Creating Space

After unpacking the idea about creating a physical space that not only serves our time with needle and thread but also promotes a sense of creativity in All Stitched Up! issue #275 & issue #277 an email from Janine at Uppercase Magazine took the idea a step further.

Janine explored the benefit of creating space in her schedule amidst the hustle and bustle of not only her work, but also her creative pursuits.

Whilst these are often one and the same for Janine, as not only is she pursuing her passion for all things creative, she does so within her business that produces a similar catalogue of product to Inspirations, albeit in a completely different creative field.

Regardless, she’d come to realise that the emotions involved in seeing any project through to completion, be it creative or professional – including exhilaration, victory, pride, deflation, exhaustion and sadness – take their toll over time, and that creating some space between projects would allow her to gain some clarity about the next task she’d be undertaking.

Although she took but a week away from what was before her, her main aim was to slow down and take her time.

The result?

Whilst she continued to work on aspects of her business and creativity throughout the week, the space she’d created found her working ‘on’ her life rather than just ‘in’ it and she reaped huge rewards as she moved onto the next project before her with a renewed sense of clarity and energy.

That made us realise that all too often we move from one project with needle and thread straight onto the next, and that perhaps we too could benefit from creating a space in between. A space that would allow us to reflect on what we’d just achieved and learnt throughout the process as well as taking the time to dream into what lays before us. Perhaps we too would benefit from working on our time with needle and thread rather than just in it?

Is there something in your creative life that would benefit from creating some space? What would you concentrate on if you took the time to work on your creative life rather than just in it?