Putting the Creative Spirit to Work

While spending the month of January feeling, feeding, and writing about the Creative Spirit, I was also keeping it hard at work at the torch. At times my Creative Spirit shifts into overdrive, creating great volumes of new work, just to have it sit awaiting the photography and sales assembly line. Now that I have a full list of new auctions up on JustBeads.com, I can go back to the torch to create more. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I’ll have plenty of Angel Heart pendants and dinosaur figures to share soon. Wishing you creative days!

Featured Auctions for the week of Feb 4th on JustBeads.com

Black Magic Butterfly
This boro beauty will be a striking addition to any collection with it’s impressive 67mm wingspan and dichroic sparkle.

Autumn Dusk Maple Tree
I created this bead as a tribute to my favorite tree and the joy it brings year round.

My work can always be seen on the Thirteen Moons website, and for auction at JustBeads.com. There’s treasures for lampworkers, jewelry designers, and jewelry lovers alike.

Keeping the Creative Spirit Alive

It’s not by accident I imply that my Creative Spirit has a life of it’s own. Keeping my creativity nourished while I tend to the non-creative parts of my life is a daily challenge. Each month I spend about a week’s worth of seemingly endless days on business administration, advertising, writing class outlines, editing photos, website management… the list can go on but I’ll spare you. This was one of those weeks that I stared longingly at my torch over and over, while ideas raced through my mind, begging to be created. All were in danger of being squashed by a tall brick wall of deadlines.

When the inspiration is there, the ideas are formed, the intent is overflowing, but making art isn’t top priority or the time just isn’t there… how does one prevent the Creative Spirit from dying a slow and painful death? Mine stays most healthy when I carry it throughout all parts of my life. Applying my creativity to being a mother to my two boys is much more natural than applying it to implementing marketing strategies or keeping my business books in order. The most creative part of book keeping for me is my handmade checkbook cover and the doodles in the margins of my register book, undeniable evidence of the number of times I drift off while crunching numbers. My accountant’s going to love that!

Living life in an artful manner is the key to keeping my inspirations alive long enough to make them a reality. This can mean different things to different people. It all depends on what moves you. When I’m shuttling kids around and running errands I always have my iPod, loaded with music that gets the boys and I singing and groovin. As a photographer, in a former life, I learned to always pay attention to the natural light and my surroundings for the perfect image. I’m always on the lookout for imagery to apply to my next torch session. I try to fill my life, my wardrobe, and my jewelry box with artful objects and colors that inspire me. An added positive is that I get to support other artists through my purchases. Lastly, I’m amazingly lucky to have so many friends in my life who work as glass artists, metalsmiths, graphic designers, textile artists, painters, musicians, and even writers. Chatting on the phone or online about your art, attending classes and conferences, or getting together for impromptu collaboration play dates can literally spark bonfires of creativity and friendship among artists.

We all have time that we need to step away from the studio and tend to the everyday necessities of life and business. If during these times we fail to provide them with nourishment, they can mature and then fade away to nothing. Saturate your life with things that inspire your Creative Spirit and it will not only keep it alive, it will feed it, and help it grow into amazing things.

Inspiring Your Creative Spirit

During the holiday season we find ourselves spending most of our time following schedules and rushing to meet deadlines. This rings especially true for artists and small business owners. I often find that my most brilliant ideas come to me when I can’t possibly spend even a moment making them a reality. Talk about creative frustration! We try to cram so much into one month of joyful chaos, that when it’s over, we’re spent and a little lost.

Each Winter, most of us need to restore our artistic senses to some degree. This quiet time of year is perfect to start anew and nurture your creative spirit. When the time comes to get back to work, there are a few scenarios that as artists, we know all too well. The ideas may pour out faster than one can actually create and at other times, a little prodding to rattle the imagination is necessary. In the worst case, nothing short of committing to guerrilla warfare will do.

Here are a few inspiration seeking tricks that may come in handy when fighting off the winter chill. I always carry a small notebook with a fat rubber band around it so I can write down my ideas and refer back to them later. Along with my doodles and lists, I stick in swatches, sticky notes, clippings, leaves, and anything else that grabs my attention. I also use my camera phone as a “notebook”. The other night I saw tissue boxes with great color combinations in the grocery store. Yes, tissue boxes! I snapped a couple pics to peek at before my next torch session.

Walks in the frozen woods, bundled in boots and down, armed with my camera, always seem to help. I challenge myself to find color in the sleeping landscape. This should explain my affinity for snow covered berry bushes. Taking a class to learn a new technique is a tried and true tactic. Trying out a new tool or glass, a subtle change in your studio, a new scent, or different music while you work can help jump start new ideas too. Recently I’ve also discovered the value of the “inspirational blog collective”. It’s like having an artistic work out partner to get you moving and creating. Check out Modern Savages and Creative Every Day 2008.

Sometimes completely walking away from my normal discipline is what becomes necessary. *refer back to the camera in the woods scenario* I’ve even been known to pull out my book binding materials when I’m really stumped. Meticulously cutting and folding paper is something I can “zen out” on. That leads me to Yoga. Yoga is my quick fix for everything. Especially an achy back. When I honestly stop thinking about it and just relax, is when the amazing stuff really happens. The best idea I’ve had in a long time came to me the other day while baking cookies and dancing around the kitchen to Maroon 5 with my 2 & 5 year old sons. We LOVE dancing in the kitchen! It’s just a matter of time before we get caught doing it.

Go forth artists! Take a walk. Take a class. Buy some glass. Do a dance. Take acoustic guitar lessons. Shake those winter blues and find the inspiration your creative spirit craves! Have an amazing, creative, and productive New Year!!!

Declaration

Many times over the past twelve months I declared that next year will be amazing. An eternal optimist, I can never resist the urge to crack a joke, especially in the worst of situations. The line, “maybe next year”, turned into a running joke early on. This past year, life has taken me on the proverbial roller-coaster ride. At times it felt like a kiddie ride and other times, never ending and out of control.

In 2007, I sent my oldest son off to Kindergarten, started a new website, opened a shop and glass studio, began teaching again, and ventured into tool manufacturing. I took steps to remove myself from bad situations and dove head first into new ones. I followed my instincts even when they scared the hell out of me. I felt intense happiness, great inspiration, grew artistically, and emotionally. I let my heart get pounded like a volleyball, fought to hold on to things I thought were important, accomplished things I’ve dreamed about for years, and realized sometimes you need to just let go and leave things up to chance. I received excellent advice and often ignored it, hurdled obstacles, and dusted myself off when I didn’t quite clear them. I also took time to enjoy simple things, just breath, live in the moment, laugh until it hurt, hug my boys until they couldn’t take it anymore, take walks in the woods, enjoy the warm sun on my face, and a crisp breeze on my neck. The simplest joys are most important to me.

In the past year I learned a lot about myself. I need to surrender to the fact that I can’t control everything, can’t do everything, or be everything… I’m only human. I learned lessons about trust, ambition, following my heart, expectations, forgiveness, and that sometimes there are just no answers. I came to appreciate what a truly extraordinary group of friends I have. I’ve realized that one can never expect to achieve their goals or find true happiness if they’re not willing to take a chance and work at it. For that, I hold no regrets. Time is never wasted when you learn from your lessons, whether they bring you joy or pain. Most importantly I’ve realized how very strong I am and that I’m “capable” of just about anything I put my mind to.

With that in mind, I declare that 2008 may not go according to plan but it is going to be an amazing year! I hope yours is too! Salute!