Making Dreams a Reality

And so we come to the big question... How do we make a living wage from our artistic talents? In the current economic climate it is a luxury to spend money on arts and crafts and yet how can we guarantee any returns if we try to turn our hobbies into businesses?

These ideas have been milling around inside my head for quite some time now.  If you spend your time creating things, what do you do with them? People admire them, ask where you got them from, say how talented you are...and so a germ of an idea grows. You sell an odd thing here and there to family and friends and the idea takes root and the dream develops... Could I do this for a living? Could I run my own business? But life gets in the way - bills, commitments, work or family... the time never seems to be right, and so the dreams linger in the back of our mind and our creations pile up with the bills!

After several years of dreaming, U-Neek, my business, became a reality this week. The cheque book etc for the account arrived this morning. The website is almost finished. It finally seems real instead of me just playing at it. But that is the key...Playing at it first. Dream about it. Imagine exactly how it will be. Then go out and test the waters. Find 1 or 2 outlets that will take your creations... you will find out what sells and what doesn't and you'll get feedback from retailers and their customers. This is the 'playing' bit. And it's fun. But the serious side of it is that it gives you a really good idea of how things may pan out.

So after a year of my products selling gradually in several shops all over the North in the 'playing' stage, U-Neek is now up and running. Wish me luck, and I'll wish you the same!

The right environment

I have a lovely big light airy dining room downstairs. It has a big window overlooking our backyard full of pots and planters, and a wonderful original built it cupboard in the corner with big heavy drawers beneath...just perfect for all my fabric and art stuff!

The main problem with this room is that it is the only way to get to the Kitchen from the hallway, so it has a tendency to be treated as a bit of a corridor, and all too often, a dumping ground. It can feel a bit unloved. This has been a problem I have been meaning to tackle for sometime, but like all non-urgent tasks, it kept going to the back of the list. Last weekend, though, as I sat doodling out some seasonal hearts, my will snapped...the time had come. The amassed junk and clutter and rubbish in the dining room that meant that I could no longer see the beautiful stripped floorboards in there. Going in there had become a nightmare that you needed to steel yourself for.  I strode into the mayhem and stared around and wondered where the hell to begin!

7 hours, 5 cups of tea and 3 filled bin bags later...

My partner and I were able to eat our dinner in said dining room for the first time in... years! More to the point I now have an environment where I not only can but want to work in! More on this later. I also discovered no end of long-lost bits and pieces...pencils, craft knives, sketch books, things stashed away in those "safe places" and then forgotten about... all these turned up in my right royal clear out. I had a ball! All now refiled and re-stashed and reorganised. And ready to be used anew.

Ok, so there are still a lot of finishing touches still to do in there. I want to recover the dining room chairs... they are looking a bit shabby now, and not in a chic way either! There are still one or two boxes to sort through. I need to rearrange the pictures. There's some stuff to go to the charity shop, too. But I can see the floor boards again!

My dining room is now a room I want to be in again. I want to sit in there and be at peace in there and create stuff in there. I have reclaimed my space. In order for us to be at our creative best, we first have to create a space where we can let go and be free to be ourselves. No matter how unorganised we are, there has to be some order to our creative space, even if it is one no one else can understand, otherwise we only get frustrated and distracted, and where's the point in that?

New Year, New Motivations

Ok, ok...I do know that it is no longer new year. We are now well into February. Outside now all the snow has gone, everything is dull and dreary and dormant. The thing is I am so connected to the rhythms of the natural world that I have been hibernating for most of January! I kid you not...I have been sleeping for about an average of 15 hour a day. I suffer from ME and tiredness and extreme lack of energy is particularly bad at this time of year. On the plus side, now the days are gradually lengthening and we have a little more light, I'm beginning to wake up a bit. I've also had plenty of time to dream up some great ideas and now is the time to start developing them.

When you're not in a position to create directly, for whatever reason...illness, away from home, travelling etc then you can still use your time creatively. I have found social networking sites, Twitter in particular, a great place for discovering new websites and other artists work. You have a world of galleries at your fingertips...Fantastic for stimulating your creativity! You can view hundreds of new artists from all over the world every day. It's also brilliant for your motivation. For every amazing piece of work out there, you will also find something maybe not so good being sold for a fortune that will make you think, "...but mine is so much better than that!" And so the urge to create strengthens again.

So I may not have spent the last month or so creating and making most madly, but I have been productive. My mind and my mouse have been wandering madly and my list of favourited sites for inspiration  is growing daily. As is the list of ideas in my notebook. Just like Nature needs her dormant period to gather her energies before the excitement of new growth in spring, so maybe we need our dormant time to gather our thoughts and inspirations before the new season's burst of creativity.