Monday, February 23, 2009

At loose ends...


I am literally and figuratively at loose ends. Having finished the "September" tapestry, my loom now has just a short dummy warp on it, to which I can add new warp. But I don't yet know what I'll be doing next, so I can't really even warp it up yet. There is a potential commission 'in the wings' and I'm still thinking of another Heritage tapestry - though I still haven't found the photo I want to base it on, so my weaving is 'on hold' for now.


I also have finished the baby blanket I was knitting in the evenings. It was a log cabin blanket, from Mason-Dixon's first book; a pretty fun project. But now my needles are also empty. I have been going through my huge wall of knitting magazines, indexing them, and hoping to find something that will excite me enough to become my next knitting project.

Ditto for the empty easel. I have been pulling out old paintings that were unfinished or not liked enough to finish and dabbling a bit with them, but they were mostly abandoned for a good reason! And I don't have a painting that is crying out 'paint me' yet either.

I hate these times of creative emptiness! I have come to accept them as inevitable, and probably even necessary to the creative process. But it feels like it is time to 'fill my cup' - to get out and see something new and fresh. I know that there are probably ideas germinating somewhere in my seemingly empty mind, but I am impatient for them to come to the surface. In the meantime, I am working on the Connections catalog, baking bread (a rather fattening creative outlet), indexing my knitting magazines, and looking through my old photos. Something is bound to inspire me soon!

4 comments:

Jane said...

Not sure which is worse, having so many ideas bursting out and not being able to decide which to do, or having nothing at all. Hope the inspiration soon comes, I really enjoy seeing the variety of things you do

Jennifer said...

Definitely feast or famine - I'm glad to see that you don't just stop trying! I've always found it comes when I least expect and am looking elsewhere - but not when I'm idle!

K Spoering said...

I'm pretty sure that I prefer the feast times! I've been putzing in the studio all day, and feel like I have accomplished little of value. Oh, well. It's a rainy Monday, so it should be an off-day! I'll go bake more bread...

Tommye McClure Scanlin said...

Thanks for sharing the thoughts about idle time for creative energy. I'm also experiencing it and yet I have hopes for the future.
Tommye

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