Category Archives: Creativity

Creativity, Philosophy

Sales’ Ego

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Lately, I’ve enjoying hearing about designers who are excited by making a specific sale, like one person, who made her first Etsy sale, and another who made a gallery sale. I may be wrong, but making certain sales seem to me to be more about someone appreciating the art/work enough to want to take it home rather than pertaining to the finances. When I first started about 8 years ago, I could hardly believe that someone actually bought one of my pieces. Someone liked it!

Sales can certainly be a big boost to the ego and creative spirit. I hear that craft shows and bazaars are slow right now, so how can we continue to work toward creating new things without the boost those sales provide? In what ways might we retain that feeling when sales are slow? Ideas . . . ?

1. Experiment more – work on new ideas with inexpensive materials and perfect them before making them with more expensive products and marketing them (examples: play with recycled materials such a wire, old beads gleaned from undone projects, etc.) Then take the next step and buy those good products for the real thing. Buy a more expensive bead once the idea is perfected– Support our great vendors.

2. Share more – meet up for the purpose of sharing ideas – get with a group of like-minded folks who appreciate (as opposed to stealing) your ideas. Be truthful to one another about what you like and don’t like. You can appreciate the creative work, but still make suggestions about design improvement. (Szarka just fixes my rough edges – THANKS)

3. With regard to #2, adopt a “take it or leave it” attitude when it comes to the comments of others. You’re still in charge of your design. Don’t take offense at suggestions. Put them in the pot and stir them for a while. If they taste good use them and if not, throw them out; but don’t throw out the person who commented. This suggestion is VERY hard to do.

4. Learn how to make suggestions to others. Read your friend and determine whether the person really wants your advice. Some people require a good deal of TACT while others can take it without the sugar.

Help me add to this list. Changes have been made here to make it easier now to comment on this blog since you don’t have to “sign up”. Feel free to add your thoughts.

Creativity, Metal Work, Pendants, Wire Work

Too Many Pea Pods

For the past several days, I’ve challenged myself to see how many different ways I might embellish the copper pea pods I’ve made before. It seemed like a harmless activity. Since I have such a dislike of making something more than once, I thought I’d work on that problem with the pea pods. When training to teach piano pedagogy, one of my instructors always said “attack your weakness”. Ok, I attacked my weakness and worked on becoming more willing to copy my own work. I just kept telling myself that I was using creative elaboration to change the pods slightly. After four pods, I declared that the challenge was complete and I should move on to another weakness (there are plenty to attack). But what am I going to do with all these pea pods?

pea pods

   podpeas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

split pea

Although it may be difficult to tell from these small photos, all four pea pods in the top two pictures are slightly different. The split pea pod in the last picture resulted when I rewarded myself for sticking to this challenge and took the time to make something different.

By the way, I don’t even like peas!

Creativity, Necklaces, Philosophy

Six Thinking Hats

One of my favorite techniques about thinking is Six Thinking Hats by Edward DeBono. Dr. DeBono provided all of us with a plethora of books and materials from which to draw ideas for promoting various type of thinking. I was able to glean much from his work that I utilized both in workshop for teachers and articles for publications.

Six Thinking Hats is simple and straightforward. Each color hat represents a specific way of thinking: White is for factual thinking; Black is more thinking about drawbacks or things that might go wrong; Yellow is for thinking about positive results and possibilities; Red is for thinking with emotion; Green is for creative thinking; and Blue is for guiding or organizing the other ways of thinking. Children I’ve worked with as young as Kindergarten have been able to understand and utilize the hats. It has been my experience that although the type of thinking we use most readily changes according to our situation or environment, most of us do have one type of thinking that is our style. I am a natural black hat thinker. It is easier for me to tell all the things that could go wrong with a design or plan than it is for me to see all the possibilities. Black hat thinking isn’t bad. I’ve probably prevented many a disaster in my life by having critical thoughts at the forefront. (I probably saved my children from excessive trips to the emergency room by seeing the negative results of their antics before they acted.) Yet, it can be a real downer. I wonder how many wonderful opportunities I’ve missed because I was squelched through critical thinking. If I don’t keep my natural Black Hat thinking under wraps, part of the time it can be difficult for those around me and can certainly hold back my design work.

