Creativity: You are allowed to make mistakes

I have a lot of opinions about creativity.
In part, this comes from my 50 years of being a creative person. It also comes from 50 years of watching other people struggle or easily flow with their creative energy. I have taken a lot of what I learned in those observations of others and myself and managed to channel it into useful advice when I teach classes.

I have a few tenets when it comes to teaching, and to learning. One is that you are allowed to make mistakes – in fact, I encourage it. Here’s the thing: if you focus on understanding how you made the mistake and what happened differently from what you wanted to have happen, you actually get so much more information than if you’d just nailed what you were trying to accomplish!

I have discovered new techniques from mistakes that I have made.
I have found that analyzing the mistake has given me deeper understanding of what I am trying to do.
And correcting that mistake brings confidence in my abilities!

Making mistakes brings you experience. It teaches you patience and perseverance. And making mistakes can spark your creativity in ways that doing things perfectly never can.

Your best teacher is your last mistake. 

Don’t fear your mistakes. Take note of them! Explore them. They are filled with knowledge.

 

 

I make mistakes all the time. I can readily admit this, because I know that:
a. I am an inherently flawed human being, and that’s okay
b. I will learn a lot more if I own the mistakes that I make and try to glean knowledge from them.

Owning my mistakes allows me to feel free and unfettered when it comes to creativity, especially spinning creativity! I often go into a spinning session without a plan in mind, because I know that if I don’t like where my work is going, I’ve learned how to switch gears. That’s something I’ve learned from my mistakes – how to correct on the fly.

These days, I am pretty secure in my powers of creativity on the fly. Which is why I am looking forward to spinning THIS up so much!

 

 

I am very, very lucky, because I know some extremely talented fiber artists, and for some reason they keep wanting to work with me on projects! This is a prime example: I have again been tapped by Natalie Redding of Namaste Farms to spin a special Scrapbox that she put together with me in mind! [previously, I spun the Orchids Scrapbox.]
The colorway is called Three Ravens, and it is a richly colored mix of fine fibers including Zwartbles, Teeswater, Merino wools, Huacaya alpaca, silk, and more. The base colors are Autumnal with accents of brightness, and everything is so soft and wonderful to touch!

I will be giving a live online tutorial on spinning this fiber up in various ways, using drop spindles. One yarn will be a traditional style, and another highly textured. Anything that I do on the spindles will of course be achievable on a spinning wheel as well! If you purchase this Scrapbox from Namaste Farms, you will automatically get access to this spinning tutorial.

I strongly encourage you to try out this Scrapbox, you will NOT be disappointed! And I would love to have you join us later in August to see how I spin up these luscious fibers. You can purchase the Scrapbox from the link below.

http://www.namastefarms.com/artist-series-three-ravens-scrapbox/

 

Look for an “unboxing” video of the Three Ravens Scrapbox coming soon!