Ooops, I did it again

Encouraging Creativity

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself leafing through the pattern books with my daughter at the local fabric store. A woman joined us. She and I struck up a casual conversation as my daughter quietly indulged my desire to chat. It turned out she was “getting back into sewing” and was looking for patterns because she had just purchased a new sewing machine. “Oh! You ought to try quilting!” I eagerly offered, … No, she had tried that. She was going to stick with sewing for her grand kids.

I appreciated her decisiveness, even if it meant I needed to take quilting off the table as a

topic of mutual interest. (Besides, she may revisit the idea of quilting in the future. Once she gets comfortable with her machine and reacquainted with her sewing skills, she may start looking for new ways to utilize them.) I quickly reverted to sewing and patterns. The conversation ended with an encouraging “I hope you enjoy your new machine. Happy sewing!”

     

That brief conversation got me thinking about how to encourage people to be creative and express their individuality, regardless of where they are on their journey, or the medium they are using to be creative. I think the key is to be supportive and encouraging of the creative process itself. 

Everyone has the capacity to express themselves. Sometimes it’s just a matter of finding the right activity in order for that expression to be the most effective, and for the individual to feel the most fulfilled. To get to the point where we are pleased with what we create requires continuous refining of the skills required for our chosen craft, whether the choice of activity is sewing or quilting, painting, sculpting, playing an instrument, cooking, ... or whatever.