Creative Constipation Is NOT Good

At one time, both of these cabinets were completely full of 100% cotton, high quality, quilting fabric. Some pieces were twenty-five years old; most were newer. Over the years, the pretty prints have been replaced with the abstracts, batiks, and mottled solids I prefer to work with now... IF I make a piece. As a business, textile art is over with in my life. As an interest, it hasn't run it's course yet although I haven't made a piece in almost a year and don't anticipate making one any time soon.




Shifting the patterns from under the work island into the new cabinet started a deep cleansing of the studio. Things moved to new locations and new spaces opened up. It wasn't just another tidying it up session. It was a purge.

It was time. There were things here that didn't belong anymore for either physical or emotional reasons. I need space to think and to work. Clutter and chaos don't do it for me. I know they work for some people. For me, it stops the flow and creative constipation is NOT good.

We all work in different ways. What's important is to know and work in OUR way and not expect everyone else to be just like us. I remember getting a lecture from an instructor I'd hired for four days to give me private design lessons. For some reason, she seemed to take it personally that I tidied up at intervals throughout the day and especially each night. Luckily, it gives me the giggles to remember her going on about how there was no need to straighten the blanket on my curl up chair every night. She felt cleaning up was stifling me but I knew that wasn't so. I knew that when I start pushing things aside, dropping them on the floor, and especially shoving them out of the way with my foot, that I've reached clutter overload. For me, clutter free and calm with open spaces is the very best creative environment. In it, I can breathe.

The purge started with the pattern cabinet and quickly moved on to the fabric cabinets and the closet. In the fabric cabinets, all but four piles of cotton fabrics are gone. What's left are pieces that I really love and would use. In the closet, the basket of cross stitch flosses and fabrics is gone. I haven't done counted cross stitched in twenty years and it's so not my thing any more. All but one box of potential pieces are gone. That's enough to make the odd purse when I want to without the pressure of too much potential. All the scraps, interfaced, and fused bits of fabric are gone. They were breeding in the night and threatening a take over. All the left over chunks of batting and the I don't like these fabrics but I could use them for backings pieces are gone and the silk bits have found a new home. The list goes on and on. If it didn't want it right now for any reason, it was out. All that stuff is stacked in the guest room ready to be picked up by Big Brothers on Friday. YES YES !




In the picture above, you can see some fat quarters of hand dyed fabric in the baskets. There were two more boxes of half meter pieces that I gave to a friend yesterday. She's a weaver. They're perfect for that. They weren't perfect for what I do because I made a mistake. Keeping around a mistake puts a subliminal pressure on ourselves. It reminds us of failure. Moving it along in some useful way is freeing. It gives our mistake purpose. Here's what I mean.

Several years ago, I bought two bolts of prepared for dying fabric to prep for a workshop. The supply list called for a half meter piece of each of the ten steps of each color in a twenty-four step color wheel. Unfortunately, the fabric that I bought was not good quality. It was thick, didn't take dye well, and punctured when stitched. HOWEVER...

... that fabric served its purpose. With it I learned to dye a specific color, to dye gradations, to over-dye, triple dye, and create different looks. That was a major advance. Before that, I refused to dye fabric. Now, I can walk into the laundry room, pick up the powders, and dye almost anything I want. That's good and enough. But... the fabric pieces. Not. Even though they were taking up half a cabinet, because they were such poor quality, I only used them when absolutely necessary for a specific color. Getting them out of the studio was freeing. Giving them to Rosemarie gave them purpose. They are perfect for woven rugs and placemats. It felt wonderful. So did cleaning the closet.

I'd acquired so much fashion fabric that it was piling up all over the floor of the closet which irritated me so much I couldn't work. Every time I needed something, the closet became a bigger mess so last week, I picked up the piles and put them in the family room in an attempt to finish my dress. It was a temporary fix. On Monday, I started sorting, folding, moving and purging. Now everything is much fresher and cleaner.




I have a double wide closet. This pictures shows half. To the right of those upper boxes is one box width of empty space. That mostly empty shelf extends all the way to the other end. The fabrics in boxes on the floor might seem strange but this way, the yardage is nicely folded and contained and tipped in a direction where I can see what I have. My goal is to sew up at least four boxes worth of fabric so that everything is on the shelves.

While cleaning, I touched all of my fabric. A good refresher course. Although I only gave away four or five pieces, it was a surprise to see what I have. There are a LOT of knits which I've been buying on purpose however that was more than I thought I had. There are nine pieces of coating fabric. It appears I want to sew a coat. There are twelve pieces of denim. Seems I'll be making more jeans. There were also way too many fancy fabrics for my life style. I'll need to think through what to do with those however, overall, my fabric purchases are moving in a direction that is more in sync with how I live. This is good.

This cabinet over my desk used to hold books. I moved all of them to the "fabric" cabinet along with the art and artistic self help and coaching books that were previously on shelves in the family room. You can see those in the first picture. It's nice to have all my books in the same place. I plan to get jars for this cabinet and use them for assorted sewing notions - those ones that are hard to figure out what to do with like strips of fusi-knit for t-shirts or bits and pieces of lace for lingerie.

Cleaning always makes me think about what I buy and what I keep and how to use that information to make wiser decisions. This time around, I realized that I really don't want to stash up as much I have in the past. With textile art, it's important to have a palette of colors but even so, if I were to make a piece I'd want it to be more current. The same with any fabrics I saved for children's clothing. If I were to sew a small garment at this point in my life, I'd most likely want to shop for something new, fresh, and in style.

While there is usefulness left in these aged fabrics and salvaged scraps, for me it was not enough to warrant the amount of space they were taking up in my studio and the weight of emotional pressure they exerted. By giving them away, I have created room to move and open spaces that have exponentially increased the potential of what's left. I have sent creativity out into the world to be of use to others and I have received creativity back. Do you know what I mean?

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - a clean studio

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Personal Growth - The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty. - Dieter F. Uchtdorf,

I have no idea who Dieter Uchtdorf is. This quote was on another blog I read yesterday. How true. Clearing out the clutter, opening up the spaces, and welcoming flow are ways that I take unorganized matter into my hands and free myself to create beauty.

Edited 1:22 pm - Dieter F. Uchtdorf is President of the church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints.