creativity

Guest series :: Listen and watch

by contributor on May 19, 2012

in Community + Creativity, Guest series 2012

Guest series 2012: I asked fellow bloggers, makers and creators to write on their creativity and focus their essay on one of four topics: creativity and health, creativity and business, creativity and parenting or creativity and process. I am very excited to have a wonderful lot of fellow creative folk guest posting here at whipup.net over the next couple of months. Please welcome…

Jodi Anderson grew up in the woods of Sauk County, Wisconsin, and her past is present in most everything that she does today. She finds beauty in the mundane, refuses to let her struggles with illness define her, obsesses over local history, and tries to keep track of it all in her online journal, Daybook.

“You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice. It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”
– Franz Kafka

I am lullabied, and a bit haunted, by daydreams. They are a combination of beast and wilderness, childlike wonder, science, and the more primal aspects of self. There is a guttural component to my thinking and overall vision, and as often as I can, I allow myself to be fully immersed in all of these elements. The most important thing that I do is listen to and watch what is going on inside of me.

When a concept is evolving, I feel it physically. It is not unusual to find that I am sitting, eyes closed with hands, fingers spread wide, placed upon my chest, as if trying to extract the equation from within so that I can unfold this into an outward expression, a stamp of my most authentic self. These feelings, this immersion, always come first, and it is a sort of love affair with my ideas. A right-quick affair actually, so I make haste or I am liable to not do the project at all. I need to move very fast and work while I still possess that first strong urge.

(If, on the other hand, I am following a crochet pattern or have specific instructions for a basket, I have all the time in the world.)

After that, it is just a matter of desire versus reality. What can I physically do with the objects that I have in mind? Can I learn any needed skills quickly? Do I have the necessary energy? Is this something that I will start and then abandon? What is my end goal? Do I even have one?

When working on characters and costumery, as I do in the unmasked series, I might sketch out an idea, but mostly I prefer to pull together materials and play with them. As they are gathered and begin to reveal more of their nature, I naturally work out the details and consider workability while everything is within my grasp.

An important element in my recent evolution as an artist has come in the form of a fearless friend, Jen, who is a skilled knitter and seems to quickly master anything that she attempts, like basket weaving. We have become crafting cohorts, signing up for classes to do things of which I’d not heard and otherwise raising my bravery status, as well as challenging my previous belief that an introvert wouldn’t enjoy company. (Ha!) It was she who suggested we try antler basket weaving, which, damn if that didn’t incite a whole internal revolution and rock my world.

Already at home in the woods and liking best those things that are alive, or once were, I find that weaving, whether baskets or a garden trellis, works well with my creative process. I have always been first inspired by the wild world, like the spring woods or a bustling river. You can work with synthetic materials, but I find that reed and cane fit in well with my personal design aesthetic. Although there are some general techniques in weaving, such as ojo de Dios (God’s eye) binding when the handle first meets the rim, the craft is remarkably forgiving and intuitive. I find that I don’t need to do much planning, if any. Weaving put a new notch in my figurative craft belt, and it shifted a bit the way that I approach unfolding ideas and then implementing them. It allowed me to more fully relax into making and the end result is like a timestamp of my creative self during that project.

In the end, I believe that our individual life journeys, all of the things that we make, the dreams that we mold, those thoughts manipulated by head and hand, even the art that is conceived and not taken any further, each of these is a step in the creative process, where the ultimate craft is the revealing of our true self.

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Guest series :: A failed attempt to control the chaos

by contributor on May 17, 2012

in Geek Crafts, Guest series 2012

Guest series 2012: I asked fellow bloggers, makers and creators to write on their creativity and focus their essay on one of four topics: creativity and health, creativity and business, creativity and parenting or creativity and process. I am very excited to have a wonderful lot of fellow creative folk guest posting here at whipup.net over the next couple of months. Please welcome…

MostlyNerdyCrochet is the love child of Tracey McNamee and her adoration of nerd culture and yarn. She’s in her mid-twenties and enjoys long walks on the beach, candle lit dinners, and—wait. Sorry, let me restart. She’s in her mid-twenties and enjoys colorful yarn from thrift stores, weekend projects, and all things nerdy.

Alright, so my creativity isn’t so much a process as a mostly failed attempt to control the chaos. When I’m inspired it’s not just for one thing, it’s usually about ten things and I have to choose the most interesting (and practical) one. Why just choose one? Because I know myself! If I start too many I’ll never finish any of them, and if I try to rush through one to add in a second I’ll burn out before I get there. Thank goodness crafting isn’t a job for me. I’d be terrible at it! I work solely off my muse, who pops in now and then when it’s convenient.

