As I sit here busily creating surrounded by mess (strands of pearls, piles of gems, pieces of silver and a myriad of tools) that steadily closes in on me in an ever decreasing circle, so that I'm working in the most ridiculously tiny amount of space ... I need to know does everyone else find their work area getting chaotic too? Or am I just a messy worker?
Obviously this is my "process" as I love what I make from my very messy bench, but I'm sure my friends are shocked when they see me at work for the first time wondering how I could possibly work like this (they're not creative types) and are happily surprised when they see what finally emerges.
I must add that I DO periodically put things away and make the circle bigger, but a big tidy up leaves me bereft of creativity for a days if not weeks. Once I sit down and start 'playing' (my precursor to creating) it rapidly gets chaotic again.
Please tell me I'm not alone :)
Comments
That's IT!
Chaos is in the eye of the beholder.
Where I see the range of colors and shapes I may want to incorporate in a piece I'm building in the many boxes of pearls, findings and crystals I have scattered on the bed; Dan sees a mess that needs organizing.
I think you have to make the beads MOVE TOGETHER in many lights, watch how they interplay, look at the undercolors against differrent fabrics, etc. To a non-creative person, we may look nuts and they may think we're making it all sound too important.
But the elements of beauty can be recognized by some, created by very few.
Well, the laughs on me.
My bead room has stayed fairly sane and orderly.
BUT...
One afternoon, the craze of the Muse was upon me, and across the hall from my bead room is my beautiful new guest room..... I threw a white comforter over the bed and laid out five projects(beads, pins, rings,chain etc.) that were in my head before they fell out.
THEN
Since my back was killing me from bending over the guest bed working, I put the fixings for another necklace on a tray and took it to bed to work on it.
NOW
I have stuff all over the house.
BUT my bead room's clean...LOL.
What I need is a Jewelry MAID or GENIE. Someone who will come in and put away all the silver parts when I start to work on gold or copper. A gentle person to sort my findings and tiny snipits and place them where I can find them in that instant my hands are full.
That's it!
Wouldn't it be great to have an assistant. LOL Sure could have used one the day I dropped a gross of 3mm crystals on the rug. Ugh!
I tried to explain this to my husband the other day. He hurt my feelings by saying something like I would be lost without him because I run around so scattered all the time.
ME?
Top 3% of my graduating class, Mensa, VP, .....what was he talking about? I really chewed on it.
This is what I told him: " All my life I used my left brain very successfully just as you are doing at your job now. So I understand and have conquered your world. I no longer live in that way. Using your right brain is VERY differrent. You never know when the Muse will hit hard or when it will leave. So while things are moving fast in your imagination, you have to create at that speed....sometimes it's fatal to stop. The thought, the whisper of the color pattern, slips away. Sometimes I go from project to project as my Muse pulls me.
I don't punch a clock for "The Man" anymore. The clock is inside of me.
So what may look like chaos to a left-brainer is HOME to us right-brainers.
Guess I'll go work in the guest bedroom.
Chaos represents creativity for me. I have a 50' x 60' metal building for a studio. It is separated into different "rooms" for stained glass, fused glass, ceramics, kilns, jewelry, painting, drawing, crafts, and references/office. Anyone walking in will immediately know what I have been working on, because that's where the chaos will be. An uncluttered studio means either a serious case of artist's block or I'm avoiding something(like tax prep).
I know artist's who are unfailingly neat, and while I admire them greatly, I don't fully understand them or their ability to put down the art long enough to keep everything orderly.
The only way I will ever be able to keep a perpetually neat and organized studio is if I win the lottery and hire a full time maid/assistant to clean up behind me. But that wouldn't work because I hate it when anyone moves or touches whatever I'm working on. Oh well, I'll just stick with chaos is creativity.
LOL!! Glad I don't have that to deal with- I HATE moving!!
My studio is what used to be the living room in my home. It's just me, the hubby, and dog now. After daughter moved a year and half ago, I took over her old 9x12 room. Hubby mentioned, in October, that i might be more comfortable, and have more space for display, in what was the living room. More natural light, it's own entrance(invaluable for load out and load in on show dates) for customers, etc. I thought it over, and within two weeks moved everything. We now use the smaller room for our media room/living room and I have the larger room for my studio. I love it....can meet and greet with clients, they aren't having to walk through personal areas of the house to get to the studio, and hubby doesn't feel like he has to interrupt movie /video geek time if I have clients or bead buddies in the studio! Plus, I can now have studio hours, so that clients can drop in, see whats new, have a confab, learn a skill-whatever! So glad he thought of it!
Karole
I clean my Studio only because the customers come for consults! If it was solely my work room, oh the chaos!! I must admit, my bench is usually chaotic- but I still can't NOT put the tools away!! And when the bead buddies come for bead night in the studio...ahh ABSOLUTE CHAOS!! It must have something to with our creative drive!
No sick mind here!!
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next