Creativity - Lost my style and no inspiration

Jewelry Discussion
21

Sure we know about this process.

Its so heavy, and confusing, we can only feel with you.

I remember my time, it lasted 9 months where crativity really made
me angry…no fun, no glow, no ideas, just anger, and working with
"hands on my back". And feeling of what I did was nothing
worth.

Guess what: These periods tend to come back, but when you recognize
them scratching your backhead, you can take action. There is a few
tips to put air and light back into head:

  1. Do ONLY what you feel for, if possible. Not only at work, but
    elsewhere also. Only do fun work, easy and free, and dont let people
    push you to do things they can do themselves. If youe HAVE to do
    serial production, say that you are allowed only to do that on
    certain days, and jump into it, get it done.

  2. If you can, run away from commisions, they eat you!

  3. Change medium or material. Paint, ceramics, porcelain,
    glass…PMC…

  4. If you can, go away for a long time,…if you cannot afford it,
    get a stupid nonsense easy job with where few people can put demands
    on you. NOT full time, just as much as you need.

  5. Go for exhibitions, gallerys and shows and get angry because YOU
    did not do this and let you irritate of all the bad things. You need
    to get the feelings out. There is a lot of sorrow in loosing
    creativity, and you need to feel better…than others…not
    easy…heh…

  6. Work in garden, sleep on sofa, refuse to do what people ask for
    if you dont want, an TELL them that this is your own time.

  7. Tidy up and throw away all stuff that you have that did not come
    out the way you wanted. Use a hammer to crash it…it feels good…
    Paint the walls and change your studio.

And try to get out to the forest, se beaches, rivers, and only stay
with the real friends, that care for you as a human, not only those
who want you to do things for them.

Good luck…and get well :slight_smile:

Lise
http://www.justliss.com

22

Hi Freak Style,

I don’t mean to sound like an ass, but here’s my suggestion to
feeling a Lost of Style and Inspiration… and I’ve felt this many
times, so I know the problem.

Instead spending hours searching for answers in the archives or
writing nine paragraphs about how, why, when and where you feel a
lack of Inspiration. Try working on your art for that amount of time,
doodle, write, paint, hammer on some metal, whatever it is you do,
but do something, anything.

Inspiration comes from having your hands in the clay, not from
crying in your beer…so to speak.

Now get to work.

Thank You
from
gWebber - Feverdreams.com

23

I think a lot of people will relate. I’ll just contribute a couple of
random thoughts:

Yes, angst & loneliness seem to be beneficial to the creative
process. (or maybe lonely people just have that much more time?) You
have to have more discipline to create when “happy.” (or for me that
is true…how very, very sad for me and my work that I’m now happily
married…:-))

But enough analyzing! You have a deadline. What’s wrong with
starting where you left off? Your last university projects–or
whatever pieces you used to make that felt like “you” – take one of
those pieces and make some variations. It’s OK to copy your own work!
Some artists spend a lifetime refining and running riffs on a single
concept.

And to begin with you might need to cut yourself some slack in order
to get your motor running again. Don’t start out thinking you are
going to create a masterpiece. Set yourself some simple fabrication
tasks and JUST DO IT. Your mind will start spinning when your hands
get busy.

Sometimes I need to be working in order to receive
inspiration–instead of waiting to get inspired before working.

I’d love to hear how others get inspired. (& how they work through
jewelers’ block! Or does Rio have a special saw for that?)

Best to you,
C Rose
Houston

24

As I read your posting I realized I was identifying more and more
with what you were saying and it was like, “I could have written
this!” As I am sure many others felt also.

Through recent conversations with friends (non artists) I started to
look at why I thrived in the university setting. However, the comfort
of being in school, surrounded by other artists and open blocks of
time that required you to make art, is all in the past. I had to
figure out what it was in my personality that helped me to be
creative and extremely productive and some how duplicate that
feeling. I realized it was my competitive side. With so many other
students around it was like “This is what they are doing, what can I
do that is different and better (better for me) than that person’s
piece, etc.” Since now all I had was me, I had to figure out how to
be competitive with myself. I had to set a goal, something realistic,
but still a “big” idea. My goal: 10 pairs of earrings a day for 10
days and I wanted them to all be different even if it was just a bit.

