As much as we all love beads and are constantly inspired by them, sometimes it helps to take a little creative break and step away from the beads (and the computer!) for a while. I practice yoga every morning before breakfast, and my morning stretches are where I can just relax my mind and focus on my breathing and my surroundings. Taking my mind away from the beads actually helps me come up with new beading projects and better solutions when I get "stuck" on something in my current beading projects. In the summer, I also enjoy taking a break from beading and the heat to go for a swim with my husband and son. Swimming is one of those things that lets me work my muscles and relax my mind!
So this week, I asked our panel of bead artists and experts: How do you recharge your batteries when you need a creative break?
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Mikki Ferrugiaro: At the moment I turn to sewing
and crochet but I hope to get back to doing some theatre and painting when I
finally move back to California. I also take a vacation from life everyday by
losing myself in a book.
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Nancy Dale: When
I need to recharge, I usually take to reading. I love books, and I will
go to a novel, something that will take me completely away from beads and
beading for a little while. I find this much more relaxing than watching
television or movies, as my brain is engaged, but not so much visually. I
tend to come back to the table with visual 'ideas' much more when I've read
then when I've watched a show. I have also found that I find inspiration
in fiction, especially when a novelist is describing period costumes, such as
in a romance novel.
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Jean Campbell: Exercise is key for me. If I don't get out and stretch
the gams everyday, the creative side of my brain begins to resemble a raisin.
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Kerrie Slade: As much as I
adore my beads and beadwork, occasionally the business side of it can get a bit
overwhelming: specific things to create, deadlines to meet, tutorials to write,
places to be etc. and all of that sometimes causes me to feel a bit stressed
and kind of blocks my imagination. When
that happens, although my first thought is that I can't spare the time, I find
that the best thing for me is to actually make the time for a walk in the
woods. Rain or shine, that never seems
to fail for me and the combination of stretching my legs, taking deep breaths
of pine-scented air, catching glimpses of buzzards and hares and the magical whispering of the leaves on the trees always seems to create a sense of calm
and helps me to reconnect to my creativity.
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Rosanne Andreas: I
don't need recharging. Daily life brings inspiration to me all the time. Be it
walking in the woods, visiting a museum, or having tea with friends. I have
patterns and beads dancing in my head all the time. It's like wearing eye
glasses that turn everything I look at into a beaded object. Very....Alice in
Wonderlandish I suppose.
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SaraBeth Cullinan: I'd like to say that yoga and meditation, belly dance, crochet, and/or
cross-stitch is my first line of defense against "beader's
block." And while all those things really do help, the mundane truth
of it would seem to be that my muse likes shiny bathrooms and dust free
furniture, because I have found cleaning the house to be the biggest help to me
when I need to recharge my creative batteries.
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What about you? Do you enjoy another type of craft when it comes to giving your beady brain a break? Or maybe you're like those of us who prefer physical activity when we need to give your minds a rest. Share your favorite ways to recharge here and let's keep the conversation going!
Bead Happy,
Jennifer