Tending The Flame

Last week, I talked about my creative fire and how it was in some serious need of attention. I have been using the analogy of how I light our home fire each day and linking it (look, there is my word!) to my creative life. So far I have swept away the ashes of the last creative fire, and started to gather kindling for the next fire in the form of signing up for a new class and I have been having fun revisiting some of my favorite bead forums.

Visiting the forums is something I haven't done in ages!! While writing my book, I wanted to put myself in a bubble so that I was sure that all my ideas were my own. I wanted no unconscious influences... know what I mean? But, the forums can be such a huge inspiration. There are so many individuals sharing so many ideas, it gets your own ideas going. You see one thing and think... hey, what if I changed that up? what if I do it like this? what if I used different colors? Then, once in the moment of creating, even more ideas come. It is awesome.


So anyway, last week, once the ashes were clear and I had some kindling ideas, I struck a match, literally, and lit my torch. I have to tell you about a conversation the hubby and I had a few weeks ago. He commented on my lack of bead making of late... to which I responded "it has been so long since I made beads, I have no idea what I want to make." Do you ever get that feeling? Too much time away from something and you forget how to do it or where you should start? There was so much more to the thoughts going through my head when I said that to Ron that I can't really articulate it. He told me... just do it... just make anything.

You got to see the results of last week's torch time on Friday. Today's photos are the results from torching Saturday and last night. I can't tell you how long it has been since I was up at 6am and the first thing I did was race to the kiln to see my beads. Seriously. There has been a major lack of anticipation round these parts and I am excited to have it back.


These new beads are miniature paintings. I had the idea that I wanted to take the flowers I create in my mixed media pieces and give them life on the surface of a bead. There are so many layers that go into one of these. Each one takes at least 30mins to make (some longer). That is a long time to hold your breath while doing line work, LOL. I am completely in love with these new styles of beads. In LOVE. They have me kicking my kids out to the bus as early as possible, flippin' that kiln on the minute they are gone, and losing track of time until they come back home later in the afternoon.

Now, all these thoughts are swirling around the analogy of lighting a creative fire, right? What happens when you first light a fire? Y'all know this. You get a big burst of orange and you think things are lit, but, BUT, if you aren't careful, the fire burns itself out in seconds. Am I right? You have to keep feeding it or you end up having to start from the beginning all over again. Let's hope I can keep this spark alive and really get this creative fire blazing.

Lighting A Fire

Each and every morning, since the weather dropped below 50degrees, I gather what I need to start a fire in the wood burner in our living room. I sweep away the ashes from the day before. Crumple up some newspaper, layer in some cardboard from the recycle bin, build up a little tee pee of kindling, and strike the match. When the flames take hold, I set to tending that fire all day long, adding more wood, poking and prodding it as the day wears on... keeping our house toasty warm and down right inviting. Part of me loves this routine, another part loathes the monotony of it. Such is life right, and thankfully, I have a hubby that realizes when I am having a loathing-the-monotony type morning (usually on the weekend) and he steps in to get it going.

For some reason, the phrase "light a fire" has been in my brain for the past week or so. Not because of this morning routine though. I feel like I need to be better tend to my "creative fire". I know a lot of you think I am some sort of bottomless pit of energy and creative awesome-ness, lol... but you are wrong. Sorry. Maybe I make it look like that sometimes, and sometimes it is like that, but for the most part, I feel like a lazy creative bum. I need to light a creative fire under my backside and get my mind warmed up.

Okay, so lets look at my "creative fire" like it is sitting in my wood burner waiting to be sparked. (We may need to spread this out over a couple of posts.) What do I need to do first? I need to clean out the ashes from the last creative fire. *sigh*... boring but oh so necessary. I am a little embarrassed to share this, but I am going to shame myself into not letting it happen again.

Check out the current state of my studio...


Looks like a someone went a drunken creative rampage and is most likely suffering from a severe twinkle light induced hangover, lol. But I digress, that is a different analogy for a different day.

The studio, quite frankly, is a mess. And I don't want to be down there. I have taken to calling it the dungeon. I can't breathe when I am down there. My OCD alter ego, Carrie, starts twitching and panicking and before I know it, I am right back upstairs avoiding the studio all together, spending way too much time surfing the web wishing I wear being more creative, and settling on knitting in a big comfy chair instead. My creative fire won't burn if it doesn't have oxygen and if I can't breathe, then yeah... you get where I am going with this.

I started doodling some ideas for dolling up the studio, giving myself more reason's to be down there. Thanks to my handy hubby, there is a new "metalsmithing" station in the works. That means a big new desk!! Because, literally, I have been banging out metal stuff on the floor, I am not kidding (see photo below). There are plans for some custom hubby-made shelving too. All of this is going against a wall I have never show on here. It is the wall between this new basement and the "old" basement. That wall used to be, um, well... underground, so it is muddy and black and nasty further validating the term dungeon for my studio. With the new desk and shelving, this wall will be completely covered. Nice.



You can see in that first photo that there is a lot of clutter going on in that back right corner. Not only is this my studio, but it is also my storage closet for all things studio related. Previously mentioned alter ego does not like looking at clutter. So, last week, I put up a temporary divider in the space. I used to have one down the center of the room, but I need that space. The divider now sections off about 1/4 on the room (6ft from the wall to be exact) making for storage behind, lovely blue curtains to the front. Don't ask about the treadmill... I don't know what it is doing there... it doesn't even work!

Okay... with all that... and some old fashion tidying and elbow grease, the old ashes are gonna get swept away. And I will need to start to gather some creative kindling. I have already started that bit, yes jumping out of order just a little, with this little goodie!!

But more on creative kindling another day.