Why New Year's Resolutions made me feel like a loser!
I gave up on New Year's resolutions years ago - it was just too disappointing failing again and again at self-imposed improvement aims. And if I'm not more tidy and organised after thirty years of the same resolution, it really was never going to happen!
This year I encouraged myself to bring more creativity into my life. I know it looks like I have a really creative job, but designing new products is such a tiny part of it, and so much is admin, processing and going to the post office. I also wanted to be more creative outside of the strictures of a "creative" job. I already knit a LOT, but again, it's somebody else's pattern and it's not really ME being creative.
How I made myself be more creative!
So I started going to a pottery class local to me. Run by the wonderful Maya, four of us spend two-and-a-half intense hours every Monday throwing, throwing away (!), trimming and glazing and it is wonderful!
We work in blocks of six weeks and I've just started the third block and I LOVE it! It's exciting to feel the strong muscle memory of throwing on the rickety school wheel forty years ago. I find it empowering to know when to give up on a piece, when to stop and when to push myself. I find the glazing incredibly confusing and pretty frustrating, probably because I need to let go and enjoy the surprises it produces.
How am I bringing my new creativity into my work?
I'm also trying to bring more creativity into my work, starting with hand embroidering some baby blankets. It's very therapeutic and a lovely excuse to sit, concentrate on the passage of needle and thread through beautiful fabrics and lose myself in the beauty of Liberty fabrics.