I went to a lecture by an artist that said something that hit home
for me. She was talking about how she was stuck on a theme and had
expressed that she wanted to move away from that and her teacher
instead said to stick with it and in essence squeeze everything out
of it that she could. That was what I took away from it anyway. I was
stuck in repetitive circles. I had done a sterling chainmail halter
top in my exit show and the circles have not left me. So taking what
was said in the lecture, I decided that my earrings would all be
circles, many sizes, some fused and hammered, some soldered.

So anyway, by day 3, I realized I was making earrings I never would
have thought to make before. By day 8, I was starting to bargain with
myself “I can only do 5 pairs today and I’ll do 15 tomorrow” And this
is where my competitive side would kick in and not let me down. I
knew at the end I wanted to be able to proudly and honestly say I did
10 a day for 10 days. So I’d stay up late and finish those last
couple pairs, even if they weren’t great, they were done. And THAT
was what I was trying to get past. I had this idea in my head that if
I was going to be doing something it had to be Great! and so I spent
days (and months) of not doing much of anything b/c I didn’t feel
like my ideas were great. I have found that by pushing my way through
something that is more simple and maybe less Great! I have found more
of what I can consider my style right now, and in the end having
something I do see as being great overall. I had to physically work
through my ideas though. Sitting with paper doesn’t help me.

After I finished the 100 pairs, I decided to have a show. I’d been
offered a place by a friend so I jumped on it. I had to work on the
presentation. My creative juices had started flowing again, much more
than in the past couple years. It felt fabulous. I decided on fake
ears. At first I thought of the easy way, to just buy them, but I
found that “wow, fake ears are expensive!” Making my own was
practical and more my style. So after making molds of my ears (which
was an experience all on its own) I’m almost done with all my plastic
ears.

I’ll try to sum this up quickly. By making a somewhat simple, but
effective goal for my personality, I’ve moved beyond just making some
earrings. It helped me to find more of who I am now, not the art
student, but the jewelry artist.

My show is set for May 6th, I’m calling it “Land of a 1000 Ears” b/c
that is what it feels like. And I’m really excited about it. There is
going to be a story in the newspaper about it. I’m donating part of
my sales to a charity I really believe in. And most importantly it
helped me get past the huge block I’d been feeling.

Email me off orchid if you want, this posting was actually about
twice as long and I edited it so it wouldn’t be a book!

Beth Cyr

25

You and your creativity haven’t parted - in my opinion, it’s just not
possible… temporarily maybe, but not permanently. But I know, you
want it “back” now, with the show looming ahead. I think THAT may be
a big part of the problem: pressure, which can handicap the creative
process. Our brains get in the way. Can you free up yourself by going
into the workshop and playing one day or evening without thoughts of
having to “come up with some great design”? Just do some technique or
play with some materials that you enjoy so much that the time flies
by. Eventually your creativity will start to flow. It’s all still
within you - with your new lifestyle you have a new
challenge/opportunity to come up with something different and even
better than before.

Cindy Crounse
Refined Designs

26

Hi All,

There’s an interesting book out there called " The Creative Habit "
By Twyla Tharp. It’s more of a mechanical approach to creativity and
keeping the juices flowing. It’s not for everyone, but has some very
interesting ideas. It’s worth a read!

Price $9.75

Good luck!,
Scott

27

Dear RR,

You obviously have a lot of reasons to be feeling distracted, rather
than creative. However, what stood out for me was that you are
judging the creative urges you are having as not good enough, or as
"not me." What if you just let go of that?

First of all, identity and style aren’t set in stone. It may be that
the “you” who made art in school, when you were single, no longer
exists, but that doesn’t mean you’ve lost your creativity. Also, if
you’re just out of school, I assume you’re young–if this is true,
there is really no reason for “you” to be fully formed and to have
a style all worked out. Why not give some room to the work that seems
as if it isn’t you? You might find that a new part of yourself
emerges.

Also, as an university-trained artist, you have probably been taught
that anything “commercial” is anathema. When I had my first show (in
a gallery, but it was intended as a holiday “gift show”), I hunkered
down in my bedroom and kept working, night and day, until I had made
the requested 50 pieces and they felt like a coherent body of work.
If I had worried about whether they were “too commercial,” or “really
me,” I could never have done it. Instead, I focused on the women I
hoped would wear those pieces.

