Developing a taste for craft work (part 8 in our series)

As children, we are exposed to so many styles, hobbies and creative pursuits. I remember well feeling rather uncomfortable in ballet class but loving baseball, enjoying cooking but having zero interest (at the time) in my mother's sewing... and falling in love with pottery. What sticks? How does it stick? For Isabel, the French fashion designer behind isabelamyo, her own creative inspiration is something she will never forget. For her, she says, it developed over time.

Thank you, Isabel, for sharing your story with us in this, the 8th part of our series on the roots of design.

"Of course my mother sewed me clothing that I thought was "more or less successful" I confess, but I learned I wanted to make myself my clothes following my own desires. It was at that moment that I realized that I loved doing things with my hands."

Isabel's story continues. "It isn't very original, but I soon dressed all of my friends who came to see me. And in my bedroom with my sew machine and my my fabrics, my threads and my needles we worked together on the realization of some idea of clothing. It was great... there was always excitement that led us up to the culmination of a creation."

(photo above, and all that follow, from isabelamyo)

 "There was also my sister's dolls that I dressed as well. I loved turning a shapeless cloth into something built by practice. And one day I learned I had a neighbor who taught a lot of handwork to children. I went to see her she gives me some tips to improve, and I thank her again because I really improved my technique with this kind neighbor."

"I think that's what gave me the taste of craft work, work done with care, generosity and quality, thanks to the techniques I learned in my youth. They still serve me today."

Creative Fire: Drive

                                               photo by raceytay

My husband is reading a book that interests me: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, written by Daniel Pink.  Pink became well known for "A Whole New Mind," his 2005 best-selling book in which he made the bold statement that right-brainers -- people who are strong in qualities such as empathy, storytelling and inventiveness -- will rule the future. So, naturally, I like the way he thinks!

The introduction explains the meaning behind the title “Drive.”  The first drive is biological. It is the most basic and primitive and includes the need for food, drink, shelter and basic survival. The second drive is more external; reward and punishment. This is where psychologists, managers and parents have spent most of their time. But then, when a group of monkeys started playing with puzzles with enjoyment and focus, scientists realized that there might be another drive in all of us. This third drive is focused on the pure joy of performing the task. Pink explores all the different ways that this third drive expresses itself and the results both people and organizations achieved when they opened themselves up to this third drive.

                                             earrings by Markhed

I’ve been thinking long and hard about the case he makes that if you get stuck seeking short term rewards you can extinguish your internal motivation, ie, the joy of working. In his list of the flaws of short term rewards, Pink includes that they can crush creativity and that they can become addictive.

Selling is a short term reward on Etsy. Our number count goes up, we get a short feature on Pounce. There is a momentary high. Making the Front Page is a short term reward. Having one’s treasury make the Front Page is a short term reward. Each produces a feeling of accomplishment, of exhilaration. While I'm not leaping to the conclusion that we need 12 step support groups for treasury and front page addicts, I am asking myself if the joy of creating my pottery is still greater than the thrill of seeing the image of it on Etsy’s front page. I also monitor for myself how much custom order work, which is inherently less creative, is okay for me to take before the actual fun gets sucked out and replaced by my sales +1. Now that creative types are predicted to rule the future, I don’t want to miss my chance! I’ve started experimenting with new glazes in the middle of the holiday sales blitz just to keep my priorities straight.

                                         ring by onegarnetgirl

Are you having fun today?

by Lee Wolfe/ OneClayBead

Creative Fire: The Little Voice

For many years I worked as a production potter which means throwing 60 mugs in 1 hour; one per minute. It means silent repetition that commands complete attention. Production pottery is a fierce teacher and if your mind wanders, the rhythm is lost, the clay wobbles off center, the forms start to look tortured.

I had an apprentice once whose mind was very restless and never shut up. I could see his petty niggling thoughts in his forms and work habits. I had spoken to him for months about how he needed to still his mind if he wanted to be a potter.

I told him what all studio artisans must confront at some point: there is a little voice in your head. It evaluates, judges, and criticizes ceaselessly.  It is full of negative self analysis when you are trying to create, and when you look up and outward at the world, it criticizes everything that you see out there, too.

Norman, my apprentice, first insisted that he didn’t hear a little voice. After weeks of prompting, he said that he heard it sometimes but that he was in control of it and could turn it off whenever he wanted. That particular day, he was having relationship problems, and had been complaining about his partner all morning. He noticed that his Little Voice couldn’t leave the subject alone.

Norman stepped outside “to clear his mind.” He came back in filled with excitement. “I heard my little voice!” he said, “I heard it say that the mountains are so beautiful. The trees especially green today. And then it said that the trees should be thinned a bit so that I could see better. I heard myself evaluating and criticizing the mountains, and you are right! It never shuts up!”

Norman began laughing, full out, silly, contagious laughing. I joined him. And in that moment came what we all truly crave.

Silence. Being in the flow. Happiness.

by Lee Wolfe/ OneClayBead

Creative Fire: Rumi

The 13th Century poet and mystic Rumi has been a touchstone of mine for decades. My own blog The Beauty You Love is an ode to his famous line: Let the beauty you love be what you do.

Rumi uses words the way that I use clay. He takes me places that are peaceful, pure, and sometimes, only music or Rumi can soothe the places that ache. It won’t make sense. And maybe the lesson here is that what we really need is something that doesn’t make any sense at all.

Do not grieve for what is lost.  Anything you lose comes round in another form.

Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.

We are the mirror as well as the face in it.

We are tasting the taste this minute of eternity.

We are pain and what cures pain both.

We are the sweet cold water and the jar that pours.

I want to hold you close like a lute so we can cry out with loving.

You would rather throw stones at a mirror?

I am your mirror, and here are the stones.

When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.

………………………………………………………….

Click on any picture to find the artisan’s work.

Lee/OneClayBead

Creative Fire: Magic and Business

                          Spalenka

"Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business."

— Tom Robbins

I am married to a suit, a corporate Vice President, whose days are spent in positioning his company for growth in a shifting economy. I am a potter, usually so unkempt that I’m an hour away from being presentable if I’m meeting anyone for lunch. Like all true artists, I deal in magic, in transformation, in the ancient alchemy of clay and glaze. Is this an example of how opposites attract? Perhaps.  We are we on opposite ends of one spectrum that begins in the realm of creative dreams and manifests through skillful design and execution.

                           Markhed

We are equally successful because we value the realm in which the other operates. I respect the organized way in which he methodically negotiates a business deal. He respects my natural ability to read people, to get in the zone and flow through my day, and to innovate.

He has brought a measure of order to my chaos. I bring to his his life magic. Business and magic make for a successful partnership.

     TeoStudio. steinschmuckdesign, OneClayBead

“Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.”
- Tom Robbins

               SewnNatural

Click on any image to see listing details. Article by: Lee Wolfe/ OneClayBead

Creative Fire: The Journey

 

This Monday I’d like to share one of my favorite Mary Oliver poems, and to highlight works that convey strong emotion. You can click on any image to see the listing.

The Journey
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice --
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.

"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.

It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.

But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do --
determined to save
the only life you could save.

~ Mary Oliver ~