Make-it Mondays: Get Inspired by TED

Feeling like your in a rut with Etsy or the whole creative process? There are days when I can't find any motivation, but TED never fails to inspire me to do more and be more as a maker. TED is a non-profit group that hosts talks from the greatest minds in the world on technology, entertainment and design. The TED website offers videos of every talk they host FOR FREE, a great brain boost in under 20 minutes.

Videos are categorized by adjective like "beautiful, inspiring and fascinating" or by genre's like design and business (both good for Etsians I might add). One of my favorite talks is by Eva Zeisel, 94 years old and a ceramic designer for over 75 years. If we could all have her creative longevity...

Eva Zeisel on the playful search for beauty | Video on TED.com

Make- it Mondays: Optimize Your Creative Time

Thanks: garfield.nfshost.com

Last week I blogged about boosting your creativity. This week I want to focus on actually finding the time for all that boosting. Many of our team members have day jobs outside of their Etsy shops, families and everyday life to take care of before they can get down to working on new items. Here are some ideas for the time crunched:

Always keep a small project with you. Much of our time is spent waiting for buses, interviews, doctor's appointments, commercials to end while watching tv...and the list goes on. Use that time for mindless work. Perhaps punching holes onto handmade price tags or cutting loose threads off quilted items.

Keep your hands busy while you learn. One thing I have challenged myself to do is learn more about the business side of Etsy by checking out Etsy's virtual labs. Many of them last a half an hour or more. I use that time to listen and learn while doing handiwork. A tactile experience also improves your aural retention on the subject of a lecture. Knitters know this well!

Invest in a kitchen timer. If you are spending more than hour a day looking at blogs and tutorials for inspiration, you're probably daydreaming projects more than actually starting them. Before you get sucked in, set a timer and promise yourself you will walk away from the computer when it dings. Working on your own site doesn't count. That's work!

Pencil creative space into your schedule. As artistic people we like to wait for the mood to strike us. Too often though, it strikes in the middle of something. Find three solid hours in your week and isolate yourself from the world. Turn off your phone, drop the kids off at grandma's and shut the door. After awhile you will jones for that three hours and bust out the goods.

Comment, comment, comment! Where do you find the time?

Make- it Mondays: Boost Your Creativity

photo shamelessly doctored by buenahelena

In a rut? Ideas gone stale? We all need a creative boost from time to time. As a high school art teacher, I draw creative blood from stones everyday.Here are a few tricks that really work.

1. Keep a pocket sized journal and pen with you at all times. Jot down ideas as they come, quotes you overhear and your observations of people throughout the day. Everyday happenings make strong springboards.
   
2. Get outside of YOUR box. Take an alternate route to work and listen to a new radio station. Pick up a magazine, a book, or rent a movie that has nothing to do with your style or interests. You might just find a new one. In the worst case scenario you might hate what you get and spend an evening fuming about creative ways that you would change some horrendous movie's plot.
   
3. Get a soundtrack. Sites like pandora and playlist.com can help you customize an art making mood album. Some people need the speed of dance music, while others need the storylines of good songwriting.
4. Hire a Craft Coach. Or coaches! Get a friend or colleague you trust to give you their honest two cents and bounce ideas off of. Our monthly street team meetings are flooded with ideas once 5 or more creative people start talking over coffee.
   
5. Get a healthy dose of competition. Joining Etsy challenges, taking classes and acquiring a secret arch nemesis can bring out that fighting creative spirit. Pressure can be a great motivator as well as accountability to a person or group.
   

Things that DON'T work:

1. Comparing yourself to others. I'm very guilty of this, so take it from me. Pouring over other Etsian's pages and blogs can bring you down when you have a measuring stick out. Plus these down days are generally not productive days.
   
2. Experimenting with "enlightening" drugs. Everything you do will seem amazing...to you. To the rest of us it will look a piece made by a person on drugs. Plus it will probably be covered with Cheeto dusted fingerprints.
3. Jumping into a pile. Sometimes you just throw all of your supplies and half finished projects onto a table...and stare at it...and stare at it...and...that just doesn't work. Do one thing at a time in small chunks of time over a period of days.