In My Studio: Creative Block

Storyboard

Creative block is that awful feeling when you just can't get into your groove, your studio gets you down and  your ideas dry up. I periodically suffer from this malady and have found some great ways to help me out of the funk.

1. Make a story board. Rip out pictures you like from magazines and brochures. Stick them down on a large piece of paper.

2. Take a creative field trip. Go visit a museum, gallery, ikea! Or take a class. Seeing what is happening in the outside world might help spark an idea

3. Look at the forecasting reports and see what colors and imagery will be on trend for the following season.

4. Clean up and organize your studio, a long forgotten scrap of fabric or sketch you put away might spark a great new idea. And a clean and organized studio will give you the space you need to create when the ideas start coming.

   

   A page from an old sketch book might spark an idea

5. Talk to store owners where you sell your products. What has been selling well and is there anything customers have been asking for. Look at comments you have received at craft fairs or conversations on Etsy. Customers sometimes give us great ideas for new products.

6. Listen: I have recently found some great podcasts that have really inspired me and given me a lot of good tips for running a small craft business. The best of these is called 'Elise gets Crafty'

7. Silence: Great ideas come sometimes from giving yourself a little distance and space from your studio. Take a walk, a yoga class, go skiing whatever you enjoy and just let your mind relax and see where it wanders.

"Inspiration is hard to come by. You have to take it where you find it." Bob Dylan

Good Luck and Good Making!
Sarah
So Handmade

The Second Week of "The Artists Way"

Here is my second post for "The Artist's Way" series. I am moving along with the book and really taking my time with it. In other words it is layed out in 12 week chapters but my weeks seem to take me 14 or more days to work through. I did not want this to be added stress and I must say it does seem to be sparking something.

I am still doing the morning pages most mornings.... not all and again I am not beating myself up if I miss.
However I do enjoy doing them. So I have started to open up with more collage work.

I am an 'old school' Commercial Artist, trained to not make mistakes, not to make messes, no smudges, ink blots,etc...
Allowing myself the freedom to splash, spray, blot and not really think about design but just go with my feeling, has given me a renewed creativity that I haven't felt in awhile.

So these may not sing to everyone, but they are singing to me and I can't wait to do more!

Week One : "The Artists Way"

I purchased this book "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron awhile back. I glanced through it and read bits and pieces of it over the years but never really gave it much of a chance. After reading a blog post by another artist who was working on her morning pages and how insightful they were for her, I went to the bookcase and dusted off my copy. I decided to work through the 12 week program. However some of my weeks may stretch out to two or so but I want to enjoy the process not have another schedule to follow.
After completing my first week I have realized a few things. Some are deeply personal and others I can share.

First the (in my mind, dreaded) "Morning Pages". I thought that maybe I would skip this part of the program because I don't consider myself a writer. Could this possibly help me as an artist? However I didn't want to rush through the book this time and wanted to follow most of the program. I do them most mornings and I must say they are getting easier and some  mornings I actually look forward to doing them. http://www.squidoo.com/morning-pages

Next the "Artist Date" at my stage in life I have no babies crawling around, I am office manager for my husbands business and I am lucky to have quite a bit of flexibility to my days. I didn't think that setting aside two hours a week just for my art would be a problem. But making that commitment and setting aside that time, not answering the phone or doing any paperwork, or scrolling around online (this problem is a whole other blog post). It did make me realize that I indeed need to focus more on creating and finding the joy in that again. So just taking that time and being selfish with it and not letting anything else intrude is a treat that I am certain to continue.

Sue from Digilio Designs