I’m sure most graduates of university jewelry programs would have
thought my work was way too commercial, but the “fine artists” with
whom I showed were among my best customers. I wonder if you might be
concerned that your peers, or the critics, will think your work is
too commercial. This is not a useful way to think when you’re feeling
blocked (or, imho, at any time).

I highly recommend reading the Artists Way by Julia Cameron. You
probably ran across that recommendation in the archives, because
other Orchidians have made it at other times. If the book gives you
nothing else, it will disabuse you of the notion that you can ever
lose the “positive driving force” of your creativity. All you can do
is get in its way.

However… If you’re feeling really stretched, and anticipate
feeling even more stretched, you might want to think about whether
this is a good time to be committing to a show. You might be, as
Julia Cameron would say, raising the jumps too high. (She also talks
about the “get the work space just right” problem.)

Relax! Play soccer! Make love, not art! Then maybe make art that is
both love and play…

Lisa Orlando
Albion, CA, USA

28

Some thoughts to share on the subject of creativity…

Creativity is not in the lost and found department. It is always
with you.

Perfectionism can be looked for in the lost and found category and
it’s a good thing to lose.

Process is the natural state of things. Sometimes the process stage
gets abused when we feel a bit lost because process (setting up
studios, straightening things out, etc.) is tangible and we feel
rewarded by the immediacy of the results we see.

Trying to figure everything out so we can get our creativity
released is a detour on the road to creative expression…

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…

Do the show. So you make something “commercial.” This show is not
going to be the final judgement of your artistic ability or
creativity.

Many times just doing “something” releases us from the weightiness
of waiting for the “right thing.”

Everything you need you already have. Tell yourself this often. I
wish you well.

29

Boy oh boy, can I ever relate!

Like most of us (I’m guessing), I’ve been in your shoes a million
times. I don’t know which is worse – or if there even is a “worse”
– but this used to plague me all the time in my former career, as a
drummer, and still pops up in my current ones, as a lapidary artist
and goldsmith. The only thing that has ever worked for me has been to
get up and leave the studio, entirely, by committing myself to
lessons in some other field of endeavor (like guitar, painting or
ceramics lessons). Invariably, after a week or three, “everything old
is new again”, and I find my creative juices beginning to flow again.
I can’t swear that this’ll work for you, but who knows? Maybe it’s
worth the chance? (And maybe you’ll come up with some parallels
between something previously thought to be unrelated, like keum-boo
and a stock market investing class…

Whether or not this winds up working for you,

I wish you the best of
luck, all the same!

Douglas Turet, G.J.,
Turet Design
P.O. Box 242
Avon, MA 02322-0242

30

Dear RR,

I have been following this thread with interest and feeling
sympathetic of your situation. I think this is a place many of us
visit. We can’t be creative ALL the time…the head needs a rest
occasionally! The more I try when my head is not in the right place,
the less success I have and the more frustrated I get…a vicious
circle. So now, I just START, on anything…finish off unfinished
pieces, try to copy something for technique if nothing else, try to
learn a new process/technique using a book as a guide…the act of
starting seems to forge a much clearer path in my mind and very soon
the ideas start flooding in…

:slight_smile: Kimmyg

31

I’ll make a reading suggestion from the Ganoksin’s own The Jewelers
Selected Bibliography titled The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.
This book addresses how many people stifle their own creativity by
resisting that creativity. The archive link is:

James S. Duncan, G.G.
James in SoFL

32

I’ve been at this life thing for a quite a few years, taught college
English for 15 years and done some social work along the way too. So
I’ve observed many people. One amongst a host of conclusions I’ve
drawn is that truly creative people never lose their creativity.
Often it can be dammed up like any water flow, but before long it
will find another outlet. If you’re truly creative, you can’t stop
it. You might however find that you also can’t really channel it. It
flows as it flows and all you can do is follow it and try and
harness it when it gets somewhere you like.

On the other hand, to be truly creative is often a curse. Few people
will be able to understand where you’re going. The vast majority of
people are only able to stretch a little bit so going too far too
fast can be rather lonely. Challenge people too much and they mostly
exhibit fear.

