Creativity Corner: adding creativity to your life

Christine Evans from 52 crafts in 52 weeks project is debuting her regular guest column called Creativity Corner.  She hopes to inspire you to be make more time for creativity in your life. She put her money where her mouth is too and started her own personal challenge to try a new craft every week for 52 weeks!

Christine’s posts will appear bi-monthly on Tuesdays so make check back on Tuesdays. xoxo – jen

creativity corner: adding creativity to your life

Hello! I’m really excited about being here and sharing my thoughts on creativity. Here’s just a little about me: I’m Christine, I live in a quiet village in the English countryside with my husband and Yorkshire Terrier and I’m trying a new craft every week for a year.

One of the most common things I’ve heard since starting my 52 crafts in 52 weeks project (after, “how do you find the time?”) is “I’m not as creative as you, I wouldn’t know where to start.”

make it yourself recyled wool corsage

I don’t believe I’m any more creative than the next person–we all have it in us to be creative.  A recent article on Huffington Post talked about creativity…

Indeed, Sir Ken Robinson, an educator not a neuroscientist believes we are all creative. That children, at least, are born creative and then it is pounded out of them in school. Such creativity disappears, he says, by about age seven or eight.

Maybe we all just need a little nudge to get us thinking in that child-like way again, when hours could be spent making up make-believe lands (true-life confession: I used to play schools with my china animal collection and set them homework and scold them for being naughty), time would disappear as we played with yogurt pots and cereal boxes and crayons were as precious as gems.

So, are you ready to challenge yourself?

To help you get those creative neurons firing, I thought for my inaugural column on Indie Fixx that I’d talk a little about creativity challenges and how to set your own.

papier mache bowl

By definition, a challenge should be something stretching. But remember, it should be a stretch for you.

If you never take photographs, challenging yourself to taking one a week would be a really big jump. But, someone who regularly takes snaps of their life, might find what they need to get them thinking more creatively is to take photos of something red every day.

Your challenge also needs to be something that will keep you interested. I don’t get bored with trying a new craft every week, but if I was making the same thing week in, week out I’d soon lose my momentum.

It’s also a good idea to make yourself accountable in some way to complete your challenge. I started a blog so that people all over the world could see my progress. And I always get asked, “What’s your craft this week” by my friends, family and colleagues. So there’s less chance of me abandoning it. You don’t have to start a blog–you could join like-minded people on a forum, flickr, twitter or just tell your family your plans so they support you.

pom pom flowers

Finally I just want to give you some ideas on the kinds of challenges you could set yourself. How about:

  • making something different out of a single sheet of paper every week?
  • knitting a different item every month?
  • photographing the same view every week for a year?
  • painting a different monochromatic picture every week until you reach the end of the rainbow?
  • starting an art journal and working in it every day for a month?
  • googling creative challenges and join an established group such as the 365Days group on Flickr?

I hope I’ve given you a few ideas on how to set your own creativity challenge. Let me know in the comments if you’re already embarking on one or if you’re inspired to set your own challenge today. Also, feel free to share any of your projects in the Indie Fixx Flikcr Group.

6 comments

  1. Victoria – art journalling is on my list of things to try, enjoy your challenge!

    Carolyn – I can understand the reading about things rather than just doing it behaviour – I do it too which was why I set my challenge.
    And if I spent as much time writing as I do reading about writing, I’d have a novel or two by now! Maybe my next challenge needs to be a writing one.

    Lisa – you’re so right. I think anything that involves producing something (a cake, a poem, a sketch) is creative and satisfying and *anyone* really can do it.

  2. I agree. I think the hardest part can be getting started for some folks though. making time is difficult. as well as not worrying about the end result, but having fun with the process.

  3. I do believe that *everyone* can do something creative and gain immense satisfaction from it! Finding pleasure from a simple act of arranging coloured beads as you thread them, or following origami instructions for a swan may not seem as majestic as painting a portrait or lathe turning a wooden bowl, but they are no less creative! everyone can find something that suits them 🙂

  4. This is a beautiful site and I so appreciate the invitation to a creativity challenge. I’m always impressed by people who can “get right down to it” in just making beautiful things.

    I spend a lot of time thinking and writing about how beauty works and less time making it happen. But this site is galvanizing. Thank you!

    Carolyn

  5. I just recently committed to art journaling again. I am very excited about this. I haven’t done it since college. I was a photo major and felt the need to create without editing myself, make work that was private and not up for a 20 person critique, and work through day-to-day issues.
    You have now inspired me to commit to working in it every day for at least a month.
    Thanks!

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