Sunset Gemstone Power Statement Cluster Necklace (c)

Monday, July 25, 2011

The Creative Drive. Where Does It Come From? Answered Here.

OK.  So I'm not very good at blogging entries. Actually it's been so long I didn't know how to get into this thing.

So why am I here now?

Well, I just had an interesting experience in how the creative (mine) mind works and I have this wonderful blog just sitting here doing nothing that I thought it needs to be the repository of creative genius at work.

People often ask "how did you come up with that design."  My answer:  "just happened."  Well it "just happened" and I am rather astounded at the process. and can actually document it.  Not that it will help anyone in figuring out how to be more creative.

I have been working very hard at organizing my studio space for the last week.  I've also spent months involved with a wonderful line of jewelry I love, but have been away from my gemstones which I have missed.

Last night, actually early this morning, until 7:30am, I created 2 beautiful, classic in my style, black pearl necklaces.  Ah, it was so nice to touch these beautiful pearls and admire their shinny deep luster.  It's with this happiness I was about to embark on working with some gorgeous black agate that I've been dying to get my hands on for months.  I have the design inside me and it's just dying to get out.

I haven't a clue as to how it happened, but instead of creating a lovely Grace Kelly type design that's my style....nothing fancy or ornate. I am of the "less is more" school.  Simplicity of design and all that.  My mind starts to wonder in an out of body experience.  I don't know which draw I opened of the 200 that stare at me on my work space, or which lovely caught my fancy.  But I was transported back into another time.  Another place.

I was in a hot musty attic, rummaging through great-great-great-grandmothers trunks.  Their had been talks of her exotic travels to the Orient and a great passionate love in India. But digging through her trunk I found no evedence of these stories.  Not until I came to find a wad of beautifuly embroidered exotic fabric. I picked it up and noticed that it was wrapped around something heavy.  Slowly and carefully I unwound the fabric, admiring it's richness of design and artistis skill until I found it's treasure.  Lying in my hand was an intrecitally carved box with an intoxicating aroma that smelled familiar, but I didn't know why.

It wasn't for awhile until I opened the box, and didn't think I would find anything in it, but I sat down on the attic floor to better examine my discovery.

The first thing I saw was a very yellowed old piece of folded paper.  I carefully lifted it out of the box, but the edges crumbled in my figures.  I was wondering if this could be something written by my long ago grandmother.  How exciting it would be to read something that she wrote, maybe about the adventure of this box and fabric I had discovered.

As I cautiously unfolded the paper that was still fairly in one piece, I was shocked by what it said.

"These are her dowry.  Please see that she gets them.  If you are to late, treasure them always, as I have you" Signed with a flourished "R."

I was so ingroused with the note thinking it could be from that great lady of ages past it didn't dawn on me that there was something else in the box.  A dowry?

There was a beautiful ice blue velvet piece of fabric looking at me.  I ran my fingures across it enjoying is silky texture.  So soft.  But I could also feel something underneath.  I held my breadth as I lifted it out of the box and carefully unfolded the fabric to reveal..............the earrings that I was making.

This story was going through my head as I took this piece then that piece. Tried another.  Ah, they fit! Slowly reveling a scrumptious earring of a different time.  A different age.  A different place.

Something SO radically different from what usually comes through the creative force that's within me.

It was like a puzzle.  No, a compulsion. To bring into being this exotic elegant design of ages past into the present.

A 10mm white freshwater pearl.

Several small antiqued silver pieces building a story around it.

A sparkel here, a small textured ring balancing the shapes of three other pieces on top of it.  There that works now.

No, no.  Take it a part and do it again. Upside down.

The smaller one, then the larger and smaller again.

Ah, the flow of the shapes. The luster of the pearl. The many layers of intricacy.

A journey ended.

An earring luxurious and mysterious and beautiful enough to be a brides dowry and worn on her wedding day.
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The creative process is a journey that an indescribable force takes one on, which draws from nothingness into small pieces of reality.......... revealing something that wasn't here before.

4 comments:

  1. What a wonderful story! That snippet of the dowry earring makes me wish I could wear earrings. : )

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  2. Hi Diane!

    Thank you so very much for your comment! I didn't think anyone read my blog except me...lol, and use it as a repository for whatever is moving me at the moment.

    The story was a fluke. I couldn't tell one if my life depended on it.....that's why the creative process of the earring was so interesting because the story was what was actually going through my head as I chose and rearranged each little piece.

    I'm sorry you can't wear earrings. I can, but actually don't wear them often. I remember what started me on this adventure last night. It was a 15mm white shell pearl. I wanted to string it simply on a piece of chain and ended up creating an exotic Victorianesq necklace. I'm still working and refining it.

    Thank you again Diane for joining me on this journey!

    Maryanne

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  3. The only thing that could make this post better would be a photo of the earrings!

    So - tomorrow's post...the big reveal!!!!

    Robyn Hawk

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  4. Maryanne, wow you blew away with your journey into the creative jounery. I have meet another universal spirit in you.

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