For several years, I’ve tried to be conscious of practicing other types of thinking. White Hat = no problem, I can give you the factual details; Red Hat = no problem, crying, yelling and caring are all in my repertoire; Green Hat = I work on creative thinking all the time; Blue Hat = remembering to organize thinking works as I try to use the other colors or gently ask a complaining person if they can come up with any positives about their situation; Yellow Hat = hmmm . . . I think this would be easier if I didn’t listen to the news reports.

It seems to me that I might apply the Six Thinking Hats in the critic of creative work. It’s not necessary to use all the hats each time we apply the technique. Simply select those that are needed. There are two pictures below, but for an example, take a look at the turquoise and pearl necklace that’s on it’s way to a customer in Maine. pearlturq White Hat thinking allows me to write on the tag attached to the piece that it is made of turquoise and pearls and that the lobster clasp is sterling silver. Wearing my Red Hat, I can tell you that I didn’t feel very excited about this piece when the customer requested it because it was quite simple.  Yellow Hat thinking reminds me that I made this pretty quickly with a minimum of steps and was able to mix together some pearls remaining from another project. It’s also a plus that this customer purchases a good deal of turquoise and pearls and I know I can make her happy with this piece. I also feel I should be grateful that I don’t have to think very hard to complete this piece. Black Hat thinking, however, tells me that I’m not learning much from making this combination of beads AGAIN.  If I use Blue Hat Thinking to organize those thoughts turqcarnelian I can be left with a positive feeling as I wrap up the piece. I think the best order might be White, Black, Red and finally Yellow. It works for me and I’m thinking how good it is to sell something!

Creativity, Pendants, Wire Work

Still Rockin’

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In the midst of all that classical music I’m listening to in an attempt to stay on task writing our annual cattle sale catalogue, I have done a bit of rockin’.

Those pictured are mostly more of Ralph’s rocks, mentioned in an earlier post. My goal is to find as many different ways as possible to wrap a cabachon. The rocks are a great way to learn and practice since they present their own set of unique problems. Challenge #1: No two are the same shape or size making it somewhat difficult to repeat a discovered wrapping. Challenge #2: The sides are not equal a given rock. Challenge #3: There is not a flat back, as in a cabachon; therefore what may work for the front doesn’t work for the back of the rock. Challenge #4: I won’t give up.

It would seem that some of these rocks do not wish to be wrapped. Proof of this lies in the wastebasket beside my workspace. Sometimes as I’m starting to feel proud of the wrap completed, the silly rock just pops right out and ends up on my lap. (This is not helpful to my ego!) Other times, the wrap is such a big mess that I take the cutters and whack it off. And then there’s that “morning after” thing. Something that looked really great about midnight is pretty tacky by morning. (Think about that one.)Rock2

As I’ve mentioned before, the literature on creative thinking tells us that creative scientists, as opposed to those who are rule bound, know when to abandon an idea and move on. I’m definitely not any good at that, but then I never claimed to be much of a scientist either. (When we started the ranch and I suggested that I could go to vet school, someone suggested that I couldn’t pass the science courses.) It takes me a good deal of time before I give up on an idea and move to another. Perhaps that’s stubbornness, but it could also be resistance to closure. I want to be sure I’ve tried every angle before throwing in the towel on an idea.

The joy of wrapping these rocks is that I have very little money invested in the adventure. Since my friend provided the rocks and I’m practicing with fairly inexpensive copper wire the wrapping in economical. rock1

You might be wondering about the top of the rocks regarding why they have open hooks rather than closed loops. These are created to hang on simple neckwires and are interchangeable. I’ve had no trouble with them slipping off the neckwire as long as the hook bends down a good ways.

Soon I will need to stop wrapping rocks and apply these techniques to cabs, but for now I’m having a great time. Of course, I may have so many that you’ll find them dangling off my lamp shades before long, but I’m sure something better will dawn on me.

Creativity, Necklaces, Pendants, Techniques, Wire Work

Look for Connections

I’m still “gone to the dogs” today. doggie Dovetails sent the dog in the picture home with me to use for a necklace. The dog is a pin and we thought it might be cute in another design. Sherry, from my wire work group, showed me how to create a wire coil with loops that will fit around the pin for attaching it. Thanks Sherry!

After finishing the doggie necklace, complete with handmade copper wire dog bones, I donned it to be sure it would hang correctly. OOPS! That silly little dog wanted to flip over and lay on it’s stomach. Now What? 

