Wednesday, September 15, 2010

“Where do you draw your inspirations for creating from?” September Talk About Blog

Today's Talk About Blog from Etsy's Handmade Division Team is:  Where do you draw your inspirations for creating from?

GOOD question!!
I would love to write about how I draw my inspiration from nature's simple lines, or from my children's laughter (definitely not their screams), or from some simple moment of pure bliss when something just hits me!

The truth is, I get it from all of these places and more.  Not talking about jewelry here  ;).  Jewelry is a little bit different.  With jewelry I admire the simple, rustic, not so perfect lines in nature and I want to make it into a piece to wear...  I admire the tools and materials spread out before me (yes, they are ALWAYS spread about) and I want to put this with that and add a bit of this and voila!  It's a necklace!
And sometimes I DO get that simple moment of pure bliss when the perfect design just flashes in my head (usually right before I'm about to go to sleep).

But with sculpture...  well, sculpture is different.
Some of my best pieces have been made after spending a whole day viewing thousands of pictures from the Holocaust or right after getting into a particularly bad (and usually quite frustrating) fight with my husband (thankfully those are few and far between these days but they have made for some great art), or a particularly chaotic day with the boys when I feel like the worst mommy in the world (if you're a parent, you know exactly what I'm talking about).  Some days can make me feel insane.
Using my hands to carve, either out of clay or out of wax to be cast in metal, turns the very chaotic things in my head into something tangible, touchable and REAL.
It is a release.  Like writing in a journal.... Suddenly I don't have to obsess about those random thoughts any more.  They're there, right in front of me.  I can touch that thought.  I can let it out of my brain.
I imagine it's quite like how Harry Potter's character's pull memories from their brains...

So I guess you could say, it's not so much inspiration as it is clearing out my head...  making room for more...  inspiration??


Please visit all our participating members this month:

Andes Cruz: http://andescruz.wordpress.com/


Alice Istanbul: http://istanbuldesigns.blogspot.com/

Jewelry by Natsuko http://jewelrybynatsuko.blogspot.com/

nanotopia: http://nanopod.wordpress.com/

Bella-Bijou Jewellery http://bellabijoujewellery.blogspot.com/






3 comments:

Jan said...

Hi Rebekah!

Enjoyed your insight into creating your sculptures..."turns the very chaotic things in my head into something tangible, touchable and REAL...I can touch that thought."

I can really relate. Usually my ideas only fully develop in the materials as I work. I value such spontaneity. In some sense, the finished piece is as much a revelation to me as it is to everyone else.

Anonymous said...

loved your post Rebekah :)

Lunasa Designs Jewelry said...

Thank you Andes!
Exactly Jan! I love the mystery of it all... The process... Feeling and thinking and working through things by using my hands to create... and then at the end there it is! Sometimes, it's an answer - sometimes it's another question... but it's ALWAYS interesting and enlightening :)