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Show and Tell Your Mighty Ugly Creature

Lesson 4 from: Embrace the Ugly: How to Break Through What’s Holding You Back in Business

Kim Werker

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Lesson Info

4. Show and Tell Your Mighty Ugly Creature

Lesson Info

Show and Tell Your Mighty Ugly Creature

So we made our ugly creatures, and if you're a home and you're still making ugly creature that's awesome continued to show your images, but I also want to hear from you were going to do a bit of show and tell we're going toe. This is like going toe to wrap up this sort of childhood big pipe, cleaner craft aspect of today by showing off our creatures, I will start so that you get an idea of what I mean, like we're going to do like an honest to goodness show and tell, um, this is this guy does not have a name yet usually my ugly creatures have a name, but I was sort of distracted doing him today, but the thing that I found the most ugly about making him, which kind of excited me in a really gruesome way because I'm a bit sick and twisted as I'm about to out myself is being right now is that I started with this broken piece of egg carton, but there was something about it that seemed like eyes and the nose to me, but his head was split open, and so I twist tied it together with the ugliest...

color pipe cleaner I could find, so there was that for me, and then that the aspect of his guts coming out his mouth. I found really kind of gross and a bit revolting, and that was about as far as I got before I got distracted by coming around and talking to you about your creatures. But for me, there was an inside out aspect of this, the kind of like showing off the insides, and to me, that was it was really unseemly thing. So this was this was my ugly creature, but I'd love to go around. Aunt, have you introduced your creature and tell us a little about about what your experience was of making the creature? And again, like I said before, uh, totally cool if you found this to be the most fun thing in the world, totally cool for families to be, like, painful all of those experiences and everything in between are both expected and completely valid, and I may ask you questions just sort of to get to get at that sort of what you thought let's start in a different order this time just to mess around with things I don't I don't think it's ugly anymore. I made it and I like it, but the thing is that I found that if I I thought too much about making it ugly it was going to be as hard assed if I had to make it beautiful so the pressure off making something or too ugly or too beautiful it's moral as the same like you have to accomplish something and that's when you start thinking too much and that thinking goes on the way okay so you tried to stop thinking as much just make something that had no much thought off for and just try to come two combine things that were not very combine herbal on before you took the brakes he came back from the break loving it and thinking it's beautiful well I don't think it's that beautiful but I love it I think it's not beautiful but it's not better tio is it before you fell in love with it did you find it more ugly? Yeah, I like it so that it represents all of the blurred lines it's ugly and it's beautiful and lovable yeah it's like ugly but I like it because they made it yeah and so that was it was it challenging to not think so hard about it was fun it was freeing yeah on your ugly voice in the back of your mind did it did it rebel against you doing that a nato and I was thinking to myself what if it doesn't turn ugly so it was like as opposed to trying to make something beautiful and having that voice be like what if it's ugly instead it was saying what if it's beautiful in there on also well it's not going to be ugly but it's not going to be beautifully there so that's voice of saying it's not going to be good at all anyway yeah so any way you do it it's just going well yeah and he could do it it's fun yeah oh good, good my guido I thought it was really fun making it and I liked all the craft supplies that you provided I was inspired by them like I gave it I wanted to use the bottle caps I gave him like a little john t hat because I thought it be funding is the bottle cap and I give him a little feather tail because you have the feathers so I was inspired and did you find it? He found it easier, easy kind of really easy and fun and I was surprised by that you thought that it was going to be hard to do. Yeah, I was like all we have to make something and then I was like, this is great how is that different than I mean so I assume so you make jewelry is your likeness well fashion yeah, this talk business and I don't make them I draw them on the writer and I have made so how did your do you experience that thing where you sit down in front of your blank pad time to design something new right? And you're like, do you find that to be daunting? Yeah definitely but I do see kind of a parallel in like that I really like this supplies you provided and that inspired me and when I'm designing, if I have like ingredients just start with like maybe like I'll just ross and flowers and then I don't know what I'm gonna make a pattern from those but then I have like something drawn to start from that really helps you set you set your own set up well, that was like maybe I pick the colors I'm gonna work with and then like I feel inspired by this color something like that and so this worked the spread worked that's great good and do you find your creature? Do you think he's ugly he's probably more cute than he should be he's like I kind of got ugly cute likely here. What would you do if you had, like, another minute and a half? What would you do to make it uglier? I don't know, uh like rolling in the dirt yeah, scott, come up a bit yeah, awesome he's truthfully cool, thank you are you so I had a really hard time trying to make something ugly and then I found myself kind of like