{"id":17806,"date":"2021-03-07T02:55:53","date_gmt":"2021-03-07T10:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/?p=17806"},"modified":"2021-03-07T00:29:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-07T08:29:00","slug":"focus-on-the-journey-and-march-giveaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/focus-on-the-journey-and-march-giveaways\/","title":{"rendered":"Focus on the Journey (And March Giveaways!)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Joseph Barbaccia<\/span><\/a> created his \u201cfoXstitch\u201d piece as a proof of concept, which, if you\u2019re not familiar with the term, means that he\u2019s experimenting and there is no particular expectation of a completed piece. Now, who would think his process a waste of time, even though it’ may not become a finished piece? He says he\u2019s not happy with the execution, but that just means that he can see ways to improve it. And he could only see that through what he learned in this process. And, yes, all those \u201cstitches\u201d are bits of polymer clay.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Do you know who said this:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the destination, it\u2019s the journey.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, first of all, a lot of creative people! But specifically, this is a line in the book\u00a0<\/strong>Self-Reliance<\/em><\/a> by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson was particularly good at appreciating the little things, especially the value of our true and unique experiences.<\/p>\n

If you spend all day in the studio and don\u2019t complete a single decent piece, or a successful part of a piece, do you feel like you wasted the day? I think we can all be disappointed when we don\u2019t accomplish as much as we hoped to, but it\u2019s never wasted time.<\/p>\n

Every minute you spend at your studio table, no matter how long you\u2019ve been working with the material, is a valuable experience, right? We are learning something new all the time, even if we don\u2019t see it. We are honing our skills, solidifying our understanding, trying out new ideas, and finding out what doesn\u2019t work, which can be more important than finding out what does work.<\/p>\n

But the most valuable thing, I think, is the fact that we are sitting down for some quality time with ourselves and our thoughts, taking up the enormous challenge to make something from nothing, and forging ahead on a creative journey that will teach us things and give us memories that no one else and nothing else can provide. How common can such an experience be? Not that common, truly. We are some lucky ducks to have the creative time that we do.<\/p>\n

Sure, having a successfully finished piece is such a high, but what comes after that? The journey\u2019s over. Okay, that\u2019s not quite true. The process of creating any piece is a short trip on a much bigger journey. But what is more valuable\u2014the finished piece or the skills and knowledge acquired that will allow you to make that again, and probably even better?<\/p>\n

Now, where is all this philosophical nattering coming from?<\/p>\n

Well, this week, I had lots of starts and stops with my time at the polymer table and with my writing. Not only am I trying to get taxes done\u2014that can really kill one\u2019s creative vigor\u2014but I\u2019m on a new nutritional regimen which is making me a little foggy in the head. So, I\u2019ve been a little frustrated. However, I realized that every night I go to bed, I think about what I did do that day, and, honestly, it\u2019s just all too exciting to know there\u2019s newly created bits on the studio table and new pages in my writing project. All in all, if I got to create something, it was a really good day.<\/p>\n

So, if you can go to sleep at night with a little more knowledge and a bit more experience than you had when you woke up, that\u2019s been a successful day. I know we can be anxious to finish things or can be disappointed by how little we produce, but unless our efforts need to put food on the table, let\u2019s see if we can\u2019t step back and not just appreciate but really learn to value our creative time for simply being our own precious, unique experience.<\/p>\n

I mean, really, would you trade that time for anything?<\/p>\n

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Yay Giveaways!<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

So, I\u2019m keeping this short since I\u2019ve had a bit of a rough week but, as promised, I\u2019m going to do some giveaways!<\/p>\n

I have enough goodies here to give something away every weekend this month, so here\u2019s what we\u2019ll do this week:<\/p>\n

Giveaway<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

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