What Can Motivate Me to Create

FYI, on this website we do not observe so-called "fools' days." Let us know if there ever happens to be a wise person's holiday, we'd love to celebrate that.

I want to talk about how I get motivated to make things. If you see how much stuff I've made that's in The Mellow Makery shop and I tell you that's not even half of what I have at home, it might seem like I'm always making things. But actually, I sometimes go for long periods during which I forget to make anything. It's usually because I'm sick or sad, and when I go back to being creative, I always feel happier. 

What gets me making again can be one of several things I mentioned in the last blog post: Seeing/buying intersting materials, being inspired by other people's art, wanting to try a new technique or skill, having a good idea to make something that I didn't forget, and so on.

But "Better is the end of a thing than its beginning..." so how do I motivate myself to finish projects? This is a tough one to answer. I have a ton of unfinished projects at home! I think a lot of times I tend to get stuck on a project for one of the following reasons:

• Technical difficulties: inability to know how to finish the project well so that it will make me happy. This happened with my fish mosaic--I got stuck on the andamento which is the pattern of the tiles in the background for at least two or three years. The reason is mathematical so I won't delve into it but this happens.
• Lack of vision: This happens when I start out in a particular direction but after progressing for a while I don't know what I want the rest of it to look like. Getting over a hump like this takes time, planning, research, maybe some drawing or modeling, and perhaps even prayer/contemplation.
• Life rushes in: Most of my unfinished projects are caused by being forced to put everything away because people were coming over. That's why it's great to have a dedicated place to do your creative work that you don't have to clean up often. Still, if you start too many projects at once, you could end up not having enough space to finish all your projects at once in your space. Ask me how I know!
• Lastly, one of the most common roadbumps in makery: lack of supplies! I've told Elizabeth about ten times that I've always been amazed at how that story The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter is so iconic. In the story, a tailor almost starves to death because he lacks one spool of red silk thread! I've never had that crucial of a crafting disaster but that's what it feels like when you want to finish your project at 10 PM right before a holiday and all the craft stores are closed! Ugh! I feel that tailor's pain! (By the way, you can't solve the problem by hoarding craft supplies--craft supplies are like power cords. No matter what kinds you have, the one you need is always some different thing.)

Overall, the things I tend to finish are the ones I thought the most about or the times when I really want the result because I want to use or have it.

Tell me about what gets your creative process flowing or not in the comments,

--Pam