obsessing over whether things were straight I also realized why no one let me use a glue gun when I was a child because I got blue everywhere like this poor thing is like covered in glue andi I also it was supposed to be male but he has like a bag which everybody thinks it looks like a purse but that's ok and I think they're best ugly part that I did with the hair like I put color that I really hated my mom like kind of mixed like feathers and yarn but then I feel like I started kind of like making like a cute outfit so kind of a wash I did leave the bow completely uneven and I was very hard for me to be oh so in the end would you assess your creatures ugly not as ugly as it should not as ugly as it should be? What about as ugly as you want it to be? I mean I don't think it's cute okay that I mean I don't know I felt like I was a little bit of a failure at me ugly things like I don't know if I am good at making things ugly and then how did that differ did what did the voice in your mind was it saying things to like you kind of suck in making ugly things with it saying that I was that young like crazy perfectionist so like from the start I was like, I don't know if I'm going to be able to make ugly things very well yeah, it was like a self fulfilling prophecy yeah, a little bit awesome thank you, charlie so I noticed I didn't have a challenge making ugly things e u yeah in a room full of crafty people I really want to thank you all so this is my doll and, uh you know, what really stuck with ugly was simple super simple and and there was just like the you know, we were talking about like that what's that that voice and I was thinking it was right towards the end when I was thinking like, oh, you know, I want to put a shirt color on him and then I came up with this piece of ribbon I was like that's almost like a ring t shirt which made me think level like a little kid wearing a ring t shirt I was like, oh, that's what that voices that's what that voices that's just that little kid voice right like that little kid voice you have when you're like, oh, I don't know it's going to go or no one's gonna like me in school or yeah, yeah and then is that what I see on top? So is that with that a decorative uglier? Was that like a meaning? Oh, no that's definitely a meaning that right, like that's that that's the platform upon which might my my ugly creature lives. Loser. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Well, I was just trying to make something that was big and took up a lot of space, but as I was working, I found myself like fighting with the glue and trying to make it really need, and I was like, I should just go with message, so use this like mesh piece that really shows all of the like, ugly glue on the wrong side because you can see it three oh, that's kind of my point where I let go of it with it, I think it would have been a bit uglier if I had gone for less bright colors, but just like the bright colors so is it does the base on both sides yet what's so it was a little too cute like I'm going to go a little mess here on the side. So are you pretending like the first part doesn't exist? Or is it like a two faced taken me to face kind of thing, overall hard challenge or, like totally doable challenge? Well, it's a little hard to get ugly when I was doing everything really neatly and I just sort of naturally drawn towards colors that went together and I didn't think about that I probably should thought about if you had another minute and a half what would you do to make it uglier? I think I might have swapped out some of the like cheerful pipe cleaners for some more grab one I think making something ugly it was really easy for me I'm just the voice uh that I kept hearing was all my insecurities, my personal and security so everything about this has something to do with my personal insecurities so like the crazy frizzy hair or the dark eyes because I sometimes suck it lighting in photography I have no sense of fashion so that's what the crazy game and I have four little kids so that's why the bigger belly and elastic? Because I'm still wearing maternity pants even though I'm not pregnant the dollar signs crossed off because I'm amazing that marketing I can get people to come in, but a lot of times I have a hard time selling myself or getting them to spend money because I don't feel like I'm worth it so really this was really easy to make something ugly because I just thought about all the ugly things about myself that I think about really personal you channeled all of that in your future and you think he's ugly yes definitely but if I tried to do something cute would come out ugly anyway because I'm like I have no creativity unless it's photography I beg to differ I think that's awesomely creative we're going to talk about that more we're going to talk about that more thank you okay this was horrible horrible to make a horrible right here yeah anything crafty is quite horrible for me on dh it took me I sat for the longest time and couldn't get started which is why he doesn't have legs because I ran a time um and all I heard the whole time is it's not going to be good enough that's the voice is it not gonna be ugly enough but just not good enough what do you think it's not good enough what would make a good now maybe some legs if only he had like yeah maybe are you glad you did it do you want the truth? Yes no ok do you wish you hadn't done it? No okay but I'm not I'm not thrilled that I did it it's it's really? That was really hard for me yeah I saw I was glad that you did it I'm glad I did it to I could tell there was it point where you were you're not gonna and I was glad that you did I was glad that you did I am too thank you this is my ugly creature um I basically went the opposite of my instincts okay so what I wanted to go for I went the opposite of and I had to close my eyes when I was going things so they were crooked and not perfect and which was difficult with the hot glue gun um but I actually had an epiphany and