Mighty Ugly Redux

“Hello, my name is Plush, and I am a perfectionist”.

Ok, so maybe it’s not the kind of thing peo­ple form sup­port groups over.  Whether or not we need a twelve-step pro­gram for per­fec­tion­ists is a dis­cus­sion for another day, but last year when the Plushettes were caught rip­ping out seams that were a six­teenth of an inch away from what they had been aim­ing for, it was obvi­ously time for an intervention.

Enter Kim Werker, crafter, author, and blog­ger extra­or­di­naire.  Kim is the mad genius behind the Mighty Ugly project, which will turn every­thing you thought you knew about cre­ativ­ity and craft­ing on its head (actu­ally, by the time she’s done with it, it may not have a head anymore!).

Here’s the chal­lenge: cre­ate the most hideous and revolt­ing lit­tle crea­ture that you can.  Not cute-ugly!  Really ugly.  The more grotesque the bet­ter.  It’s nowhere near as easy as it sounds, and you may learn some things about your­self along the way.  For those of us used to striv­ing for sym­me­try and love­li­ness in every­thing we cre­ate, it is incred­i­bly intim­i­dat­ing to set out to make some­thing delib­er­ately repug­nant.  For those of us who aren’t usu­ally artis­tic or crafty and are intim­i­dated by the very idea of sit­ting down to cre­ate some­thing, Mighty Ugly is a lib­er­at­ing expe­ri­ence, as all the pres­sure of try­ing to con­struct some­thing pretty is gone.  It’s sort of like kinder­garten, but for grown-ups –there is no wrong way to make a Mighty Ugly crea­ture.  Unless it’s too cute.

This fall, the Mighty Ugly project returns to Plush on Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 8th, from 1:30 to 3:30.  Cost is $35, and includes all sup­plies, tools, and point­ers.  Absolutely no craft expe­ri­ence is nec­es­sary to take this work­shop!  None!  Even if you’ve never picked up a glue gun or a nee­dle, you can do this.  Reg­is­ter by phone (604 708 5199) or in per­son at Plush (4296 Main Street), or online at MightyUgly.com (right now Kim is offer­ing an online spe­cial: reg­is­ter 2 or more peo­ple for $30/person).