About My 100 Day Projects
The 100 Day Project, originally popularized by Lindsay Jean Thomson, is a worldwide art project in which artists commit to creating art for 100 days in a row. It’s a wonderful opportunity to commit to your creative practice and dedicate the time you need to expand your art. Because it’s only 100 days, there is an end in sight, and it doesn’t become too much of a slog. Each person defines the project for themselves. For some people, their commitment is simple…to just work on something every day. Others have a them, such as 100 line drawings, 100 doodles, or 100 poems.
I realized this is a perfect framework to apply to polymer clay because you can choose 100 days of anything from cleaning your studio to making a finished item. The rules are yours and yours alone. This isn’t a box to punish yourself about, this is a container into which you can create discipline and (hopefully) build the bones of a life of creative practice.
I’ve completed five 100 Day Projects thus far. In both 2025 and 2026, I worked alongside dozens of members in Blue Bottle Insiders, each of us doing our own 100 Day Project on a theme we chose. Having so many others working with me, each of us sharing our progress and cheering each other on, was an incredible experience.
100 Days of Veneers
In 2018, I created 100 Days of Veneers, which are decorated sheets of clay that are to be used in later projects. It was my first time doing the project, so I didn’t document it daily outside of social media. But you can see the photo collage here.
100 Days of Vessels
Oh my goodness, this project in 2020 almost broke me. I was so focused! I made a vessel each and every day. Some of them are just proof-of-concept; others, I’m quite proud of. It taught me SO MUCH about construction, building, and support. I found that techniques get you nowhere if you don’t know how to build something… and learn I did! Read about the project here.
100 Days of Beads
After an exhausting vessel project in 2020, I wanted my next project to be a bit less challenging. In 2023, my project was to make at least one bead each day. While I enjoyed making beads, I found that this project didn’t have enough complexity, and I got bored rather quickly. Personally, I find that for me, The 100 Day Project isn’t about discipline, it’s about discovery. So I need to discover things. Here’s more about that project.
100 Days of Colorshift
Then, in 2025, I wanted to get back to discovering things. My constraint was colorshifting powders, films, and mediums. And oh my goodness, this one was intriguing! I learned so much about how to create something to take advantage of how light and color move on the surface of the clay. Each day’s project was shown on video, so there is no compilation of images. It turns out that you can’t see colorshift in a still image. But you can see all 100 shorts on YouTube or in my Instgram highlights here. Here is a video of the final piece in the series. No, I never thought of myself as a sculptor before…but look what happened!
100 Days of Wall Art
For my 2026 project, I’ll chose 100 Days of Wall Art. I wanted to choose something that gave me enough constraint to maintain a singular focus, but also allowed enough variation and challenge to explore new ideas. Once again, I found it challenging to complete a full project in a single day, so many of these are tiles that would still need to be mounted. Most are 4″x4″. I did, however, explore several new techniques and materials. For example, I dedicated several days to exploring ways to emulate the heavily textured glazes from mid-century pottery, as well as extensive explorations into acrylic inks.
You can see each day’s project in a dedicated archive here.
Next Year?
I’m not sure yet if I’ll do another 100 Day Project. It’s a big commitment. But fellow participants in Blue Bottle Insiders are eager to give it another go next year. I just may have to join them. Stay tuned!
