Interesting Article on Creativity

About a year ago, a friend sent me an article by Jean Draper. I think it is from a magazine called Stitch and Jean says she is a hand stitcher. I really enjoy reading articles about other people's creative process no matter what medium they are using. There are a lot of parallels that I can draw between her creative stitching and my tapestry and weaving, at least in how the designing has to take place. Her methods are different than mine and I have learned a lot from Jean, just reading how she works. A couple of the big things that I highlighted are that her work changes very gradually and logically. She develops ideas slowly and maintains certain constant principles from one piece to another. She doesn't allow abrupt changes. That was new insight to me because often I feel I have to have big changes from one piece to another to have it be unique enough, rather than to let a concept develop. The other thing that Jean does and this is not a new idea to me but one I don't follow through enough on is to keep a sketchbook and notebooks all the time. When I do keep lots of notes and sketches, ideas flow better than when I ignore this important part of creativity. I'm sure I am not as analytical as her and none of us work in the same way, but this seems to be an especially important step that I need to work on. I usually work in spurts and when I am working, I don't take the time to write much down or keep good records in the frenzy and then when I'm not working, I guess I don't care because I don't catch up then. However, lately I have been working a lot more consistently and so I hope that I can develop better habits as I progress.

This past week I have finished 3 bags which I had the weaving all done and they were ready to assemble. Soon there should be some new work up on the website.

I am anxious to do some tapestry work soon since they combine so well with the bands for purses. I love the idea of portable art...Why should it just be hung on the wall and shut away in our houses? This way we can enjoy it throughout the day and others can too.