The Problem with Creativity

Creativity is a wonderful thing to indulge in. You can be creative in the kitchen, craft room, yard, and in many other ways. But when you overindulge, it can create a very creative problem. Need help with creativity overload? You may find it here - (but then, again, you may just find you have a bigger problem…)

Transcript

I’m a creative sort of person. I’m happiest when my hands and mind are working together to complete a finished project. I create in the kitchen, making meals for my family, baking breads, working on the latest spice mix, and more. 

I create in the craft room. The bursts of color, texture, and feel of all those yarns, fabric, and notions whisper to me of all the things I can make. Table runners, dish towels, scarves, hats, toys, totes, and even handwoven bands for a guitar, purse straps, keychains, and dog leashes. 

I create in my home. My eyes see simple rooms, but my mind sees a series of cozy nooks, seating areas, and color, design, and layers. It also sees family wrapped up in throws I’ve made, and glasses settled on handwoven mug rugs. And I see happy faces gathered around the table set with food I’ve prepared and served with hot pads I’ve made.

I create in my yard. Where once was a mottled area of grass that wouldn’t grow (that looked all too closely like mange on a dog), there is now raised beds filled with colorful vegetables, fruit and herbs that lead me back into the kitchen to create even more meals for my family. 

But one thing I can also create is problems which stem from my creative nature. My heart pulls toward color, design, texture, and shape. My hands love the feel of holding tools, fiber, beads, wood, and warm pliable dough. And heaven help me if I catch sight of a craft I’ve yet to do. When that happens, my mind grabs my heart and starts running towards it as if it is nourishing food and water, and they have been on a starvation diet for the past year.  (I try to blame my friend Karen for this problem I have, but she won’t let me. She tells me I’m the guilty one for introducing her to new crafting ideas!)

Do you have issues with creative overload? I know I do. It doesn’t just happen with one craft. Focusing on only one medium can wreak as much havoc as a hundred. If your choice is knitting, crochet, or fiber arts, you probably need to add on a second room to your home just to have a place to store all that yarn. If you indulge in multiple media, such as beading, pottery, mosaic, sewing, and others, it may be time to build a 5,000 square foot studio in your backyard. Just make it one you can add onto easily.

It's one thing to be creative in the kitchen. At least many of the ingredients you use can wait to be purchased fresh. During harvest season, you can use food preservation techniques to put up most of the fruits, vegetables, and herbs. And as time passes, you use the food in your pantry, freezer, and refrigerator making room for more. 

That isn’t necessarily the case with other crafts. Instead, what happens is we go shopping for the yarn for one project, but the lure of a yarn totally unsuitable for the work at hand has a siren’s call, and you leave the store with a minimum of 10 additional skeins. You are scrounging around garage sales and thrift stores, and spot a few cracked pieces of dishware and China, and the colors are begging to be made into a mosaic tabletop – so you buy the whole lot of them. 

And you find a book in the used bookstore that shows you how to make wooden toy dinosaurs – which your grandson just happens to love, so not only do you buy the book, you stop by the hardware store and pick up the lumber and extra sandpaper, because this weekend would be a perfect time to make them, wouldn’t it? 

As a creative person, don’t think for one second, I’m going to sit here and tell you it’s time to thin down the crafting supplies. If anything, I would be the one nudging you to get all the China, buy the book, and heartily agree you can’t pass up those luscious skeins of softer than butter yarn. 

Instead, I’m going to attempt to get you organized, to try and keep you from spending your money on a new studio. And notice, I’m only claiming to an attempt. As a crafter, you’ll fully understand what I mean by that. If you’re new to crafting, let me explain what I mean.

Crafters always start out small. Your thought process is that you don’t want to invest a lot of money on something you may not enjoy doing. All you want to do right now is dip your toe in the water. So, you go to the library to get a book. Flipping through the pages, you choose a project with minimal tools and supplies. You knit the scarf, crochet the dishcloth, build the wooden toy. And then you discover you truly enjoy that particular craft. 

So, you are ready to wade in a little deeper. You buy the book and supplies for the next project. This also means you need a few more tools and equipment. And then you spot another craft you think you might enjoy. After all, this one turned out to be fun, so why not start the process over? 

Next thing you know, you will be drowning in crafting tools, equipment, supplies, books, notebooks filled with free patterns and torn out magazine pages of things you ‘can’t wait to get to’. How do I know this? I have a 4” pin loom sitting in my craft room right now, that has the ability to ‘breed’ without a partner. I started with it, and loved it so much, I now have 10 pin looms, and just got off an email chat with my favorite Etsy shop who builds them. I’m now waiting patiently for her to finish 2” right angle and equilateral triangle pin looms. Yes. I’ve already placed my order. But the sad part is, I’m looking at a few other ideas that can be created using pin looms and am making a list to see if she can make those shapes as well. 