So there I am, sitting at my “work station” and it hits me, I should make one of those! But wait, if I make that, what if I made THAT instead and combined it with this and this. Oh this goes on for a while until I’ve decided that my original idea is not only easier, but I have all the colors for it. You wouldn’t believe how many of my projects are determined by my limited yarn collection.

Let me preface this by saying I’m a very organized person. I even worked as an assistant professional organizer for a while, but as soon as the craft supplies are out I become a storm of flying fluff, misplaced hooks, and sitting on scissors. Seriously. One time it was a needle, and no, my husband doesn’t let me forget it.

This is where the magic happens.

And this is while the magic is happening.

This lasts for a couple of days until I’ve sewn on the last pupil (for some reasons the eyes are always last, it’s something with how they turn “real” once those eyes are looking at me. I think Toy Story instilled this fear that a toy would see anything I did, but not without eyes sucker!) and I sit, covered in thread, polyfil, and bits of my hair that I’ve pulled out, admiring my work. Did I seriously just make this? It’s AWESOME!

I’m especially not kidding about my reaction. I’m always way more impressed than I should be that my work looks like I want it to. For years I struggled with traditional art, but crochet? Finally, a place where I belong.

Back to that muse. Not to assume a gender, but I need a pronoun to refer to her. It’s been a while since we’ve had lunch, sadly, a couple of months. Luckily, when she’s away on vacation I turn to Pinterest. If you haven’t sold your soul to Pinterest yet I recommend you avoid it like the plague. Don’t get me wrong, it’s the best thing that ever happened to me on the internet. The problem? You’ll lose all your free time. Days will pass and somehow you’ll only feel like you stepped through the garage door and saw a sandworm (please ignore my obscure Beetlejuice reference). It leaks into your mind, polluting you with DIY projects, home décor, inspiration, humor, and FOOD. Oh God the food.

Right, back to the creative process. Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, food. WAIT, no.

Ok, since I’ve clearly been distracted by the ever present existence of Pinterest I would like to do a quick follow up on my personal goals from the last time I was invited here. I mentioned that I wanted to learn how to sheer my own sheep, spin my own wool, and dye my yarn. Guess what? I’m doing this in August! Turns out my in-law’s neighbor has her own sheep and does the whole process on her own from start to finish and would love a helping hand! Now that this goal is so close at hand I’ve started planning on another. So here it goes: I want to own my own yoga studio café. I’ll teach yoga, and hire my friend to make all the goods at the café with 100% all natural local honey from my own bees, which naturally I take to my sister’s farm to pollinate her crops, which is where my sheep frolic happily in open fields. See? It all works out. Oh, and I’ll live in one of those surprisingly spacious tiny houses with incredible and innovative use of limited space. Happily. Ever. After.

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Guest series :: Slowing down and connecting with each other

by contributor on May 10, 2012

in Community + Creativity, Guest series 2012

Guest series 2012: I asked fellow bloggers, makers and creators to write on their creativity and focus their essay on one of four topics: creativity and health, creativity and business, creativity and parenting or creativity and process. I am very excited to have a wonderful lot of fellow creative folk guest posting here at whipup.net over the next couple of months. Please welcome…

Marcie has lived as an organic lettuce farmer, a tropical rainforest field technician, an Alaskan tent-dwelling field biologist, and a Manhattan biology teacher. She now has two young girls. After a few years of babywearing, Lego-playing, Play-doh-making, puppet-showing, costume-making, fort-making, worm-digging, goop-making, tadpole rearing, mudpie-making, tomato-growing, and forgetting herself and forgetting just about everything she knew while kid-less, she developed Mossy. A blog about child-rearing and family life, with a focus on simple natural growing and making projects.

