I have spent the better part of my afternoon staring at my work table, trying to will some good or even halfway decent piece of jewelry into existence. Trouble is that no matter how much I tried to channel that beam of creative energy, it seemed to dissipate completely by the time it should have reached my hands.
It’s been like that for a good while now, creation coming to me only in fits whenever IT wanted to, not I. Any attempt to rebel against that natural order of how it must apparently be, is fruitless. So I decided to stop trying to be the salmon battling against the current and made the choice to just see were the flow wanted to take me.
And suddenly I found myself piling all of the pieces that had been staring me in the face for a good long while, screaming boring mediocracy at me, and began deconstructing them one by one, until I had nothing other than piles of beads and chains. And it felt great!
It seems as though the pile of chains before me were the chains that have been holding me in shackles without my realizing it. I worked hard on those chains, diligently wound and coiled the wire, cut them with my saw, meticulously placed one with the other to weave them into intricate patterns.
They are well constructed chains I inadvertently wound around myself to the point of choking out all that resembled creativity. And now they have been shed. I know this will not result in a miraculous transformation and it will not happen over night. But by making a clean sweep I already seem lighter, less burdened.
Do you ever fall into the dark hole, the place no matter how hard you try to be your usual creative soul, it just refuses to be? How do you deal with it? I would love to hear your point of view.
Do you step away? Do you have a ritual, a strategy to help propel you back up?
Just had to get that off my chest today
Karin, I have learned that when I am uninspired forcing creativity never ends well. When going through those dry spells, I step away and do something completely unrelated to jewelry – it could be reading a good book, watching a movie, taking a walk, cooking up a storm or working in the flower beds. Anything to get me away from the beads and wire when it’s causing me frustration. After taking a break (which can last from a few hours to several days), I return to my studio refreshed and ready to go back to work.
I’m glad you found a way to deal with your dry spell; now you have a bunch of beautiful components to make into entirely new designs!
Thank you Dawn! I agree. At times even doing the laundry helps, just to get a sense of productivity of some sort! In the past I have stepped back and just cut a whole lot of jump rings, made headpins and ear wires…but somehow it just felt right to make a more radical move. You can be sure I will be putting all those components and chains to very good use and I can’t wait to share them all with you when the time comes.