I had been to the Bead Jamboree in San Antonio and talked with a vendor selling plated charms, etc. She showed me how she glued filigrees on to the back of the charms that didn’t have holes in order to make a hanger. I more or less disregarded her suggestion thinking I would just drill a hole for the hangers I needed. But, when that puppy did its flip, I realized that her idea might be golden. back dog Using E 6000 glue, I attached the dog pin to the handmade filigree and “hurray” now he’s a dog on his feet.

While I can’t proclaim that this is a major “aha” and some would say it was obvious all along, I do know that we must remain open to connections. Although I often disregard a technique someone it showing me, I do try to pay attention and store it in the back of my mind. You just never know when someone’s idea can be adapted to your own problem.

I guess that’s really what listening is all about – making connections for the now or for the future. Part of listening is honoring the person who is talking by giving him or her your attention. I’ve always thought it was my job to applaud the person for their discovery even if I didn’t value it for myself. Yet, someone else’s idea may later combine with your own adaptation when you least expect it.

Just think about the Wright Brothers who could fly their plane, but couldn’t make it turn. Watching an eagle tip its wings one day while making a turn is said to have provided them with the idea for making that first airplane turn. I’m sure glad they were paying attention or we all might be flying straight into mountains were it not for that great connection.

I’m looking forward to using this technique again on the bird pin that’s next on the queue. We’ll see what hatches.

By the way, you’ll soon find these necklaces at Dovetail of Wimberley just waiting to be adopted.

Creativity, Diversions, Philosophy

Children’s Art Versus Creativity

I was pleased to hear from several readers after my last post which showed pictures of my grandboy. Summer is definitely the time for family visits and time with children. After the initial excitement of the visit wanes, children may be left wondering what to do.

My daughter shared a blog, http://artfulparent.wordpress.com/ , wherein the author talks about things she does with her child and the neighborhood/friends craft group. It’s interesting to see the author’s excitement over involving the children in artful activities. She provides links to other blogs that may be of interest to you.

I remember planning art activities for my children. We would go to the library and pick up books on how to make your own glue, paper mache, etc. I distinctly remember a recipe for making glue out of dryer lint. It made a horrible mess, but we did it!. I think the biggest mess we made was when we tie dyed. One of my piano students happened by that afternoon and she took off her tennis shoes and dyed them. I was a bit concerned when her Mom came to pick her up, but she took it better than I would have.

My initial concern about children’s art projects stems from a deep belief in the power of creative thinking. I believe we must take care in nurturing children and involving them in artful activities without curtailing their own ideas. If the art activity teaches a technique rather than a product, I’m all for it. Yet, if the goal is the production of a slightly varied piece like the example provided for the child, then I might be against it. We want children to think for themselves rather than merely copying. That’s why a blank piece of paper is so much better than a coloring book. While there is nothing wrong with copying to learn how to do something, let’s don’t call it creativity. (By the way, if the purpose of working in a coloring book is to learn small motor coordination, it’s a good thing.)

Research tells us that creative thinking is alive and well in young children until about first grade when it begins to wane a bit. We see it ebb and flow throughout their years, but know that it must be nurtured in order to thrive and become valued by the child. Adults who tell the child they want him or her to think creatively and then give them a pattern and color chart to follow are not modeling what they are saying. I remember when my son was four and his teacher gave him a pilgrim to color for the classroom bulletin board. When he colored it purple, she grabbed it and threw it away telling him that pilgrims can’t be purple. “Mama”, he said, “I’ve never seen a pilgrim and I didn’t know.” I don’t think that teacher had ever seen a young, irate Mother like me before, but we did get things straight!

Amabile says that creative thinking results in that which is novel and appropriate. That purple pilgrim probably wasn’t appropriate, so we might not call it creative in our adult schema. For a child, however, who had never seen or colored a pilgrim before, it may have been.

It seems that the bottom line is clarity. Let the child learn a technique, such as paper mache, by copying, but call it copying or replication. Then ask the child to think creatively and use the paper mache technique to create something new and different. Call this creative thinking. AND if the child isn’t interested, let him be. Creative thinking can be developed in many ways that do not involve arts and crafts. Some kids just don’t want to make things and that’s OK. Out future creative scientists may just be out working on their bikes rather than inside handling tempera paint!

Creativity, Necklaces, Techniques, Wire Work

How Many Ways?

