Analysis is the preferred skillset in the business world. Creativity is welcomed, but only within a 9-5 business mentality. The thing is. Creativity doesn't live from 9-5. It’s 24x7. My creativity simmers. Percolates. Strikes in blinding flashes of lightning. And for me, the soaking rainstorm of creative productivity happens between 8 pm and midnight. Some creativity might go to work from 9-5, but drowning in a sea of “must-do’s,” it has very little time to make an appearance. Even if it had time to muse and meander from 9-5, I think most creativity lives outside of the structured box as the factors that influence creativity and innovation can be triggered by anything in our life.
I’ve just given Creativity free reign during my creatively productive hours. It serves many purposes: to turn my brain off to a stressful day, to keep the focus off the pain of a migraine, and just simply for the joy of creating. But now that the artist has been unleashed, I can turn my hobby business into a more active small business. Even as a hobby-business, it still needed the analytical side to manage mundane things like expenses and income.
Now the trick is to get my Inner Artist and Inner Analyst to play nicely together and have fun. I mean, it’s my business. I don’t have to banish Creativity when the business of Business is front and center. Why can’t I figure out a way to make the onerous tasks more enjoyable? Like bookkeeping. (Ugh.) Or filing. (Almost as bad.) I know other people don’t mind these particular tasks as much as me. I think I mind them because I dislike routine. I also hate balancing checkbooks…unless I have software to do that for me.
So, I’m going to resurrect my newsletter in the next few months, reconfigure my website, and develop a series of articles about making the mechanics of my business more streamlined, less intimidating, less annoying. My real life experiences as a girl geek project manager has de-mystified a lot of business processes for me or at least made them less intimidating (like reading a contract, researching copyright or intellectual property, organizing my workday). If possible, I want to find ways to make myself more willing to engage in the parts I really don’t like (bookkeeping, filing) and even inspiring, pretty, or fun. Creative Self, meet Analytical Self. Play nice.
And for a little "Cotton" eye candy...
Harvest Time
Reminiscent of a wagon trailing bolls of cotton, this necklace is for the woman who enjoys the rustic rambling of various materials comprised of the necklace and earrings.Necklace: Copper and Argentium Silver (.925) strung on cords of suede and festooned with hand-made glass beads.
Earrings: Argentium Silver (.925), Copper Washer and hand-made glass beads. 1.25”
I am working on developing a permanent Cotton Inspired line of jewelry designed to be souvenirs of the South Carolina Cotton Trail. I haven't decided which pieces will be part of the permanent collection or if I'll continuously re-invent a collection for a season. I'm still figuring this part out.
