LuElla, thank you for your lovely message! You made my day! 🙂

Nicole, that’s wonderful to hear! Keep following your spark.

Carol, thank you so much for your comment. I so agree about doing things the way your creative energy flows. Beautifully expressed!

Creating is much more enjoyable when you’re making something the way your creative energy flows. I truly believe this talk will help me move forward in my business. Thank you so much for sharing!

Carol Fowler

That’s fantastic, Patti! Thank you for sharing your success – it’s great to hear you did so well by doing what you like to do! Thanks also for letting me know my ebook was helpful. 🙂

Diana – I’m so glad I jot down my ideas in my journals too. I often leaf back through them and am amazed at the ideas and creative visions I’ve scribbled in there and then completely forgotten!

One thing you said that really struck home with me – “I don’t have the skills yet to create what is in my head”:

I don’t think my finished designs ever look like what was originally in my head when I dreamed them up. Sometimes it’s because I couldn’t figure out a way to make things work the way I envisioned, and sometimes it’s because I let go and let things flow in a different direction than I originally intended. And of course often it’s because I’ve flubbed something in the process so the original plan is void! 🙂

But I’ve seen your gorgeous work, Diana, and I’d like to suggest that there’s room for both – what you originally envisioned, AND the the way the finished piece turned out.

And of course, you’re the only one who sees that it didn’t turn out the way you planned – the rest of us see only your artistry! 🙂

I have been thinking of this very thing lately. It has been awhile since I had a sale and I have been kinda depressed and started feeling like maybe if I made “this” instead of really stretching my creative spark I might make a sale. But I just couldn’t do it. Well I did start and now I have half finished pieces laying around that will eventually make it to the “drawer of lost causes” sometime soon and I will pick up all the seed beads laying around and tools and threads, well this is when I know that I need to come back to who I am and make things that I want to.

But there are even times when I do come back to my unique style that it is not always easy. Because I don’t have the skills yet to create what is in my head. So I draw my ideas in detail in my journal, and then come back to them at some future time when I have learned something new and it will help me get to where the image becomes the reality. My journals are an amazing tool because many times I forget ideas I had a week ago or even a day ago. I have journals for each year I have been beading and when I look back at them they nearly always give me inspiration and a new spark of creativity.

I spent a long time making what I thought would sell. Well I still have a box full of that jewelry, I can barely give it away!

I get incredibly inspired when I reorganize my huge stash of supplies, so when I am in a slump I just begin opening boxes and containers and before I know it I am assembling 4 or 5 pieces at once! I have gained a good following now that I make whatever I want! Sometimes I make several similar items and sometimes the piece is completely unique and can not be made again. I like that, and so do my customers. I also love learning new techniques for my jewelry, and my customers are happy to come with me on these adventures. There is nothing better than the looks on their faces when I tell them I made that piece they are marveling at entirely by hand.

Yay for letting our creativity dominate our sales and not the other way around! That is every artist’s dream!

It’s fascinating to hear your stories of discovering, as Ann said so well, “the best path is to follow our own instincts and passion. I believe that is what fascinates our customers, and they want to be part of that by buying our work.”

Yes, that’s so true! I think about some of the artists’ work that has deeply moved me, and that I’ve purchased. It has a compelling force that I never get tired of. It definitely doesn’t feel like the artist made it according to what they thought people would like – but by following their own unique muse.

And the funny thing about making something we think people will like – they never actually like it as well as they do our own inspired creations!

I am working on something new for me, to create and make “coins” with quilt designs on them so I can hand paint them like I already do with coins. No country makes these types of designs, so I am making my own with PMC etc. I went to a Quilting Retreat with my husband recently (he is the quilter), and it was the perfect place to work on the project.

Many of the quilters suggested I do quilt blocks, but I quickly found that boring. When I started just playing and coming up with my own thing, all of a sudden the quilters got excited about the designs. Funny I didn’t put that together until listening to your chat.

I have been pondering where to go next with this project, and your talk has reminded me of what I already know but easily forget. So, I have a new resolve to follow my passion and do the designs in my head. May not be traditional quilting, but it is what is right for me and my art.

Thanks again!
Ann

I agree with the other gals here that trying to guess what someone else will like usually doesn’t work. In the past, I’d see something that was in style for the season and think “Oh, I can make that & if that’s what customers want, I’ll sell tons!”. Nope! The jewelry just sat there. I found myself becoming bored with what I was making and didn’t even want to wear the style myself! If I’m not interested in wearing my own designs, why should anyone else? I also found myself losing enthusiasm for selling those pieces at my shows. It was as if someone had popped my balloon and I’d lost helium ~ I was quickly losing altitude! The only way I know to stay creatively happy is to create from within and then watch to see who “clicks” with my designs. At that point, there’s a customer-base sprouting!

You were also right- that is what sells.

The more I work on pieces that I am excited to make- the feeling a creative person gets, heart pumping eagerness to get to see the finished item, the more inspired and well received the jewelry ends up being.

This is great advice to those who are maybe struggling a little in this economy.

Kind Regards, Karen

Thank you for this enlightened video clip. When I first started, I used to make things that I really loved, but over time, tried to make things that “most people” would find appealing. I’ve found that I’ve been less inspired by my own work, and less apt to sell it as efficiently. Recently, I’ve also seen that I wouldn’t even want to wear most of what I make. That’s sad, I think, so I’d better get back to making the beauties that I used to!
Thanks again for the inspiration!

Sincerely,

Nikki in Montreal

This is absolutely the same process I went through earlier this year – shifting from making what I thought would be right, to taking the chance to explore what is really me. And it is scary. I felt that too. But it has been such a delight to do that! And yes, it can take you to a place more “out there”, and some people won’t like it. But there will be ones that really will love it.

I loved what you said about people “connecting with your creative spark”. That is so neat! It’s taking it a step further than them connecting with your jewellery. Thank you for sharing that!