Rut Be Gone
photo by tina seamonster
I am ignoring the mess that is my living room. The overturned haunted house. The carrots on the floor. The cell phone at my feet that needs to be charged. I am in the clutches of new ideas. Of making things new. New things. And this is the best feeling. The very best way to make.
I have recently found myself in a rut of sorts, making the same thing over and over to fill orders. I know I shouldn’t complain about this. Anyone who makes things wishes for the time when more than friends will want what they make. It is awesome and special and spectacular. But it is also easy to get stuck in the cycle, the filling of orders, the manufacturing, if even on this small scale. And I have been stuck. Sticky stuck.
I think we forget how much courage making something new takes. For me, it is less about inspiration and more about being able to push aside the easy, the accepted, the popular. Then there is the fear of making mistakes and wasting materials. I used to live in fear of wasting materials! No more, I tell myself. Gocco screens are not precious! Expensive, but not precious.
So I make a space in my stock corner for the one-of-a-kinds. The bold experiments that might fall flat or be spectacular. The special new creatures that will take forever to find a home. And I think about it all day long. Working out my plans for the new. And each night when my little window for creating comes along, I am thrilled with what I find. I am giddy and unstuck.
Tina Seamonster blogs her life and craft at http://www.ilikeseamonsters.com. She thinks you are rad.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
I am totally with you on this. Maybe it is rut season? My typical process is that I play around and take way too long to create something new and different. I usually love said new object, and then when put it out in the world and it doesn’t sell fast enough, I feel the pain of rejection and run back to the safety of my solid sellers. I guess it’s hard to remind ourselves about all the times when we went on a limb and it actually worked out for us!