Stephanie Forsyth: Reevaluating How We Create

Friday, February 22, 2013

Reevaluating How We Create

I spent most of the last two days working on turned hand stitched bindings on pieces that will be on display in a week. I still have much to do still, putting on the hanging sleeves next. But yesterday afternoon I couldn't bear the thought of one more non creative stitching marathon. So I grabbed a chunk of hand dyed fabric, some decorative threads I've had for a long time, and just started stitched. My only plan was the three overlapping spheres, one of then is nearly done. The rest is all just running stitches, that I'm changing the thread on to make it look variegated in a fashion.

I will admit that I am reevaluating how I work in a series. In the past, I have always left the binding and sleeves until last once all of the pieces in a series are done. While it makes the flow of working on the quilting smoother, it puts me in a crabby mood later when I have days and days worth of hand stitching to finish all the pieces. For example, I have ten pieces I need to get hanging sleeves made for and sewn onto by March 1st. This is not fun. It means 2+ a day if I want to have a day or so off to work on other things.

From now on I think I will either do each piece from start to finish one at a time. Or, I will allow myself to flow through the surface design part for each piece, but then be sure to quilt/bind/sleeve each piece one at a time from that point on. (Until some kind hearted studio assistant finds their way to my studio.)

As an artist, I think it's a really good idea to take time now and then to reevaluate how you're working, and determine whether it's really working for you. Be mindful of periods of stress or uncomfortableness during your processes. Maybe there is something you're doing, that you can alter a bit to alleviate the "not fun" aspect of your method of working. For me, saving up all that hand stitching for the end creates crankiness, boredom, hand cramps and general unhappiness. It often leaves me feeling less than ecstatic about a series I was previously excited about.

Watch for signs of something "not working" and change things up a bit. It's our responsibility as artists to keep our creative juices flowing. So if that means acknowledging that something isn't working for us and changing that, then that's what we have to do!

It's suppose to be a snowy day here. I was excited because they were predicting something like 10" from this storm. They've since reduced their prediction to a measly 3-6". Though it is falling at a nice clip at the moment. I love snow days. I'm not tempted to go out and run errands, and the already quiet neighborhood I live in, is even quieter.