Certainly in the arts that decorate the body, most will only be able
to accept minor variation. And in jewelry they are always hampered
by their perception of intrinsic value. One other thing. I’m fairly
certain that the major motivation to creativity is sensuality
blended with sexuality, the desire to please and to impress. Perhaps
familial love falls in here too but, we tend more to experience
bursts of creation when we hope to receive attention from those we
seek to attract. Hence the spate of love poems.

So lest I go on too long. If you are a person who is truly creative,
you won’t be able to stop it and the ideas may flow so fast you will
never be able to execute them all. If you are of a lesser creative
bent, pick a theme or two and do a series of variations, old
religious symbols seem to work, geometric shapes, the human figure,
a large variety of plants and animals. For most of human history,
nature was the prime source. So those’ll stand you in good stead.
You might even find inspiration in the process.

Derek Levin
www.gemmaker.com

33 
Sometimes I need to be working in order to receive
inspiration--instead of waiting to get inspired before working.

This is so true. Sometimes when I don’t want to/cannot create, I
just sit down at the bench and make myself a pair of earrings, just
some quick little things that I would like to wear. It’s a gift to
myself. That gets me in the mood to be with my tools again, and to
think of working and all that work entails. I do love my tools and my
bench! Sometimes I need to be reminded of that. This is a trick that
I have used over & over. (I now have a lot of earrings. But we always
want one more pair, don’t we, ladies!)

M’lou Brubaker
Minnesota, USA

34 
Change medium or material. Paint, ceramics,
porcelain,glass...PMC....

So very true, Lise! When forced to work outside my medium, I am
naturally creative. This inspires me to go back to my medium with
fresh ideas and energy. This works great. I’ve done it before. Good
suggestion!

A. Derenthal

35

dear rr -

okay, you have probably already tried the pubs, 'zines, gallery
routes to look at good work to inspire you - now try this: go to
really amateur websites or small local show with ‘loving hands’ type
jewelry. make your way through every piece to get the full benefit of
techniques and materials and styles you have learned to avoid. if
that doesn’t shock you into mentally ‘repairing’ some gawdawful
pieces and thereby thinking about your own work and style, then you
can always go to south beach and join art at that sidewalk bistro.
remember: art’s middle name is ‘creativity’.

good luck -
ive
who has dozens of self-made books filled with more ‘ive’ designs than time to
do them all -

36

No inspiration: it happened to all of us and will happen again. When
I was in art school I learned that Creativity is a process. I learned
how to be ready when the No Inspiration Demons are knocking at my
door. I have a lot of sketch books that I keep and go through them
when I need inspiration and ideas.

I also keep a “I love it book”: It’s a sketch book that I use for
collecting every image I really really really like. It can be a
piece of fabric, an article in a magazine, a leaf that I find in the
street, a photo of Hawaii, everything that I really enjoy looking at
and can be glued flat goes in this book.

I also have another book that I use only for pictures from magazines
( I am a big magazine “reader”) I cut them and make collages.

So with these 3 different kind of book I feel that I can find
inspiration and especially security of knowing that there is
something that can help me just in case I run out of inspiration.

But the method I like best is the one I used when I was in Art
school: I give myself an assignment: like using a certain material
to make a ring or a pendant, using this stone that has been in my
bench for 3 months now or a word, a color, a technique, anything
that can just start my brain to work and be creative.

I believe that to get inspired I have to be working even if it is on
something that is not that interesting and also I have to take
breaks and go away for 10 minutes or a few days to come back with a
new perspective. When I don’t feel the stress of being productive
this is when I am the most efficient. I tell myself:" Ok let’s do a
brooch with this stone and if it is not good I’ll just do another
one". And usually this is when I really enjoy myself because there
is no limit no boundary, and the piece ends up being great.

Inspiration is all around us.

Regarding style: You cannot loose your style: It’s a part of you, a
part of your DNA.

