Tips for messy artists....

In my last post,  I shared with you how my need to clean. I did do alot of cleaning but now I am back to myself again and all I want to do is create! Typical! Well I didn't, and never will, get it all cleaned up but I did make one heck of a dent in things. I also discovered something about my habits that allow me to work even when things are in some form of disarray. I made this discovery when I decided  NOT to spit shine my house before a brand new visitor came for tutoring in the creative process.

Let's say that you crave an organized space  in order to "work" but you are not disciplined to maintain that order. Anyone here like that? I know I am!  Here is my suggestion:

Use a place mat or in my case a cutting mat to block off a bit of "working" space and make everything on it as organized as you need to function at maximum productivity.

Narrow your focus to this area. The world will tell you that everything else is still a mess, but  train your eyes to focus on the prize and ignore everything that is not your creative spirit. This may come easy to beaders as they are used to focusing on what is in there hands when they do get started, but this may help them zone in  to actually begin.

I manage to ignore the mess to the right by focusing on what is on my mat. The rest is a hodge podge of past processes that included benadryl for the poison oak that STILL itches. You may not ever manage to put all these things in their proper place- if indeed they have one, but you can still continue to be productive in spite of a little mess (many of these things stay there because I use them constantly- which means- this is their  proper place). This is indeed a little mess as my whole table was covered like this before I cleaned.

As a disclaimer I would like to say, your materials do need some form of organization. They need to be contained. Simple clasifications work for most of us- seeds, bugles,  fire polish, focals and buttons, then you have everything else in another spot. Some of us have more than just beads to organize- stamps, paper, punches, fabric, embellishements, yarn, beads, clay, sewing machines, sergers ect....  I fall into that category and I can find most stuff but sometimes that specific thing will elude me and it is only because I don't have a map!
 This suggestion is just something that helps me over come the anxiety that can come from MY messes. If this was in anyway helpful to you, let me know.