Working on another chain project today, I kept asking myself “how many ways” can you curl the wire to make links? This phrase came from my mouth hundreds of times as a teacher, professor, and consultant trying to get others to think creatively. The question is basic to both fluent and flexible thinking. When working on creative fluency, we try to come up with as many answers as possible to the problem posed, in this case the straight piece of wire that needed to curl. During the fluency stage of problem solving, it doesn’t matter whether or not the posed solution is plausible or far fetched. The goal is simply to produce as many ideas as we can. Since I didn’t want my chain necklace to look uniform or to have a pattern, I continually asked how many ways I could produce the links. littlebirdlink Once I had completed the links, I then asked which ones could actually be used and eliminated the others. This is one of the judgment stages of problem solving when convergent thinking is required. If we judge too soon, however, often good adaptable ideas are thrown out without being given a chance to develop.

The top link in this first photo is the regular S shape common in wire work. The middle link ended as an S, but began in another shape and the bird shape at the end happened accidentally. I used variations of these shapes through the rest of the necklace as shown in the picture of the entire necklace. I needed some good flexible thinkinglittlebird to make variations in the bird shape and you can see that some have upturned tail feathers while others are plain. The beads on this piece are also interesting. The vendor who sold them to me said they were made by Monks. They appear to be some type of clay.

 

bigbird

The lower picture shows a different necklace with more variations on the shapes of the links. It has various shaped coral, tiger eye, or carnelian gemstones in some of the links. This necklace is made of heavier, recycled wire while the necklace in the upper pictures is made of 18 and 20 gauge wire. If you make any of these, I suggest doing it in stages. I made most of the links in one day and my sore hands are not at all happy. That said, the fluency stage should happen all at once due to the natural production of ideas. Usually, there is a burst of ideas in the beginning (often the most common solutions), followed by a brief slow down and then the production of the most unique ideas. You wouldn’t want to quit right before those great ideas hatch!

Creativity, Philosophy

Creativity . . . and My Mother

When I think about designing, I automatically call it creativity. For me, probably due to about 20 years of dedicated study and writing about the topic, creativity is problem solving even in the art forms like designing. Each time I examine a set of materials, whether it is a strand of beads, a piece of metal or something to be wire wrapped, a problem presents itself. What other colors go with the bead strand? Should it be used in a simple or intricate design? What length should the piece be? Similar questions arise for visual artists. If the person has a preconceived idea of the painting the problems is, of course, how to replicate the picture held in the mind’s eye. One of my friends who is a painter problems solves differently. She told me that she selects a color palette, makes a brush stroke on the canvas and then tackles the problem of what to do with the mark.

Today, my Mother reminded me of her problem solving and creativity the afternoon of my senior prom. Now that she brings in up, I do actually remember the sound of her scream emitted as she was ironing my formal. Somehow, the chiffon overlay of the skirt was drawn like a magnet to the iron and disintegrated leaving a large hole in my dress. It was almost five o’clock and in Medford, Oklahoma, the streets roll up about then. She quickly called the five and dime store. Of course in a town of only 1200 people she knew the woman who ran the store. Telling the store owner not to close until she got there, she raced downtown. To my amazement, she returned to fix my beautiful blue dress with plastic flowers. That’s all she could find to cover the hole. She sewed them over the burned spot and fortunately in the darkened arena of the prom, no one knew our saga. Later, as I continued to wear the dress for other occasions, she replaced those ugly plastic posies with nice silk flowers purchased in the city. What began as a problem ended with a lovely embellishment for my long dress.

I never really thought of my Mother as creative since she always followed a pattern for sewing or needlework. Yet, upon closer examination, I believe she is very creative. I could cite the many ways she problem solves with her current living situation, but I’m sure you get the picture. Creativity – problem solving - my Mother.

Creativity, Pendants, Philosophy, Wire Work

A Day in the Life of a . . . designer?

Yesterday started great. It was a beautiful sunny day in Texas and I had a plan. I’d take a day away from the ranch, deliver a jewelry order to a customer, visit my Mom at the nursing home and run that long list of errands. After donning my normal wear (as opposed to ranch smeared garb), and smiling because I was escaping cooking lunch for the ranch workers, I happily set out. Ah, the sheer joy of having no time line or real schedule filled the air. . . No more than 10 miles had metered on my odometer when my husband called to let me know I needed to come home early to meet some visitors to our ranch from Mexico. Taking this in stride (more or LESS), I went about my business with the minor change of eating my lunch from my lap while driving between towns rather than the leisurely sit-down restaurant meal I had anticipated.

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting our ranch visitors and, while they visited the cattle with my husband, I garnered new enthusiasm and began work on some ideas. A good pounding on heavy wire with the hammer certainly felt good and you can see some of the work in the pictures. PICT0493 I’m working on armatures for Ralph’s Rocks, mentioned in a previous blog. PICT0486 There’s something about the design work that is very relaxing and by dinner time when my husband returned, I had changed to comfortable clothes and was in a good mood until . . . the phones started ringing. It’s usually a bad sign when they ring in tandem.

On one phone a despondent person shared concerned about a fence problem and on the other, someone was calling to say some of our cows had escaped. In other words, it was time to pull a Clark Kent switching from designer to cattle rounder upper. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time to change clothing, since the cattle were making their way to the busy road. It took a bit of time to get in the truck, drive to the jeep location, get in the jeep, open and close the gates and then climb over the permanently locked gate. (Have you even done this in a little pink dress? It’s NOT pretty!) By the time we got to the neighbor’s property, the black cows had disappeared. I’ll spare you the details of locating them, but it took some time. Unfortunately, we could only find about half of them and the bull, that was probably the ring leader of the entire mess, was nowhere in sight. We moved the located girls to a safe haven and looked for the others. Just at dusk we found them. As I stationed myself to turn them into the proper lane, my husband gathered them and pushed them in the right direction. After considerable time, they rounded the corner, took one look at me in my neon pink dress and went right back where they came from. Can you hear my husband yelling? This scenario occurred twice before it became too dark to continue.

Hoping for the best with the runaways, we returned to the barn to give the required shots to our donor cows in preparation for harvesting their embryos. Did you know it’s really difficult to find the black cows you want when it’s dark? Finally, after giving each donor two shots, pulling their cidrs (if you’re not a rancher, you don’t even want to know what this is), and applying their alert stickers (you don’t want to know about this either), we headed for the house. 9:10 PM – designer, turned cattle rounder upper, now cook and doctor (did I mention the blood running down my legs from the cacti scratches obtained in the woods??)

10 PM - - designer again- - I think it’s easy to understand why, by 10 PM, I NEEDED to wrap more of Ralph’s Rocks and pound more wire.

The moral of this saga is that all of us are many things and each person could relate a similar “day in the life of . . . “ story, yet we keep designing, writing, composing music, painting, inventing or whatever we do to create. I used to think it would be outstanding to be able to sit in a studio and design all day, but now I realize that might not work for me. My better work seems to come as a result of NEEDING to design as a release from other stresses. Those stresses mainly come from that rich life outside the studio. Whether it’s made of nursing home visits, chasing cows, going to work, or feeding a family, our innovative work is a sum of our lives and an expression of who we are. Today, the hammer and I will be friends, but I AM going to turn the stereo up loud and pretend I don’t hear the telephone ringing.

Creativity, Philosophy

Fluency . . .

the ability to produce a quantity of ideas, answers, or problem solutions (Meador, 1996)

Having spent a good 15 years of my life trying to teach others about creative thinking, today I’m working with the concept of fluency. It’s the first “F” of FFOE commonly referred to in creativity literature. FFOE represents fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration upon which most creative activities are based. Initially, I studied these in writing my masters thesis and preparing activities to improve areas of challenge for creative thinkers. We utilized those activities for many years in working with adolescent Creative Scholars in summer programs in Louisiana. Later, I continued to study FFOE during dissertation work and the writing of Synectics activities for Kindergarten children. Following years involved training teachers to help students think more creatively as well as writing books and articles to help them (see publications list: http://www.dreamcatcherranch.net/consulting/publications.htm)

Today, I’m struck by the fact that all that study and work has submerged itself only to erupt in the design work (I wonder if it helps with the ranch work . . . ?). Whether consciously or subconsciously, I’m using FFOE every day.

Experts tell us that fluency is needed to help us explore all possibilities in an effort to find the most suitable one. But what if the best one came first? We wouldn’t know it was best without the propagation of others. But isn’t fluency a waste of time? It doesn’t waste as much time as completing an idea that didn’t work. (Yes, I do this too often as evidenced by a basket full of UFOs, unfinished objects.)

In an effort to be fluent today, I’ve added a gallery section to this blog which displays a quantity of ideas. It will continue to grow as more photos are uploaded.