Woven Thoughts...The Time to Create

Each day is a new beginning. Time to do all the things we must do, yet it is also a chance to carve out time to do what we love. Our creative self needs time to come out and play. Yet it does seem that we put everything else ahead of our creative time, when that is just what we really need. Why is that? Is it that we do not honor the artist that lives within? Do we feel it as a guilty pleasure to have time to sit and give into our creative urges?

I used to have the philosophy that I could sit and spend time with my art, when everything else was right in my world. The house was cleaned, the laundry done, email checked, phone calls out of the way, etc. Whatever speck of time was left perhaps, then and only then could I run into my studio and create something in a few short minutes. I did that for a long time. I did accomplish creative things, but it took me longer to complete them. Then I was frustrated because I wasn't finishing when I wanted too. Goodness knows if I was creating something that was commission work, I had a deadline to contend with also. That was added pressure on myself. The cycle of frustration continued. It continued because I allowed it to.

I view my art work totally different now. I look forward to spending time with my creative self. I make it a priority; not an afterthought. What a difference it has made for me! Try actually setting a creative time for yourself, it can work. A time where even your family and friends know and expect you to be working in your studio. Make it something you look forward to and that you anticipate. It took me awhile to find just the right time for me that also worked with my job outside of the home and family responsibilities. I only know what has worked for me. When I am in balance with life, family, spiritual and mental health; then I know my art will flourish.

For me the time is early morning. I love that time especially. Time well spent in my studio, with my soft music, my candlelight and my creative self. Whether painting, or weaving..the time I am able to express myself is worth so much. It also adds to my day at work, because I have fed my creative self first! I am actually getting more things done at a better pace and my quality of work is better.

Woven Thoughts...Renewal of Spirit

Life can throw us many curves, more than we want sometimes. For the past three years of my life I have been care taking my parents from illness and then death. First my precious daddy from the dreaded disease Lung Cancer and then soon after my mother with a two year battle with Dementia. I only bring this up because while in the process of care taking; I realized that I lost a part of myself. My creative spirit was crushed. Spending time at my loom or knitting delicious socks or even holding a watercolor brush in my hand was put aside. Put aside for a worthy reason, loving my parents because the needed me so much.

I believe with my whole heart that as an artist; a fiber artist first and foremost, the need to create comes from within. When creative times are put aside or stripped from us, we become restless, hollow and dry. I truly didn't realize what was happening to my inner creative self while I was going through it. I kept pressing on each day doing what I had to do; never dreaming my artistic self was drying up. The desire to create anything was gone; it was a slow process, but it was there.

It has been five months now since my mother has passed and the yearning to create again is slowly returning. To have the time to sit at my loom and hold the fibers within my fingers and actually thread the loom is an amazing sensation! I had forgotten or put it aside to deal with what was before me . I now had the time, but needed to figure out how to get back into time alone with my art. Trying not to judge myself or be critical of the process. I have a long way to go!!

When an artist is able to create and I believe in any medium; it is a renewal of the creative spirit. The inner feeling of WOW is refreshing. I am just starting to enjoy the process of creating again. I ask myself, "Donna, where did you go"? I look forward to each new day, what will I create, what will I learn and what will I be able to share?

Woven Thoughts...Beginnings

Blogging Day One!
I have wanted to create a blog ever since I saw Julie and Julia! Of course, so has everyone else. But I wanted mine to be where my creative thoughts roll out of my head and onto the screen. The name Gentlethreads came from my weaving business The Gentle Thread. It took me months to come up with a name that I loved and that represented me the best. I consider myself a gentle spirit and weaving has been my passion for thirty years. Mixing different threads and fibers into woven creations, most of them planned out and some of my best pieces were those created by accident. My precious friend Holly always wanted me to put my thoughts down on paper, this is the closest I have come.

The loom is where I collect my thoughts...woven ideas on life, spirituality and friendship. This will be my forum and I am excited to see how my blog develops. The loom is significant to me, as are the thoughts and feelings that come from sitting at my loom. The quiet rhythm of the shuttle creates a soft space for me, I like that.

So join me won't you...let's see what comes out of this.