making it that I feel like I used to be really creative and open and flowing in my creativity but over the past seven years have had to learn to be more structured and organized in my business side because that doesn't come naturally to me so now I feel almost like there's the imbalance that it's more I'm structured and stiff in my photography whereas I used to be relaxed and fluid and I think I need to look at that and find the balance a little a little more that's gold do you think you achieved ugly yeah yeah e I feel I that I did I love the look on your face and you said that so that's a great that's really great that's really great. Thank you so I have something that I would love to share from folks online. First of all I want to encourage folks to go check out your peers ugly creatures focus have already been posting them to our student work gallery also let you know how to do that but people are also writing their little little insight side you guys just talked about so wanna give a shout out to sharmila who has an ugly creature and says called it broadly by the way has a name bruh glee got done in less than two minutes first it sounded daunting then I picked stuff out of the recycling and it just came together like things usually dio if the minds kept out of the way right but turning about thinking s o I really like that one I thought was interesting can people are talking in the chat room about what is ugly anyhow? So girl friday says ugly is beautiful rich scorpio says ugly is mindset on then donna rwanda said trying to purposely make something ugly was difficult because I'm constantly aiming for perfection when I make things which obviously has been a theme going on here but I think it's interesting to think about people different people's definition of ugly yeah let me talk about that I would love to talk about that people ask me that that's like the number one question people ask me and I always deflect it because I don't think that the answer for me is any more or less important than the answer from anybody else so I'd love to know sort of both in the context of what you made like the specific that's why I asked you all if you thought that your creature was ugly or not ugly but what about just in general life let's start to step out a little bit think of bit more broadly you're talking about how the rigidity that you've kind of imposed upon your thinking about your business you feel like maybe you didn't even realize you were you were sort of tying your hands a little bit in the creative aspects of your business thinking about sort of ugliness and the freedom that you experience and letting yourself go there what like smoke was ugly on dh what's what's the ugliness that you avoid in your in your business do you know what I mean some extent I'm putting you on the spot sorry um I'm a little emotional about that but um I try and be transparent in my business because I think it's almost that's almost ugly I mean life is ugly in business can be ugly and difficulty and I try and be transparent and myself and it doesn't always transpire I don't always get reactions from it and so then I think, well, my doing it wrong should I be faking perfect? And I find with social media in particular that's a really difficult struggle because people want transparency but do they really? Because then when they see it they don't generally always react to it it's almost brings up too much stuff maybe yeah themselves so but for me my perception of ugly is attitude mean people when people are mean backstabbing uh stealing ideas that kind of stuff that to me is ugly its behavior and then as as a consumer of other people's work what do you respond more to in in terms of, you know, sort of safe through social media, right? Is it the transparency or is it the perfection that you are drawn to? I honestly don't know it's hard to say yeah, I honestly don't know one thing that just came up in my business is sometimes I find it really difficult I don't use a lot of photo shop in my work and I find it difficult that a lot of people think they look ugly in their images and that's really hard because I'll show them a picture I think they look absolutely beautiful and they'll say I hate that I look ugly yeah that's a really hard thing our own when we are the subject right? That legs I feel like I don't think there's a time that I feel more awkward than when somebody has got a camera in my face and like and then you you self sabotage right? So that's something that I really worked hard at as a crafter I was and I'm pleased to say that I'm really not this way so much anymore really work through it but I used to be a self saboteur I would get into something and I really love it and then I would like the more I got into it, the more I loved it the more convinced I wass that I was going to screw it up and the more I loved it more into it I was the more devastated I knew I would be when I screwed it up so it old screwed up early and then be like, well ok in perfect is awesome right? And then but really what I was doing is preventing myself to just actually finish it on d I think I do that when the cameras put in front of me we have we call it a piper trade all of my cousins du it to like cavern put in front of you are like, you know, like and and it's ridiculous and we have terrible family photos because none of us will just relax into having a general photo taken of ourselves but it's that like but what if I look terrible and I'm not trying? If I tryinto look terrible then who but that's a very personal and difficult thing and maybe that's why shoot the style that I do, which is behind the scene and I actually learned to ask permission from people after yeah, because if I asked them before bill, their demeanor will change because they know I'm taking their patient get all posey yeah, so if they really don't want me tell deleted after but yeah, I prefer when people don't know I'm photographing them because they have their natural beauty comes that sure sure and