Creative blocks can be one of the most frustrating things. You have a great idea, the materials, and yet every time you try to work on the project... you get nowhere.  The materials and idea just sits there like a lifeless thing on your work table.

After a lot of years working in creative endeavors, I’ve learned that for me, blocks are indicators that I am on the path to burnout. Think of them as speed-bumps, to get you to slow down, refresh your creative batteries and allow yourself the space to create.   

However, sometimes what can feel like a block, is really just an overabundance of creative energy with a lack of focus.  You need to build a channel to allow your creative options to flow smoothly in one focused direction instead of spreading out all over the place.

I’ll share with you the techniques I’ve learned for dealing with both of these problems. What works for you will be slightly different than what has worked for me, as you are a unique individual. You as an artist are more than your body and mind, the creative spirit has to be nurtured too.  I don’t have all the answers, but here is what I have found to break through the blocks, and get back into artistic health. There is no “one size fits all” solution for troubleshooting your creativity!

 

TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF

It can be hard as an artist to keep going physically. There are always more things to do, emails, paying work to complete, customers… The list goes on and on.  I often forget to take care of myself, I don’t get enough sleep, drink too much tea or coffee, pushing myself on and on… until my brain yells “STOP!” - and that is when I hit my creative block, and my brain refuses to go on any further.  Or worse, when my body collapses, I get horribly sick, but my brain keeps moving on and generating ideas which get lost…

 

First, you need to get into a routine of taking care of yourself physically. You can’t expect yourself to perform at peak operating condition for days on end without making sure you are taking care of your body.  

Here is my recipe for a healthy body, your mix will vary according to what works for you!

• Eat good wholesome food; lots of vegetables and protein, the exact mix of carbs/protein that makes your body feel the best is up to you, but cut back on the sweets, sugar and caffeine. They do not feed the brain long-term.
• Get 8-10 hours of sleep and keep a regular bedtime/wakeup schedule. Your brain needs sleep to process the day and reset itself.
• Get some sort of exercise (walking, dancing, running, etc.) every day.
• Cut back on the internet time, especially if you have high-drama friends who are sucking your energy dry with worry and anxiety over their situations.
• Practice prayer/meditation with journaling in some form, every day. You need a space to work out the fears and troubles of art.
• Take regular days off and let yourself rest and play.

“But I’ve done all this, and I’m still stuck!” you say. What then? Then it’s time to work on the creative spirit side. Just as the body needs rest and nourishment, so does your mind.

Go Outside!
Going for walks each day, weather permitting, helps ground my creative focus and is a great way to work through a block. I purposely don’t think about what I’m stuck on - instead focusing on finding the first glimpse of Spring or the bird song patterns - and by the end of my two mile walk, whatever I’ve been stuck on has usually be figured out by my brain.  I’ve tried using the elliptical machine for this, but it doesn’t seem to work. There’s just something about the physical act of moving across ground that helps shake things loose.
Weeding in the garden is another outdoor activity that helps work things loose creative blocks. The weeding has to get done and the block usually works itself out with the weeds.

Social Interaction with Other Artists
You need to meet with other creative people, and share the joys, pains, frustrations and the humorous struggles that come with creation. We so often create alone, that we can become isolated and lonely, meeting with others who also create things, even if it’s a different art form, can invigorate you as an artist. Which leads right into…

 

Expand your Creative Influences
Sometimes you can become so focused on one thing, that that your creativity is blocked into a box. Creative people need outside stimulation which is NOT related to the craft/art/medium that they are working in. The mind needs time to expand and not just work all the time. You need to allow one area to rest so that it will have the energy to give you more later. I find cooking and baking to be a great creative outlet that allows my patterning and sewing creative forces time to rest, and I sew when my writing brain is spent. Cultivate several creative outlets and give yourself permission to play.

Play?
Yes, play! Play is as important to adults as it is to children; it just comes in different forms. Take a field trip to some place completely outside your regular realm of creative stimulation: antique stores, modern art museums, historic buildings, hardware stores... These are all places I’ve gone to, and allowed my mind to wander, relax, and play with ideas.  Remember, this is play - not work - so you don’t have to have anything concretely productive from this time; the goal is allow the part of your brain that you’ve been overworking to rest.

Clean Your Space
This is one of those “last ditch efforts” for me, as I hate deep-cleaning my work area, but when I am stuck on getting started on a project, the best way to get unstuck is to clean everything in my sewing and craft space. Notebooks with project notes get organized and books get re-shelved into their proper places. All bins and boxes get emptied and re-organized, all horizontal surfaces get cleaned off and wiped down, pencil cups get organized and the room gets vacuumed.  Cleaning the physical space helps to clear out the mental space and open up space for the new project.

Approach the Problem from the Side
If one part of the project has you blocked, move on to another section, or approach it from another angle. Don’t continue to butt heads with a problem section, trying to beat it into submission, let that portion rest a while, work on something else, and come back to the problem piece a while later. You may just need time to unconsciously think about how to fix the problem and the solution will come to you in a few days.

 

Conquering your Fears
For me, the biggest blocks come from fear. “What if I fail?” “What if I succeed?” Two books by Steven Pressfield are must reads if you are blocked by your fears; “Turning Pro” and “The War of Art”. Pressfield shares his personal struggles with fear, self-sabotage and art, and are a must-read for anyone looking long term at a career as an artist.  

