Operation Inspiration: Phase One

Although I have been relishing the extra time I’ve been getting to relax, veg out, and just hang around with my family lately, it’s definitely time to get back to beading and all of the creative things I used to do once upon a time. Somewhere inside of me there’s a person who loves to create jewelry, photograph it, write about it and experiment with colors at every opportunity. I just have to figure out where she’s been hiding.

In order to get back on track, I’ve got to find my creative grooves again – refresh and start new. There are quite a few methods that I’ve mapped out, including finally getting around to deciding on a new shop platform and filling it up with pieces from Ancient Worlds, Modern Beads. I think that starting there will help me figure out what I want to do with the rest of my inventory and get back on track shop-wise.

Beading Workspace: Before

In the meantime, I’m determined to start making again. To get my motivation and inspiration going, I’m going to try out some proven methods, only this time I’ll be doing them all in a heap, like a great creative detox. Phase one is almost complete.

First I rolled up my sleeves and cleaned my workspace. Over the past few months, I’ve been a bit lazy about putting beads away, and filing things where they ought to go. My workspace also managed to accumulate a lot of unnecessary objects such as a DVD I meant to watch and forgot about, and a big bag full of little bead baggies that was just taking up too much space. Although it’s convenient to have them there whenever I need a place to put a recently cut strand or hank, it’s not worth it to have it cluttering up space that could be holding beads, or books, or nothing at all.

I realized that the herringbone collar I was working on was dragging me down as much as anything else, so I’ve packed up the beads for now. As soon as I get a chance to re-file all of the beads that had collected on my table, I’ll be ready to start fresh.

Now my workspace has only the essentials: my tool jar, inspiration notebook and 7-year pen, my bag of culled beads and my beeswax. I left my collection of seed bead leftovers in the hopes that I’ll be inspired to use them. All that’s left is the paint and glitter stains that only sandpaper can remove!

Beading Workspace: After

Phase Two will be even more cleansing and I'm really looking forward to getting started. How do you work through creative blocks?

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