I grew up spending a lot of time outside—with parents who took us camping, hiking and sailing. Before kids, I worked as an wildlife field assistant, went to graduate school in Alaska and then later taught biology and ecology in Manhattan. My creative projects were mostly geared toward rugged outdoor endeavors—functional ski gaiters, messenger bags, backpacks and snow pants.
When our two girls arrived amidst a house renovation and cloud of plaster dust, crafty projects were neglected for several years. As the girls grew, it became a matter of both necessity and pleasure to get them plugged into nature and to get their creative juices flowing through hands-on projects—felting wool, making superhero costumes, making tents and playhouses, building a vegetable garden, making a bee coop, designing field guides, making finger puppets and stuffed animals. It was really an organic evolution that we not only find ways to work together at home, but that we understand the nature behind each activity—Why does bread rise? What causes a seed to germinate? —I deemed it my “job” to nurture the creative part of our kids and offer small simple real-world experiences that matter.
I love unraveling life’s mysteries with my girls—the messy, the comical, the unexpected. Before they were here, my projects were more intricate and utilitarian in nature.  Now with them my projects are smaller, slower, more whimsical and slightly messier.  Always, their ideas propel things in an unexpected direction, and, in the process, we build upon an old skill, or learn a completely new one.  More importantly, we’ve spent time slowing down and connecting with each other.
I think, to build lasting connections with our families and our environment, we need to understand where things come from—how they are made, how they are used, how they impact the surrounding environment throughout a life cycle.  I think sustainability should be securely sewn into the fabric of every day, as an awareness that touches all that we do. Sometimes it takes substantial patience and effort to slow down and merge family and creativity. But sometimes it’s the things you do while standing still that make up who you are.
On my own, I like to think carefully about the process and combine like-minded colors and textures in my projects. I like to use high-quality cast-off fabric—wool remnants, curtains—and notions and materials like Bakelite buttons and hand-me-down silver. I like to reconstruct unwanted clothing and upholstery into vintage and modern designs.  I like to make things out of things. I like to make things that will last.
A woman I used to know told me once that she was inspired by orange and sometimes red. The following people and places inspire me daily:

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Guest series :: Crafting is my lifeboat

by contributor on May 9, 2012

in Guest series 2012

Guest series 2012: I asked fellow bloggers, makers and creators to write on their creativity and focus their essay on one of four topics: creativity and health, creativity and business, creativity and parenting or creativity and process. I am very excited to have a wonderful lot of fellow creative folk guest posting here at whipup.net over the next couple of months. Please welcome…

Heidi writes the mostly crafty blog, Speckless, and sells crochet and embroidery patterns in her Etsy shop of the same name. Heidi lives, loves, and makes in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her happy little family: boyfriend Nicky and a little orange cat named Penny.

Crafting is My Lifeboat

Becoming unemployed is devastating in many ways, but most profoundly, it is emotionally damaging. Each day that passes brings more fear, uncertainty, anxiety, and loss of self-worth and confidence. But this isn’t a sob story. This is a story about how creativity helped me weather the storm and how it made me come out the other side a better person.

The first few days after I was laid-off were kind of blurry. I was in shock. I think I slumped on the couch watching-but-not-really-watching daytime TV. Then I decided to get busy . . . busy being creative. Busy making. I can honestly say that craft and creativity helped me stay sane during this very trying time and shaped my outlook on life by giving me a sense of control in the face of uncertainty.

The first thing I had to get control of was my schedule. No more TV after my morning job searches. Instead, I lined up creative projects to accomplish and check off a list – macrame, sewing, paper crafts, jewelry-making, wood-working, crochet . . . you name it, I probably tried it. Crafting helped structure my days, kept me busy, and gave me a sense of normalcy. In turn, this structure lent a sense of purpose. I was occupied, working hard, and learning. At the end of the day, I had something physical to show for my time, and it felt good.

As I’m sure some of you know, being jobless and struggling to find employment can really strike a death-blow to one’s self-esteem. My self-imposed craft adventure not only gave me control of my days, but it also helped keep my self-worth ignited. I was reading every craft book I could get my hands on, scouring blogs, and flexing my creative muscles as hard as I could. Every day I felt mentally stronger – learning, growing, gaining experience, and expanding my skill-set.

Staying focused on creativity was helpful. Having a sense of self-worth was great. Still, there were really bad days – really awful discouraging days. And this is where craft helped the most. Being absorbed in making something – anything – was one thing that really transported my mind elsewhere. Crafting can be a very soothing, almost meditative experience, and this is invaluable for anyone struggling through a hard time.

I don’t want to say that craft saved my life, but it definitely kept me afloat when I felt like everything around me was sinking. Looking back, I see now that this experience shaped my life profoundly for the better. I learned an encyclopedias-worth of craft and creative knowledge, I found my niche in pattern-making, and I started my blog – a life-changer in itself!

Photos are a small sampling of projects I tried during my unemployment:

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Guest series :: The Four Essential Truths of My Creative Self

by contributor on May 8, 2012

in Community + Creativity, Guest series 2012

Guest series 2012: I asked fellow bloggers, makers and creators to write on their creativity and focus their essay on one of four topics: creativity and health, creativity and business, creativity and parenting or creativity and process. I am very excited to have a wonderful lot of fellow creative folk guest posting here at whipup.net over the next couple of months. Please welcome…

Colleen Babcock is a cloth art doll designer living in London with her husband. Originally from Canada, Colleen sells patterns, teaches online and in-person and exhibits in the UK and across North America. With work featured in several books and magazines, Colleen also writes guest posts for popular craft blogs, like WhipUp, while keeping the creativity levels high on her own blog, The Magic Bean.

