Rose of Sharon Jewelry

Creativity sometimes needs a workout to flourish. I spend a lot of time talking, reading and thinking about the use and mystery of creativity. I thought I’d share this excellent post by Dean Rieck at  Copyblogger on the 11 Traits of Highly Creative People. 

 

Copyblogger is a great resource for anyone who blogs.

Whether you write, draw, sculpt or scrapbook, how people nurture and develop creativity is pretty universal.

I love to watch Bravo’s “Inside the Actor’s Studio” and listen to how actors, directors and other TV/Film creators approach their art. It is really amazing to learn how they approach the creative process. Set your TiVo for this show.

What do you do or use to inspire your art? Do you have “dry” periods? What do you do to get you through those?

Leave a comment here (link on left) or visit the Rose of Sharon Jewelry Facebook Fan Page to share how you exercise your creative muscle.

 

Here’s one of my creative outlets – pictures of the Hunter – age 12 at the Jim Russell Racing School in Sonoma. Hunter has been accepted in the 13-16 year old group to race in October. He is a speed demon on the track and has a natural talent. No brag just fact! LOL

 

 

Ever feel like you’re carrying a boulder around? I’ve been feeling like that lately but keep trudging along to stay on top of marketing and promoting Rose of Sharon Jewelry’s newest releases.  A much needed trip to the Dr. brought things into perspective on taking better care of myself physically.

Just a heads up to faithful readers of this humble blog. I’m working on the next posts of the new business series  but you won’t see anything until next week after a short vacation.

Grandpa and Grandma Fullen are taking 12-year-old Grandson Hunter to the Jim Russell Racing School in Sonoma,  CA. He has shown talent in Kart racing so this is his birthday gift – a day and a half of classroom training and they to the world famous track to tear it up. Needless to say, he is thrilled.

I’m going to unplug from Thursday to Monday to give my brain and body a break. I’m so grateful to have the ability to do this and need to honor myself.

Thanks for your patience! I promise the upcoming posts will be worth the wait.

How big is your boulder? And what would it take to put it down?

This week Rose of Sharon Jewelry is being featured on the home page of Beader’s Showcase with 8 other wonderful jewelry artists. Thanks for the recognition -  we appreciate having the opportunity to show our stuff!

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I enjoy taking pictures of my family and garden and I’ve got some great shots to prove it.  But I must confess I’m just an above average photographer when it comes to creating product shots of my handmade jewelry. I’ve invested in semi-pro equipment, spent time studying and am constantly experimenting with my studio shots.  But I’m still not satisfied and know I can do better.  The photos I have posted in the Rose of Sharon Jewelry store are pretty color accurate as I  want customers to make the right choices. But they just don’t pop and often have inconsistent background shading. As a former marketing director, I’ve hired photographers, accessed photo campaigns and selected lots of product shots so I know what the “right photo” is. But as a photographer, I’m missing the mark.

Today I came upon a wonderful blog - Finding Inspiration - written by Jewelry Artist Leilani of Heavenly Flower.com and selling on Etsy. Not only does she make beautiful handmade jewelry - she also share her invaluable experience on being creative and living a creative life. These are lovely turquoise chip earrings available on Etsy. Take a few minutes to visit her blog and stores and don't forget to leave some love.

Color plays an important role in our daily lives and for handmade jewelry artists it is our foundation. If you've been making jewelry (or buying handmade jewelry), you are probably automatically drawn to certain colors and color combinations. Today I want to challenge you to explore colors outside of your comfort range.

As I look at my blooming garden, I can see literally thousands of ways Mother Nature paints with color. So grab your camera (or even your camera phone) and walk your neighborhood looking for color samples.

Print out your color inspiration pics and then sort out the ones you are immediately drawn to. These are probably colors within your normal comfort zone. Take these and set them aside for another day. Your challenge now is to work with the remaining picture's color schemes.

This week, sort through your beads (or take a trip to a local bead store) to find the colors in one or two of your challenge pictures. Seed beads come in thousands of colors so you could find exactly the right hue for under $2 a tube.

Working with color requires some thoughtful effort. I discovered a wonderful color resource for all artists at the papercrafting blog at Shimelle.com. June: A Month of Colour can help you explore color and your relationship with color. Learning about how you relate to colors can help you expand your color selections in new ways when creating or buying handmade jewelry.

Didn't know you have a color relationship? Everyone does  - but we don't usually think of it in those terms. Colors can make you feel happy, calm, sad or excited. I prefer clothing in gemstone colors. Why? Because they make me feel vibrant and alive.

Join the conversation on color! You can leave a comment by clicking the comment link in the left column. Tell us about your favorite color combination and how it makes you feel.

Life Coach Lynn Cutts of Manage Your Muse has a great weekly motivational tool that she sends out via email every Monday a.m. Weekly Challengers is free; but that doesn't mean it isn't valuable. I've been a faithful reader for several years now. I've found this quick motivational tool as a great way to start the week off with a positive attitude. I take the "challenge" and work through it silently throughout the week by reflecting on it during my short rest periods from the computer or beading. Take the challenge and see how it can make a difference in your personal and creative life.

An aha! came to me today about time for creating. When you never seem to get to a project, is it because you are too busy? I always seem to be busy - even when I'm playing with the boys - my mind is elsewhere (shame on me). Most of the time if I look carefully at what fills my day, I discover I've been putting out fires or dealing with the urgent things in life. Now do this... Now do that. But am I really doing the important things in life?

As you rush through the day, ask yourself is this important or just tugging on your brain as urgent? Urgent things aren't necessarily important; nor are important things necessarily urgent. Many important things are best done slowly and deliberately - like reading a story to your child or slathering your dry skin with a fragrant cream. Neither are urgent for they have long-term importance in your life.

Create your own set of "IMPORTANTS" and focus 80% of your time on those. Don't let the URGENT GREMLIN* tell you otherwise. Soon your creative projects will find their rightful place in your life.

(* Thanks Lynn for helping me name this nasty selfish creature.)