Blog Carnival

Etsy Metal Team Blog Carnival

I am part of a great group called" Etsy Metal" where members will write an article on the first Monday of each month on an specific theme, so, go check their blogs at the bottom of this post to find some great ideas on this month's subject:

"20 inspirational  things to do to kick start creativity."

And here I go!

1.  Curse! I know, might not help a lot with your creativity but God, it feels good! it will release  you from all anger and frustration and will get you ready to absorb good energy.
2. Get a new tool!!!!
3. Subscribe yourself to a challenging project, competition or a  jewelry book submission, it doesn't matter if they don't choose your work, it will make you create a new design with an specific goal in mind.
4. Look at your stones, rearrange them, do the same with your old beads, you might get ideas from colors, forms, materials.
5. Work on another craft (or craft on another work), felt, macrame, polymer clay, ceramic, etc., you can introduce them to metal and create something different from what you would normally do.
6. If you have any friends around you who also make jewelry or any kind or art, visit them, talk to them, I have my etsy friend cynthia here in Paris who I admire 'beaucoup' and just by talking to her I feel motivated.
7. Visit your library...you can't complain you don't have any craft, architecture, design, inspirational books.
8. Work out, sweat those ideas out! I don't but I will, it's part of my new year's resolutions..from 2008.
9. Go back to your sold items on page 132, go trough your old pictures, sometimes we forget we were darn creative when we had no pressure to create something...and that takes me to number 7
10. Design blogs...what a world to discover...
11. I am writing this from the train going East...take a few days vacations, away from your workbench, you'll come back willing to put your hands on your tools.
12. Make a piece that nobody but you will see, no commitments with anyone, no customers, friends, groups or family, just you and your workbench, I mean, when you create just for the sake of creating things flow, just happens because nobody is expecting anything from you.
13. I will contradict myself from point 8 but it has proofed its efficiency, Ring a day group has 'push' me in a good way to make a ring (even if i don't make one a day) when I have the time, I take that moment just for me and then I make a ring that in normal day to day situation I wouldn't have made it and that takes me (again) to point 9
14. To submit my work to any jewelry group on the net has encourage me to continue. Even if I think it is horrible someone will find it beautiful (for some reason they'll never say in a comment your piece it's ugly...thank you!)
15. Looking at the pictures of all of these groups reminds me that if I don't get discourage some day I will be as good and as creative as my fellow jewellers.
16. Talk to friends and family, they'll tell you how great you are! that they still keep close to their heart that necklace you gave them for Xmas 3 years ago...then...
17. It will remind you still owe that pair of earrings to your aunt (who is very sick) and it will get you straight to your workbench, and you'll make them with love hoping they'll get there on time...
18. Cook, it is just another way of art...probably you were just hungry.
19. Take a good pair of shoes and visit galleries and museums...breath the fresh air of creativity.
20. Make a list of the new materials and techniques you've always wanted to learn and
21. Learn them! either on your own or in a specialized school, workshop, seminar, learning another technique will make you feel good and you'll introduce it to your work.
22. Bathtub...boiling water....lavender oil... it works! Lavender is well known for its calming virtues.
23. Write 100 times " as soon as I finish writing this silly sentence I will come up with a great idea, if I don't I will have write it 100 times more"     you'll see .........
24. Don't take yourself too seriously...it is just a transition phase.
25. GO BACK TO NUMBER ONE IF ANY OF THE ABOVE WORKED.

1. http://www.chris-parry.blogspot.com/ - Chris Parry
2. http://www.sarawestermark.blogspot.com/ - Sara Westermark
3. http://www.kmjewelrystudio.blogspot.com/ -Katie Miess Kohlhagen
4. http://annhartleystudio.blogspot.com/ - Ann Hartley
5. http://www.amandaconley.blogspot.com/ - Amanda Conley
6. http://wildflowerdesigns.blogspot.com - stacey
7. http://www.evemmetalsmith.blogspot.com - Esther Eve
8. http://www.jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com/- 2Roses
9. http://www.fluxplay.blogspot.com - Maria W
10. http://cosmosmoonjewelry.blogspot.com
11. http://vtakahashi.blogspot.com/ - Victoria Takahashi/Experimetal
12. http://lunatic-art.blogspot.com [Berenice Schaltegger]
13. http://brookemedlin.com/blog (Brooke Arin Medlin)
14. http://metalriot.blogspot.com (Thomasin Durgin/Metalriot)
15. http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com - Beth Cyr
15. http://catherinechandler.blogspot.com/ - Catherine Chandler