Last week I painted some great beads. I put a lot of creativity into them and really pushed my ability. I did things I had never done before and the end result looked exactly like it did in my mind. It doesn’t get much better than that!! That feeling is a big part of why I do what I do.
The only problem is that I still have a lot of beads to paint before I have a batch large enough for a good dip. And I just got a hoard of cool new shapes in the mail that I want to paint and include in the dip too. When I approached my studio and my beads the other day I realized I was empty, the creativity well was dry, almost as if my last burst of creativity used up my juju. I couldn’t even THINK about what to do.
What do I do when that happens? The very first thing I do is get away from my studio. Sometimes I get really edgy when this happens so I go for a walk, or to a café. When I have walked off the edge a bit I turn a little more inward. I look at the beads I have done, and I look at designs I have sketched out already and see if there is anything there that I feel passionate about at the moment. Right now I want something really fresh, so I had to put away my old designs to come up with something new.
I found myself in my favorite, comfy reading spot with a sketchbook and my favorite pen. I doodled, not even thinking at this point of a bead or a result. I just doodled what came
to mind, found my way through the familiar shapes and curves that I have been doodling for years. Then an idea popped into my head. The shape of one of my new beads reminded me of Boomerangs, boomerangs reminded me of Australian aboriginal Art. I jotted a little note and a sketch of a boomerang in my notebook and had some dinner. After dinner I was still restless, I had made progress but my thoughts were still chaotic. I would sit at my bead table with no clear image in my mind as to how to proceed or what to do next, even what colors to pick out for base coats. Once again I stepped out of the studio and I took my mind off the beads for the entire night. In the morning, fresh and energetic I went to my bookshelves and found myself thumbing through a book of the art of Paul Klee. I sat back down in my comfy chair with my sketchbook. Klee has a painting of a red balloon, and that reminded me of a French movie I once saw, which reminded me of a red balloon over a city scape. I saw some of the brick style paintings Klee did and was fascinated by lines and colors. I was officially inspired.
I bookmarked one of the pages of the Klee book and did some sketches of ideas with bead shapes. Klee led me to Kandisnky who he worked with at the Bauhaus - more sketches. Then I saw the boomerang and went to the computer to look up Australian boomerangs… bingo. A Ton of ideas started coming to me and while searching I found some awesome sugar skulls. It popped in my head that if I turned one of my bead shapes upside down it looked just like a skull shape. Boom. By that afternoon I was bursting with ideas. So many in fact that it took me the entire rest of the day to draw them all out.
Here are three tips on how to get inspired when your well is dry
1. The very first thing I would say is change your environment, get out of the studio, get outside, get some air, forget about yourself for a little bit and just enjoy the things around you.
2. My second suggestion is always carry a sketchbook, you never, never know when your mind will find an idea that will fire you up.
3.Finally… let yourself free associate. Let your mind really wander, let ideas flow from one thought to the next and watch where they go. Pay attention to what pops up and be ready to think “how can I apply that to my creative work?” You never know where you thoughts will lead you so let them soar - and follow them with your sketchbook… like a red balloon.
Love,
Sandra
Painted By Hand
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