How does one get rid of fear? I have found that there is no one way, it really depends on the type of fear and the person. Some fears have faded away over time, as I have increased in skill, or worked around them. Others which have been so paralyzing, I’ve had to face head on. I just do what I’m scared of and then the fear is conquered. Others which are more anxiety-based, more nebulous, more wispy, have to be dealt with in a less rational, more spiritual way. I first write them all down on a piece of paper, say “I am letting go of these fears, totally and completely” and then I put a match to the paper and let it burn to ashes.  

Why this works, I have no idea, but it does, and is very therapeutic to just getting it out there and done away with. (Please do this outside, or in some location where you will not set off the smoke detectors!)

Not all fear is bad, but don’t let it imprison you into doing nothing.

 

FOCUSING  YOUR CREATIVITY

The flip side of being blocked is having too much creative energy, too many ideas and directions to head into to be able to focus on just one thing to make. A way to focus your creativity is to apply limits to your work.  

Sometimes we as artists have too much choice. We are like water poured out on flat ground, with no channel to flow in, we spread out creative energies all over and so go everywhere and nowhere. Adding limits to yourself, focuses your creative efforts into one direction, like a river bed channels the water to the sea, and so do limits on a creative project.

 

We can unconsciously provide limits for ourselves by procrastinating. Time is a huge limiting factor. When there is a close deadline, suddenly there is only enough time left to make every design choice once and no time to reconsider it. Make the choice, move on. And suddenly we aren’t blocked!  Time can be a limit which inspires creativity.

Other limits which you can place on your projects to help inspire:

• Budget,
• Color,
• Design Element,
• Materials,
• Historic Period,
• Theme.

The order and number of the limits you impose on yourself is a highly personal choice, and I change them around depending on the project.  Here are some examples from past projects:

Deadline Historical Period Budget Materials Theme Design Element Color

Theme Color Design Element Materials Deadline Historical Period Budget

Budget/Money
How much are you going to spend? Spend the money where it is important to you. If there is something you need for your project, see if you already have something in the stash that would work instead, or that you can find at a second-hand store. Not everything has to be purchased new!

Color
Color can be a great limiting factor. Picasso’s Blue and Rose Periods come to mind. Sandra Stuart’s tea cup corsets are another example of limiting your color palette to find your focus. Choosing one color, and only working in that color or its shades and hues, is a wonderful way to focus and allow your creativity to blossom.

Design Element
Choosing one specific design element such as: cups on a corset, external boning, hip gores, heart shaped necklines, crystal studded busks; is a great way to limit your design choices and break the choices block.
 
Materials

 

A good limit, for those of us with stashes is to only use materials in the stash. This can be a challenge, but also freeing at the same time, as it's awesome to have breakthroughs at 10pm on a Sunday and be able to shop the stash for materials.

Alternatively, you can restrict yourself to only using silk, satin or matte materials. This is a limit category you will have to define for yourself, what suits your budget/project/needs/vision.

Historic Period /Year/Season
Limiting yourself to a small number of years, or one year, or one date in history to use as your historical inspiration for a project can really help you focus your creative inputs and limit your design choices, materials and construction.  There are many different approaches to this limit, some people have a strict orientation to HA (Historically Accurate), down to the type of thread and stitches used. Others are more loose with their interpretations, mixing history and fantasy, modern with a whiff of history.

Anywhere on this spectrum is fine, unless you are part of a re-enactor group, but if this project is for you, and not for a group with high historical standards, choose the level you are comfortable with.  Don’t be afraid to limit yourself historically, but if you feel it is too limiting, break out of the limit and be creatively inspired by history.

Theme

 

Selecting a theme for your project can help guide you around a block, but there is no one magical key to suddenly finding your creative spark. Think of a theme as tinder. Once you have a theme, brainstorm and gather bits and pieces which fall into this theme. As you collect things, you may find the theme changing, becoming something new and unexpected, and this is perfectly OK! Think of the brainstorming process as play, and give yourself the freedom to be silly and un-serious in your selections.

Here’s a pinboard of ideas I put together called 'The Pink Rose Project' for a pink rose-inspired gown. Rose is my signature scent and I love roses! The rich colors, the deep scents, petal structures, velvety soft petals… I took all the things I loved about roses, and collected things and gowns which had the kind of things that I liked about roses.

Can’t think of a theme? A way to find one is to create a board, and daily post 3-5 things that you find beautiful or interesting for a week or two. Don’t look at the board daily, just let yourself post the things that catch your eye and then review it at the end of the week. You will see what direction your creativity wants to take you.

Limits, Creativity and Daily Practice

 

Don’t just limit yourself to what you know you can do for certain; decide how much you want to stretch yourself with each project. Give yourself some good stretch goals, but don’t make the entire project a stretch goal! Yes, you will learn an amazing amount doing that, you will grow and change dramatically as an artist, but it will also be an incredibly challenging project which may cause you to never want to do anything of that art form again! Be sure and plan enough time for you to be able to finish it, so it does not become another member of the UFO (Un-Finished Object) pile. Also, if you get stuck because you don’t have the skills to do the project, ask for help. Don’t flounder trying to solve all the problems by yourself.

 

Creativity is not a process or a thing you can force into obedience. You can put things and practices into your environment which will help, but it is not something which can be performed on demand, day after day, without taking care of yourself. Being an artist of any sort certainly becomes easier with practice, so keep trying and working at it each day, even if it is just for a few short minutes.

 

 

add