Club Ruby Designers

       I used to think that I had to create everything from scratch. I either had to draw it, make the stamp for it, sometimes I even made the paper for it. As you can imagine, I did not have a lot of completed projects from this period of time. I've come to have a more Marcel Duchamp view of my creativity. To paraphrase, I've come to see that Creativity can be in the selection.

     

      Now I am head over heels in love with kits. With a kit all of those pesky, overwhelming choices that I need to make about every single thing are put aside and I can focus on making something. I can learn a new technique. I can shift my focus and take my mind off my troubles with the joy of a new project, the smell of paper, the beauty of a new stamp or beads or whatever the kit contains. If I'm feeling stumped, working on a kit can prime the pump of inspiration, I start thinking ... "Ohhhhh, what if I used this kind of paper, what if I made a stamp with something I can't find a stamp for or a stamp in a different size." I keep my notebook nearby so I can write down the ideas, and try them later.

     

      I also have participated in some challenges. And from this I have learned to use materials differently, make a lot of something (or at least a few lol). I have the joy that I made something creative, but also the joy that I made something quickly, perhaps even that I made multiples of things.

     

      I'm also learning to make things that aren't perfect. Okay, I'm actually learning to be happy with things that aren't perfect lol. I've always been ABLE to make things that weren't perfect, but I'd usually stop working on it if the flaw couldn't be fixed and throw them away. Unless it was a sweater with a dropped stitch. In high school I would say, "how are they going to know it's homemade if it doesn't have a hole in it" and keep on knitting. So now I have the joy of continuing to work on something, and a chance to make lemonade out of all those lemons.