The Creative Calm

I've always been a creative person. I've been a dancer, actor, singer, artist, knitter and, well, a general fiber artisan. Every phase has brought me a kind of calm for a spell and then it would become work. I would often then move on to the next thing. Now, I still love all those things and would gladly return again should the opportunity present itself, but tatting has me in its grasp. It has become not only my calm but also my work. This dichotomy is at times more stress than I'd like, but yesterday, I found that calm again.

I sat down in the afternoon with no laundry or dishes to do. My foot prevented me from gathering and unpacking boxes so I had time to tat. I retreated to our 'guest' room, sat on the bed, looked out the window and started tatting. At first it was the familiar, 'I must get this done' feeling, but the rhythm set in, my mind began to drift and soon I was calm. I imagined new pieces, thought about all sorts of random things and was truly relaxed. When that set in I remembered why I really love to make things. Sure, designing is mentally satisfying and making a bit of money is sweet, but it is all about that feeling. That time that is just for me, but isn't wasted. It has been awhile since I got that feeling and I certainly missed it.

As I mentioned, new ideas are brewing, specifically new mask ideas. There were a few of them floating around and today I'm going to see whether any of them are practical. One has already been dismissed as far too big and not in a good way, but there are a few others to work on. I do still have a couple of pieces waiting for their photos to be listed, but...and go ahead and laugh here, I haven't dyed my hair in far too long to take a picture with myself in it. Perhaps this weekend, I'll get some bleach and color on there and then I'll feel better about getting a picture taken. So off to calming work I go.

In A Slump

I'm tired, really tired. I just past my 60th blog post and I'm starting to feel like I might soon run out of wise and witty things to say. I find myself racking my brain when I wake in the morning, searching for a good topic that will hook readers. I guess I still haven't found the niche that will make this blogging thing effortless. I still spend way too much time plugging the blog and I think it's really taking time away from things I should be doing, like making things to sell, but I use this as a distraction from the artisans equivalent of writers block. Is there a word for that?

The problem I'm having right now, is that I'm simply not selling all that much. I've been going a week or so between sales and there's not much motivation to create new pieces when there are almost 80 just gathering dust. I'm hoping that this tatting challenge will jump start my creative movement and inspire me to move forward with some new designs. I've had a lot of offers to collaborate with other artisans lately, but I still find myself listless.

Oh, what to do...what to do. Well, I'll be finishing up the "rules" for the challenge today and I will definitely be listing the medallions I've already finished tomorrow morning. I got myself one judge yesterday, Jane Eborall. She's a wonderful person and quite the talented and experienced tatter. I was recently lucky to make her acquaintance and she has agreed to help out. I hope to hook a jewelry artisan as a second judge soon. I have also set up a flickr group for the challenge, my first one, so I hope I did it right. Now, I'm getting all antsy for this party to get started!

I'll list the links to the medallions tomorrow morning just as soon as I get them up. I hope everyone has fun with this!