Hello my dear friends,
So a little different post today… I thought I’d write about creativity and how to nurture it.
I’d actually been taking my creative mojo for granted and pushing too hard then guess what… she went and dumped me, quite right too! This was actually a bit of a learning curve for me and I think the way I overcame it could help many of you too.
So roll it back a bit. I had been making lots of ceramics and doing lots of floral work plus farmers markets, I’d been head down burning the creative candle at both ends then something totally floored me… I had a glaze failure on my entire kiln load of mugs. I was gutted, it happens I know but I was so tired from creating that I just couldn’t work out why it had happened. I knew I had stuff to still make and flowers to still prepare, photo shoots to work on, the list goes on. You see, I love being creative but sometimes that creativity needs a break.
I planned two days off this week to just be. Read magazines, drink tea, limit phone time, lots of bubble baths, walks and strictly no creativity! No picking up clay or arranging flowers. Just being still. After one day I began to feel more calm and by day two I was itching to be creative again but, I just let the ideas swim in, I didn’t even run off to write them down (something I usually do) as that would of caused too much pressure and pressure is a creativities bully. Instead I just let the thought go by saying to myself ‘If its that important then you’ll remember it, if you don’t.. well meh never mind’. This simple act has really helped. I’ve read it helps to write stuff down but sometimes we just need the blank pages. A clean page full of possibilities!
It helped of course that I had two days to do this but I strongly recommend booking out ‘clear time’! I did make one list at the beginning and that was all the things I should do to make myself feel calm. And a list of creative things I needed to stop doing in order to have a proper rest.
The outcome was not just a calm feeling (which is lush by the way) but clarity! It suddenly popped in my head to check my kiln over. I’d been stressing about clay/glaze I hadn’t thought to check my kiln, duh bless her she needed a little tlc too. Fingers crossed she feels better now also. And I came up with a wonderful subscription workshop idea.
I’m going to make sure I book two days off a month to just stop being creative and slow my mind.
I’d love to know how you relax or re-find your creativity or inspiration. You can write to me in the comments below or dm me on Instagram.
And don’t worry… I’ll get back to making your pottery now!
Emma xx