: 2x large five-leaf petal • 1x large four-leaf-petal • 1x large three-leaf petal • 8x large petal • 6x large leaf Small rose: 1x small four-leaf petal • 1x…

Richard Buckminster Fuller created his Dymaxion map in order to solve the problem of inaccurate map projections (see page 18 for more on this). But in doing so he also devised an attractively angular take on the familiar globe, which can be displayed any way up. We’ve recreated his unusual map here as a template that you can print and build into your own 3D array of mini-Earths. You’ll find instructions and templates for two colourways here, but you can find other colourways to download at www.calmmoment.com/creating/geometric-globe. MAKE A GLOBAL MOBILE Leela Roy shows you how to transform your paper globe template from flat to fabulous in just a few moves. Step 1 Cut out the globe using sharp scissors or a scalepl and ruler. Step 2 Fold in along…