And then, I have ideas for two small looms that I’ve drawn up plans for and am just waiting to get out in the shop and them built. This also means that I have to build three of each one, because my granddaughter and another sweet 10-year-old friend have caught the weaving bug. If Gran has a loom, they seem to think they need one, too. (Oh, yeah, their parents are already giving me the stink eye. But just wait until they see the bead looms and all those containers of beads and beading supplies I plan on giving them for Christmas. Yes. Gran can be a very creative monster when she wants to be!)

And therein lies the problem. Being creative is one of the best things you can be, in my humble opinion. But if you are going to be creative with yarn, clay, beads, looms, wax for candles, and oils for soap, then you really need to have a creative leaning towards keeping it all organized. 

If all you have is a closet and underneath your bed for storage, the best way to get organized is with a series of plastic boxes. The smaller ones can hold supplies, such as crochet hooks, knitting needles, pliers, paint brushes, and small pieces. Another one can hold thread (spool and embroidery, if you don’t have a lot – yet). You can graduate the size of your boxes according to the size of your supplies. For under the bed storage, you can store more yarn, fabric, or other things, such as boxes of broken pieces of pottery, wax blocks, and small boxes filled with notions, such as buttons, ribbon, zippers, and more. 

You can also store some supplies on a shelf. I prefer to keep my essential oils, liquid oils for soap, and some paints on shelves to prevent them from tipping over and spilling. 

If you start running out of room, but still don’t have a place for much more storage, one option is to put your creative juices in motion and make some Vintage Jar Wall Sconces. These can hang on the wall and hold knitting needles, crochet hooks, rulers, and other small tools and supplies.

If you have more than one closet, an empty drawer, or a bit more storage space, you can just keep adding boxes. But if you are fortunate to have a room dedicated to crafting, there are many organization pieces you can use – from shelving and armoires that won’t fit in any other room in the house, to furniture designed specifically for craft rooms. 

Another option is to mount pegboard on a wall. Pegboard requires some type of spacing between the back of the pegboard and the wall, so usually a frame the size of the board is built and nailed to the back. This allows the specially designed pegboard hooks to fit securely in the holes. 

Using pegboard will allow you to hang individual items on hooks or add small pieces of shelving that will allow for storage of small items, jars, and boxes filled with supplies. 

Once you have your storage solutions figured out, consider a few of these:

To keep your projects together and prevent you from hunting down your supplies, use a single box for each project. In the box, place your pattern, equipment, and supplies.  On the outside of the box, add a sticky note or tape on an index card. Make a note of which project this is, and if it’s a gift, who you are making it for. You may also want to make a note of any supplies you are using that could potentially be used on another project. For instance, if your project requires a Size H crochet hook, add that to the list. This way, when you start another project that requires the same hook, you’ll be able to find it faster. 

And yes – most crafters always have at least four or five projects in progress at the same time. It keeps us from getting bored, gives us the ability to put down a project that has an issue and we need some time away from it to figure it out, or we just fall in love with another one which we can’t wait to start. 

The last option is the most expensive, and consequently the very last option you could hope to do – and that is to bite the bullet and build you a separate building as a crafting studio. But just beware. If you love crafting as much as I do, all the storage solutions in the world won’t keep you from outgrowing your space within a year or two.

I confess – I haven’t really given you many storage solutions you haven’t already thought of. And I’ve just talked about everything you already knew or had been thinking about. But now that you’ve listened to the entire episode, don’t you feel at least a little bit of relief, knowing you aren’t the only crafter out there that has the same problems? 

What I will leave you with, though, is permission to indulge in as many crafting media as your heart desires. Think about it this way. God didn’t stop with just light and dark. Instead, He went on to create animals, trees, vegetables, herbs, water, aquatic creatures, rocks, and humans. He created the air we breathe and the rain that waters the earth. He created color, design, texture, and dimensions. And He instilled in us the desire to create. 

So, what are you waiting for? Have you ever given any thought to knitting, crochet, pottery, weaving, spinning, making Dorset Buttons, wood working, glassblowing, blacksmithing, basket weaving, bread baking, creating Chateaubriand, or any other creative endeavor? 

There is a world of creative potential out there. Maybe today is your day to spread your wings and start creating something new.

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Thanks again for stopping in. I will see you next week on Living a Simple Life with a Back Porch View. And while you are waiting for the next episode, grab that glass of refreshment, pull up a rocker, and sit back for a while. It’s time to relax and enjoy.