do you find the are you ever able to convince someone to see the beauty and what you see sometimes you know usually tactically usually pretty convinced that what they don't like about themselves yeah yeah it's really program what about the rest of us sort of I know that many people in the room and probably also at home aren't working with human subjects so much right we're creating safe from scratch and so there isn't the element of the thing actually talking back and saying so how does that what is ugly to you? What is that? Have you ever done it by accident have you ever like set out because he had this great idea for a design or a product or service or you were like this is going to be amazing and then you went and you started protecting it and working on it and it was just don't even tell me no you would yeah ok, I like I'm really good at making stuff and being creative but like the business side I'm really about it and so like I contact stores to try and sell them my socks and like I right like a sales email and my like sales even hell's there like so terrible like and it's so embarrassing and then I'm just like whatever it's ah horrible email it's really bad and I'll just send it any way that you know that's the best I can dio and it's ugly but you know, that's part of having a business and I have to do it so what is there? What is the what's going on in your mind when you're at the point of sending it or working on it's still like what's that I guess I wouldn't have any idea how to make it good so I wouldn't know how to work so it's just the mystery of it like this he and a total mystery yeah, yeah, is that something that you think you can address with someone or something like that can have someone like teach me to write better, I guess it's raising yeah, really definite ideas about colors that I like and it's a limited palette s so I try when I'm doing design work like I don't always make samples and colors that I like because that's like two colors like blue and purple and also black, but that doesn't photograph well, so I'll often have things that I make that I don't really think they look that good because I don't like the color, but but then I just kind of have to be like, well, some people might think this is a nice color and I mean, I think they do but it's hard for me sometimes like people like all I love, you know, the photos for this. They're so beautiful, it's such a great color, and I'm kind of like, really ok, it's funny, but you force yourself to do it anyway, right? You know, that was back when I was working as a magazine editor of cochet patterns, it was like we had a color palette for the whole issue of magazine, and it wasn't necessarily something I chose spring was an especially difficult season for me because it's very past ellie and I really I'm not a pastel person on then there would always be yellow. Yellow was my name like, I didn't think anything ever looked good in yellow, I have never enjoyed yellow was a color my whole life, it was like, no, I would've waited all costs, but like things didn't work if I didn't put yellow in like, they just didn't work. And so what I learned, and I think this was kind of a seed of thinking about ugliness, actually was that that little bit of the thing that I thought was ugly would end up making everything else work on not only work, but better, and it wasn't because I was comparing it against the other thing it was actually that I was leaving out really important ingredients. It would be probably in cooking. I'm going to make this up, but the cooks have to tell me if this is right. If say, you're not a huge fan of cumin, you can't just leave human out of everything. You have to just use it along with other things and trust that not everything is going to taste one hundred percent like human right? Like there's, that balance of keeping it in in order to achieve a hole. That's. Anyway, I'm just rambling, rambling, rambling, rambling on let's. She got a little bit. Is there something out of my mind? I wanted tio share a comment. Hold on one second when we find it again. Uh, that was from talking about what ugliness is on. This is from hello, my goddess. Who said, um, slot it's, sloppy and careless. I think she was actually talking about her creature. Neither pretty nor ugly, just plain boring. And then she says, I guess that's my monster afraid of being boring. Yeah, right. Yeah. No, people care what I say. I have nothing to contribute the big one. Yeah, and so was her creature boring. Do it let's say, looking fine, I know my goddess or making posted in our student work gallery as well

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Year of Making - E Book
Workshop Supply List
Embrace the Ugly Syllabus
Mighty Ugly Course Workbook

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

I listened to the entire course. I think that Kim is very inspiring and that she uses stories effectively. I do think that she needs to have the audience wear name tags and use their names when she is talking to them. It helps me the viewer feel a connection with the studio audience. I made my ugly creature. I am a graphic/interior designer. I know that ugly items are needed at times to make things beautiful, so my creature actually looks cute to me. I wished that less time was used on the ugly creature discussions and more time getting to the core of what is holding us back. Designers are visual producers so our work is always under scrutiny, and it is good to see what other designers are fearing, but solutions is what I wanted to get to rather than trying to identify what is holding me back. I hope that future videos by Kim will address the solutions and use less of the ugly theme so as to work on gaining insight as to how to overcome negativity about growing our businesses.

Nicola
 

Amazing course, so good that I had to purchase it for further referral. With thanks to Kim Werker and also to the facilitator.

Student Work

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