Creative Block

Dear Mr. Huffman: How thoughtfully said and kind. I felt that what
you were saying is: do not hurry it, it is there. Give this process
time to nuture. Be kind to yourself and this new creative burst will
come. I read your posting at a very receptive and needed time. I
can hardly wait to share this note with my husband when he arrives
also with a couple who are jeweler/artist. Thankyou again. I will
sweep out my shop and do kind things for myself and like in the past,
the burst of energy will come with such force that time will fly and
ideas will flow. I love the times when I dream ideas and jewelry.
This will help with the bracelet idea if have been
"thinking" about. Respectfully Pat

Dear Coit,

Yes I have a few suggestions about your difficulties. Go to your
studio and work with no thought of having a finished piece. I mean
just play with what ever materials that you have on hand. Break all of
the rules that you have ever learned your materials and design. If you
end up with only scrap then so be it. Learn how to self impose
ignorance about the cost of your materials. Pretend that all materials
are as valuable as one piece of paper.

It is my thought that mindless play is the springboard for
creativity. Removing all shackles, including self-imposed seriousness
is part of your challenge. Freedom is your answer.

Please keep me up to date on your creative comfort.

Respectfully,

Cathy Wheless
www.cathywheless.com
@Cathy_Wheless

Coit, That 1 1/2 years off sort of creates the drum roll effect. The
fear alone at now making the jump back in may be the “creative block”.
You might try being your own teacher and giving your self an
assignment to do a piece experimenting with texture or negative space
or line, movement, color, whatever, with the idea that IT WILL BE A
THROW AWAY PIECE. Do a few of these and decide what you really like
or dislike and your next attempts at improving will be your
motivation. It’s better when I make something I dislike because I’m
thinking, “I should have done this, or this, I hate this because the
proportion doesn’t work”, etc. Before I know it I have plans for
numerous pieces. For some reason just getting in there with the tools
and using your hands sort of frees up your brain I think. Annette

I agree with A. Austin’s suggestion and methods for transcending the
creative block, cleaning and organizing the studio puts you back in
touch with the environment you work in. I find that for myself it
makes me re-appreciate what a wonderful situation I have, to be in my
own studio surrounded by all the tools and equipment it has taken me a
couple of decades to acquire and arrange. Almost makes me feel guilty
to realize I am not putting them to adequate use, and that is often
enough to snap out of it and get back into the groove, so to speak.

Sometimes I have a difficulty not of a creative block so much as a
lack of enthusiasm, in which case, as others have suggested, I find
working on a new sketch or idea, whether on paper or in metals or
wax, of something entirely different will rebalance the system. Don’t
feel like you are alone out there, this is a symptom which many of us
have to contend with, and perhaps it is just another facet of the
creative process.

Michael David Sturlin, jewelry artist @Michael_Sturlin

Michael Sturlin Studio, Scottsdale Arizona USA

Dear Coit, Been there too, sometimes the muses do not want to
cooperate. Here are some of the things I do, remembering that some of
these may work one day and not the next, alot depends on your psyche
on any given day. Some days we are more receptive than others, so if
a suggestion does not work one day, don’t give up! 1) Go outside and
look around. Don’t just glance, really look at any and everything,
large, small, up and down. Try to take something inside with you for
later "looking. Find something with an interesting shape that you can
incorporate or use alone. 2) Look thru magazines, especially ones that
are geared to fashion. While you do not want to copy, sometimes
looking at a design and working on ways to change it to suit your
style and tastes will spark a whole new line of thought. I’ve done
this and what I wind up with is many times very far from what I was
looking at to begin with, but it provides a place to start. 3) Make
yourself sit down and start something, even if you have no idea where
you are going…play. 4) Don’t sit down and start something. I
know this is exactly opposite from what I just said in suggestion #3,
but if it is too stressful to do #3, don’t do it,just relax and wait
until inspiration hits. 5) Take a class (even if it is a beginner
course). Synergy is a great thing. I have found that just being
around other metal workers and bouncing ideas off each other is
beneficial. When I do this, I almost feel that I am getting creative
thru osmosis. I guess the gist of what I am driving at is get doing
something, even if it doesn’t pan out, because motion begun can have
a snowball effect…Remember the story of the butterfly who
flutters his wings in Mexico and starts a hurricane in the Carolinas.
Good luck, Suzanne in Florida (where we do not breathe the “H” word
until November)

Creative Block? No problem, just spread out all of your monthly bills
on the kitchen table. Then, seriously look for a new job in the
classifieds of your local newspaper. If that doesn’t snap you out of
the creative funk, then happy job hunting. ;} Another suggestion that
is not quite so drastic is to start an “Idea file or box.” Put all
sketches, photos, magazine cutouts, napkin doodles , notes and
brochures into your file. It is best to leave the material
unorganized. After a short while you will have an incredible resource
for inspiration and creative awakening. I find that when I not
creating or producing, it is an ideal time to go buying. As you
select stones and metal, your mind automatically jumps into the
creative process. You visualize what you can make out of the materials
you are buying. The trick here is to know when to stop buying and
start making. When was the last time you surfed the Orchid web site?
Lots of interesting stuff to get the creative fluxes flowing there.
Best, Will Estavillo http://www.natureshop-gallery.com (under
reconstruction)

