BeadStyle : creative block

Finding a creative space

Erin Dolan — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:35:00 GMT

Sometimes the most difficult part of starting a new project is finding not only the time, but the space to do it! I know that I need a clear, large space with great lighting, good music, and all of my materials within arm's reach. For me, a clear space equals a clear mind for creating.

Easier said than done, though, right? I have been painting for about seven years now, scrapbooking for three years, and beading for almost nine months. My best intentions as I moved from Milwaukee to St. Paul five years ago, then back to Milwaukee last year, were to keep these things away from each other. Well, as I've been packing to move into a new apartment, I realized that the oil paints are kind of mixed in with the letter stickers and paper supplies. It's not the best. So in my new place, I am bound and determined to get organized right off the bat to so I can tackle my creative projects more frequently.

I'm sure tomorrow night, I will stand in my new living room surrounded by mismatched furniture and unmarked boxes wondering what on earth to do next. Our new special issue, Beading 101 and Beyond, has a section all about organization and storage, and while the issue is all about beading, many of our tips can be easily applied to any craft. Here are a few highlights:

- Designate a work area/creative space, even if it just means setting up a desk and shelves in a corner of your living room (which is what I'll be doing in my tiny apartment).

- If you have the wall space, add a bulletin board or a magnetic board above the desk to display inspiration, bead strands, paper scraps, etc. It's great to have these things for visual inspiration!

- Keep materials separated in bags or containers and make sure they're well-labeled.

- Keep your space clean! Put away your scrapbook supplies when you're done so the next time you look at your creative space, you may see "painting space" or "beading space" instead of "scrapbook space." Creativity will strike easier this way!

Be sure to check out Beading 101 and Beyond to get the rest of our tips and some great photos, including before and after pictures of the BeadStyle staff workroom!

I also found a few cool places for great "creative space" ideas. Start looking and start organizing!

From Domino magazine (which recently closed, much to my chagrin), some tips for getting your creative space started

From the Making It Lovely blog, a designer's studio

From the Craftzine blog, a few different craft rooms

Balm for a creative itch

Stacy Hillmer — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:17:00 GMT

Creating a brand new piece of jewelry gives me a real thrill – a creative contact high. But we can’t be on cloud nine all the time. Sometimes simple satisfaction is the order of the day because I don’t have the time, energy, money, or inspiration for a full project.

For that, I find that fixing or improving an existent piece of jewelry makes me feel creative when I can’t start a project from scratch. Recently, I did some work on a necklace my grandma had gone through great pains to pass on to my mom. My mom had never worn it, though, because the two halves of the twist clasp had fused together and one of the bead caps had broken. I restrung the necklace, adding new finishing components, and voila – instant gratification. I then moved onto a silver bracelet that was known for dropping off my wrist because of a decorative, but unfortunately ineffective, S-hook clasp. I replaced the S-hook with a lobster claw clasp and the bracelet’s back in business.

What do you do when you’ve got a creative itch but don’t feel like starting a big project?

Butt-In-Chair

Lindsay Haedt — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:49:00 GMT

All of this talk about creativity — and sometimes the lack thereof — had me thinking. On Tuesday, Naomi blogged about designer’s block, and she received some fantastic responses about how people cope with it. What confused me, however, is how many suggestions dealt with putting distance between one’s self and one’s jewelry. Overall, I got the impression that most people step back, take a breather, and give themselves some space. Then when they return to their jewelry in a few hours (or even a few days), they feel refreshed and ready to design again.

Naomi’s blog reminded me of another creative pursuit, writing. On my own time, I’m working on my first novel. As part of my endeavor, I joined a fantastic writing organization that has given me immeasurable motivation and inspiration. As I’m sure you know, writers are plagued by their own kind of block, the dreaded writer’s block. In my writing group, the most popular method of dealing with said block is not distance, but the exact opposite. We lovingly call it the butt-in-chair method. It goes a little something like this: Whether you’re blocked or not, you sit your butt in a chair and you write. If you don’t write, you’re going to get awfully bored staring at a blank computer screen.

So can you understand my confusion now? How can two creative disciplines have such different ways of dealing with creative blocks? And is this something that varies from individual to individual? Or is there some essential difference between jewelry-making and writing that makes their block-busting methods so different? I suspect it’s a combination of factors. The creative process is a very individual process; there are as many ways to create as there are people creating. And the fact that jewelry-making is a visual art might mean that people process it differently than writing.

I realize that there will be no clear answers to my questions, but I still can’t keep myself from wondering. Are there butt-in-chair jewelry artists out there? And what about give-me-space authors? Maybe, like many things in life, the ideal answer isn’t one extreme or the other, but a combination of the two . . . a golden mean. In fact, it might just be that jewelry-artists and writers have a lot to learn from each other . . .