What is your creative process? How do you find time to be or even feel creative when you are employed full-time, have a family, and so many responsibilities? It seems that there will be a period of time in life where being creative gets put on hold. When I first got married nearly 33 years ago, before those cute little bundles showed up, it seems I had a little creative streak. It was the late 80’s – making wreaths, attending floral arranging classes, and making our home comfortable were a great way to spend my time outside of work.
When the little bundles arrived, I was even creative enough to sew cloth diapers! I took a disposable diaper, drew an outline and created my own pattern. I added velcro and elastic and while they were a little crooked, they got that first little bundle through a year or so with rarely a diaper rash! Now I think cloth diapers, if anyone even uses them anymore, are available with those exact attributes! Maybe if my entrepreneurial spirit had been alive then I would be sitting here counting my money – a diaper mogul!
Gradually as the bundles got a little bigger, I became less creative in an artsy kind of way. I went back to school, got into the medical field, got into a technical medical field, and the only creating I did was fingerpainting with the bundles or making little crafts. I even got so un-creative at some point that when I attended a Mothers of Preschoolers group I was so excited that someone else had to think up our little craft time and I convinced myself I had not one creative bone in my body.
I want to give you some hope if you were once creative and are now either buried in diapers, working full time outside the home, and/or running the older children around in the minivan to a million different activities. Your time will come!
Now my little bundles are in their 20’s and the past year has been my “Renaissance” into creativity. Everyone in my family is a little stunned, as I have shared before. And now that I am comfortable using the term, “I am an artist”, I am starting a new endeavor, expanding what you may see on some of my other posts.
I have opened a store on Etsy. I’m nervous and excited. I have featured some of my art. Petals as Paint originals are there for sale and I also have them in “real life” at the Whatcom Art Market here in Bellingham, WA. Whenever I create a new design with the petals, I take it to the print shop to get a high resolution scan so that when the original is sold (which several have been), the design itself can be used to create more products. I had no idea what resolution would be needed when I took the first two or three. I had no idea what I was going to do with the data or the images. I just knew I didn’t want to let them go. They are original and I created them! I actually love them!
During that time I had also been learning to dry, press, and preserve the flower petals I use to paint with, and I started out scanning the actual flower petals so I could someday use them as well, not having a clue what I was doing. The resolution on those is not high enough to create many products, but at the time I had no idea what I was doing, only that I was in love with the details of creation.
I have now joined three online companies to design home decor, clothing, accessories, and art work using my Petals As Paint concept. I am learning about social media (beyond saying hi to friends on Facebook), about marketing, website design, hiring someone online to help. I am learning about Pinterest, Instagram, and Etsy (beyond looking at pictures). It’s like a parallel universe. All these YouTube videos where any topic imaginable is available to tell you where to click, what to analyze, how to find your market, how to dropship, and how to make a living by writing a blog.
It is a bit like learning a foreign language. All the acronyms are overwhelming. SEO, Analytics, scraping, plug-ins, WooCommerce, Insights, Meta Data! It just developed over that short period of time without me even knowing about it and I have been computer literate my whole adult life. It truly feels like I’m in France and the language is too fast for my ears to comprehend.
I want this to be successful. Apparently there is pain before the success I hope to see. I know my designs are unique, beautiful, interesting, and creative. The are Inspired by Creation!
So, if you want to follow along, check out my sites and give me feedback, sign up for emails, and generally let my Refind Creations into your daily feed that would be awesome.
Visit my sites – they are a work in progress – and see what I’ve been working on:
Etsy
Society6
Fine Arts America/Pixels