Dear Orchidians

I’m new to your business, but have been a writer for some time. In
fact, my second novel (a thriller) has just been accepted by a very
good New York literary agency, so wish me luck. It is largely about
rubies, and I hope some day you get a chance to enjoy it. Someone
recently asked this list about the crystal structure of rubies, and I
don’t know if anyone recommended the book Ruby & Sapphire by Richard
Hughes, but we should have. It is utterly engrossing and discusses
absolutely every aspect of those two stones in almost subatomic
detail. Hughes is a very well-informed man, and on top of that, a very
entertaining writer. Five hundred pages, and I couldn’t put it down.
As for the subject of creative block, it’s obviously something all
writers fear. The famous mystery author Raymond Chandler said that a
writer should park in his work space every day, and while there, do
only work. In other words, don’t watch Queen Latifah, and don’t even
read for fun. If you can’t write, then just sit there. Chandler was
a dangerous man to second-guess, but I suspect he was telling us that
plain old work cures all ills. Leathery puritanism, I know, but
there’s a lot to be said for it. The best ring you’ve ever designed is
inside you waiting to come out, and the only way it will come is
through your diligent effort. I don’t know much about jewelry work
just yet (although Orchid is helping wonderfully) but I can tell you
that Chandler’s trick works for writing.

All the best,

Richard Hyer

Excellent advice! If one judges creativity by sitting down with a
blank sheet of paper and coming up with a great design, then I don’t
have a creative bone in my body. My inspiration comes from direct
contact with my customers, listening to what they say about my
work,and taking special orders for “stuff” I’ve never done before.
They know what they want and they want me to do it for them because
they like my work. This sets up the “problem” that I must solve. And
in solving that “problem” I will invariably make “mistakes” which get
reclassified as “new designs” sometimes even “hot sellers.”

Also, I go to Quartzsite once a year for 3 months. New scenery, new
way of life, new people, new inspiration. Plus the opportunity to
hang out with other artists in your field and talk about ideas and
techniques.

So many ideas and so little time. Keep a notebook in your pocket and
write down your ideas as you get them so you don’t forget.

Carol

Hello Coit -

What a great series of replies. I started this one a few days ago -
and had hoped to come back and shorten my input - but can’t really
take the time to do that - so, will send it off as is . . . wordy!
All the suggestions that have been offered to you are very useful.
For me the main key also is to keep “doing”. Take small steps (and
sometimes big ones) and don’t expect great works of art (they may
happen anyway - like with Daniel Grandi’s experience) - just dive in!

In a way, unfortunately, I have found that deadlines are one facet of
facilitating the creative flow. What I am trying to learn (and
somewhat successfully) - is to create artificial deadlines. That way,
I can be ahead of the stress of the real deadlines! What the
deadlines seem to do is to get “me” out of the equation! There is no
time to labor endlessly over a piece. When a deadline is coming up -
I will arrange my life to have at least one full day to devote to
exploring. My time is usually very broken with family obligations
etc. I’m sure jewelers in shops have the same interruptions of time.
I have learned to proceed with fragmented time - but for real
exploring - I will arrange my life to take a full day (or more, if
possible), and then use the “snippets” of time to complete pieces.
Time is a gift. Setting limitations has sometimes helped - limiting
the choice of materials or working with a certain technique and see
what can be done.

This next solution resulted from a different problem than you have
addressed - but is perhaps applicable. I was hit with an injury a
year and a half ago that forced me to give up a lot of forging. I was
stuck with a body that suddenly didn’t work and I still needed to be
active - to have work to sell. Yikes! Forging was one of my
passions. Anyhow, in the healing process (I still have to minimize
and be very conscious when forging) - I took up banjo. Had never
played before - and wasn’t even familiar with the music - and am
definitely not a musician. It was so fun to do something totally
unrelated to what I do - and it used the injured shoulder/neck area.
It gave me confidence that I could work again - to use the right arm.
I have no clue where the banjo “bug” came from - but it has been pure
recreation and a real gift to my survival when I couldn’t even
physically lift the tools - scary. Swimming is another plus - like
walking.

Also, I was introduced to a book called “The Artists Way” by Julia
Cameron. It has been a very interesting process to add her formula of
writing three morning pages daily - definitely valuable. We can’t
always be “on” and one thing I remember being mentioned in the above
book was something like - in order to create good art, you have to
create bad art! We are sometimes our own worst critic - and that can
really be stifling. Just keep working! However, in agreeing with the
"ebb and flow" idea mentioned earlier in this string - I find it
necessary to give time for processing as well. One way that I’ll let
things take time in their unfolding is to keep several projects going
at once - and come back with fresh observations. And definitely, it
is helpful to make use of the “down” time for cleaning and organizing

  • a necessary part of being productive. Like tilling the soil for
    planting the next crop.

Meeting Karen Christians earlier this year was a real plus! Her
journals - that she mentions- are wonderful. And yes, Karen, I did
manage to start one . . . (she put me to the task!) So, I am now
putting some of the ideas/sketches in the bound journal - but am still
a little timid and prefer loose paper! I don’t seem to carry around
the hardbound blank book - it stays put. Sometimes, I’ll carry around
a lighter blank composition book devoted to one particular theme or
process and jot down ideas in there all related to that theme.

It takes time - like a lifetime. Lucky us - our medium has endless
possibilities! So, bottom line . . . just begin and carry on. I
always liked the saying - something like -"a long journey begins with
a single step ". Looking back is sometimes helpful, though, in moving
forward with new variations of old themes - of previous explorations.

It has been a fun diversion here to look at this subject - but, boy,
do i have a hard time being brief! My apologies! :slight_smile: So, for what
it’s worth - I’ll press the send button! Aloha, Cynthia