The Four Essential Truths of My Creative Self or What Life and Health Have Taught Me About Creativity

When Kathreen asked me to write about my creative process I wanted to run. Not because I wasn’t flattered to be invited and not because I wasn’t pleased to do it, but because my best ideas come when I’m not thinking about it, when I’m doing something else, like running. My best creative moments come on the treadmill, in the bathtub, or in the kitchen. Which would probably account for why my ideas book is always damp – it’s constantly getting covered in sweat, bath water and sauce. Let’s just say, it’s not a pretty sight. It’s knowing that I have a tendency to over-think things that has led me to recognise my first essential truth about my creative self.

Essential Creative Truth No. 1: I come up with my best ideas when I don’t really think about it. It turns out my subconscious is far more creative than my conscious mind. Word to the wise: if you want to use this method of inspiring yourself by doing something else, make sure you keep a piece of paper or a notebook nearby. You never know when inspiration will strike.

Just as you never know when inspiration may strike you never know when disaster might strike. Being creative means taking risks. Trying new things, new mediums, new techniques, means that it is easy for mistakes to happen. If you let them, mistakes can become disasters, but they don’t have to be. And that brings me round to …

My Essential Creative Truth No. 2: Learn to see the beauty and opportunity in mistakes. As I always tell my students in my art doll making classes, “There’s no such thing as a mistake, there’s only creative redirection”.

This truth is something I try to remember when I take classes as a student. In a recent screen printing class I slopped some ink where I didn’t want it. I figure there are two options in this sort of situation – make the mistake a design feature or artfully cover it up. Maybe that blob could have become part of the design, but I just slapped a ruffle over it to cover it up. In the end, I preferred the bag with the ruffle. If I hadn’t made that “mistake” I likely wouldn’t have thought to add that detail. And that bag was really crying out for a ruffle.

Sometimes people let fear of making mistakes stop them from trying anything creative at all, but sometimes we find other excuses for why we “can’t” be creative.

  • “I don’t have the skills.”
  • “I don’t have the time.”
  • “I don’t have the money.”

You have the choice to make excuses for why you’re not getting creative OR you can embrace …

Essential Creative Truth No. 3: Learn to love limitations by thinking of them as creative challenges rather than as roadblocks.

I’ve come up with some of my best work when I was given only a short time to meet a deadline. Last year, I had to submit two projects for proposed classes at an exhibition while preparing for Christmas and fulfilling other deadlines. I designed and made my Dive into a Book fabric bookmark fairy within days as a result and she remains a popular pattern.

I think I do well with time limits because I don’t have time to worry about what I’m doing and my instincts take over. In essence, the time limit helps me to get out of my own way. I’ve learned to think of the obstacle course of everyday life as the scenic route – every obstacle you have to overcome might just hold the key to creative inspiration. So what’s your excuse? Or should I say, what’s your creative challenge?

One of my biggest creative challenges is space, or the lack thereof. I live with my husband and run my craft and doll making business out of 350 sq feet of space. Visitors to my tiny London flat question how I can possibly live, create and stay sane in such small environs. Luckily, my primary creative passion is making art dolls which are on the diminutive side. Granted, it would be more difficult in my allotted space if my passion was making large quilts or sewing wedding dresses, but if I really wanted to do those things, I would find a way. Which leads me to …

Essential Creative Truth No. 4: Where you really need space to be creative is in your head.

When I first discovered art dolls I was smitten and I was happy to put my own spin on other people’s designs using patterns, but I got to a point where I wanted to design my own work, but however hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to find my own vision. I was assailed by a fear of the overwhelming possibilities. Would my designs be good enough? How would my designs be different than what was already out there? Where would I start? In the end, what got me started was being stopped in my tracks by a hand injury that required surgery, years of physiotherapy and a stream of alternative therapies. Having my physical ability to create taken away from me for many months meant that the fear and insecurities in my mind became the least of my worries. During that period I realised that the only way I could be creative was in my mind and so I dreamt up designs, even going so far as to visualise cutting and drafting patterns. Now the problem was not fear. It was me against the pain. I was determined to make the designs in my mind a reality, even if I had to make them with my feet. Ever since, I have had more ideas than time to make them. It’s a good problem to have and it taught me that the fear of not being creative enough is not nearly as bad as the fear of not being able to try.

P.S. I intended to go for a run to get some inspiration for writing this post but I never made it out the door. This missive was written while I was wearing Lycra and one running shoe. So I guess my Essential Creative Truth No. 5 would be: You never know when creativity may dawn so be ready for it. Are you ready?

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