acrafterslife

If you’re reading this blog you’re most likely a crafter.  If you’re a crafter, do you depend on your craft to supply all or part of your income?  Do you sometimes just come up blank?  Do you worry that your muse has permanently left you and now you’re stuck with no income?  Or even if you don’t depend on your craft for income, do you feel lost when you can’t come up with a new idea?

Creativity is the basis for all human activity.  It controls the desire to seek food, and shelter, to procreate and to live or die.  Sometimes the very basic essentials for life seem to require all our energy and attention, and our artistic creativity suffers.  We worry where we’re going to get the money for the mortgage this month, where can we cut corners to save a little money here and there, and the next thing we know we’re exhausted, depressed and seemingly afloat in a sea of morass.  No wonder our muse leaves, or rather that we can’t make contact.

Years ago my daughter bought a book called “The Artist’s Way” by Julie Chamberlain.  She let me read it and I had some success in breaking free from a lot of past emotional bondage and moving on with my life.

I was delighted to find that the About.com Beadwork site had done an online workshop for beaders based on the book. Since I don’t have the book any more, I can still go to About.com and re read and do some of the tasks suggested for unblocking the creativity any time I feel I need to.

I think what brought this all on has been some dismal failures in some of the jewelry designs I’ve been working on and the lack of interest in my creations shown by the public recently.  Yesterday I received the book “Spiritual Marketing” by Joe Vitale.  In reading through it I realized I had slipped back into my old self doubt and unworthy feelings.  I think we all have those periods in our life, but the Spirit always knows what we need and sends it our way.  The trouble is that sometimes we are so caught up in the daily grind of life we fail to recognize our need.

I hope you’ll take a look at About.com’s The Artist’s Way and maybe even get a copy of Joe Vitale’s book.  After all, as crafters for income, we must market not only our wares, but ourselves.  As crafters for fun . . . well, crafts take us out of the daily grind and give us a moment to put the everyday worries aside.

Well, I’m off to make an affirmation ladder.

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