David Kopp

37

Never having had the luxury of experiencing graduate school and
firmly entrenched in the school of real life, I find this subject
puzzling. I have had and still do have, a creative burnout phenomenon
going on in my life. I think however that this only keeps me from
creating out of thin air but not commissioned pieces. When the
mortgage is due, you find it very easy to suggest the creative
possibilities at hand for your customers approval. Jewelry making to
me is more of an aqquired skill than a creative process. While I can
and do come up with some interesting stuff, I don’t often try to make
it just for the sake of making it, in hopes that someone may want to
buy it. Been there, done that, usually you end up with the piece for
quite a while, even when its really good. I am entertaining the
thought of a unique line of jewelry and am in the process of forming
the ideas but I don’t lose alot of sleep trying to figure it out. I
guess I rely on some sort of “inspired thoughts” that I don’t think I
have much control over. While this sounds a little kooky, its how it
works for me. Sometimes the ideas and the “mini sculpture” just
happen and to that, I am thankfull. For everyday workshop jewelry
making, its often a repeat of something I’ve done hundreds of times
before so I do what the customer wants, pay the bills and move on.
Once in a while, I am surprised with an interesting project and that
inspires me to keep going inspite of the obvious. Excercise, helps my
mood, because all of that sitting at the bench for more than eight
hours, can’t be good for you. The positive effects of our good brain
chemicals can make the difference, epsecially if you are on the edge
on any given day.

-charles

38 
The only thing that has ever worked for me has been to get up and
leave the studio, entirely, by committing myself to lessons in some
other field of endeavor (like guitar, painting or ceramics
lessons). Invariably, after a week or three, "everything old is new
again", and I find my creative juices beginning to flow again.

When I hit a stone wall, that’s what I do, too. Back off and
re-evaluate. Time for a change. Re-charge the batteries. Distancing
yourself from the stone wall instead of banging your head against it
gives you a chance to gain perspective and find another way.

Other things I have done are : take a workshop (change of atmosphere
helps)…polish and recondition all my tools…melt all my
usable scrap, mill it, draw it into wire…(keeps me busy without
thinking.)…clean up the bench, reorganize the toolbox…and
then walk away from it all for a couple of weeks. Coming back to a
‘brand-new’ studio is like being reborn.

Dee

39

There’s a phrase that I first heard in a lecture given by Heikki
Seppa here in Seattle. I’m sure that he wasn’t the first to say it,
but it has certainly become one of my mantras.

“Work produces work, design produces design, idea produces idea.”

Just have faith in the process.

The trick, of course is internalizing it-- believeing it with your
heart and not just your head.

Andy Cooperman

40

Ah yes the stall, the block, the frozen feeling in the source space
we often suffer.

I found that feeding the inner eye, the intellect, the access to
Source is through visual and menta/inner soul exercises: walks
outside on nature to clear out the garbage. Walks inside: reading,
doing process, exploring the patterns we all experience; ART AND
FEAR, THE ARTIST’S WAY, ART IS THE WAY, FLOW, PAINTING FROM THE
SOURCE, POINT ZERO, to name a few of the kick start source books I
haves and still use to get me out of the stuck-ness. I draw, draw
draw, draw and DO THE PROCESS, forget the product.

From some tape, years ago, on perfectionism - - - “perfection is the
antitheses of creativity”. I find often that I judge myself beyond
reason and kill any shred of creativity, originality and
inspiration. It helps me to be humble, turn inside to the Source,
Great Creator, or what ever connection we have to a higher power then
get out of my own way. We are our worst enemyies, wet blankets, crazy
makers and judges. These are the things I use to move, period any
kind of movement to get out of my own way.

When I worked in the jewelry industry it was like vacuum with an
itsy-bitsy thread to creativity: 600 new design in about 18 months.
I never wanted to do jewelry of any kind again. It was all for some
one else, their direction. It about killed me. Yet after a short
break and back on my own I was back to me, my Source and the flow was
waiting for me so I jumped out of my own way and rode the flow
challenged, “in-spired” again.

The challenges of doing shows where one feels under the time gun,
the money gun, outside chaos to perform beat us up and push us to
lose sight of who we are and why we do what we do. Let go, enjoy the
ride and whatever happens it will be good enough, enough and find.

Be true to your SELF and not to the outside, on your shoulder
committee of haranguing judges. So easy to say but JUST DO IT,
whatever IT is.

Good Luck, ENJOY, one day at a time.

Cynthia T