8 Stages of Creativity for Polymer Clay Artists – Can you Relate?
"I have been working with polymer clay for 15 years and am still as addicted as I was the first time I laid eyes on it."
~Sam-M
The other day I was talking with my 13 year old daughter Willow, about a project I was working on. She is a very creative person herself, and I asked if she thought my project was good enough. She said, "Why do you always ask me that. You know it's great!"
Realizing that I do always do that, I asked her if she ever felt that way about her projects. And she said… "Yes, but I am a perfectionist Mom, so I have to feel that way."
This made me a little sad and got me to thinking about how both of us (and my mom did this too), go through a series of stages in our creative processes. No matter the project we are working on, we pretty much go about it the same way.
I thought I would share these stages today, to see if anyone else can relate to this creative way of thinking. Or… if it is just a weird way the women in our family handle our artistic endeavors.
8 Stages of Creativity:
1. Inspiration: You see something inspiring, could be piece of jewelry, a sunset, a tutorial and your mind starts racing with the possibilities.
2. Desire: You absolutely must get what you need to make whatever it is that you are driven to make. You drive everyone nuts around you until you get that tool, supply, book, whatever it is you need (lust after) to make your idea come to life.
3. Fear: Once you get everything together, you sit and stare at it for awhile, afraid to get started and to mess up your supplies. Hopefully the next stage is so strong that this stage doesn't stop you in your tracks.
4. Passion: There is an overpowering drive and passion to make your idea come together. You tear open that package of clay or tools and feverishly get to work. Sometimes forgetting to eat or sleep, because the project consumes you.
5. Endurance: This is the stage where you realize it's a lot of work. This is the sanding stage when you're making polymer clay beads, or the detail work on the painting. The stage where the weak minded set it aside for another day. But you must soldier through this stage or you will never get to the great feelings in the final stages.
6. Insecurity: This stage is a bad one. I work very hard not to experience this stage very often but still seem to visit it from time to time. This is where you doubt your abilities. Where you see all your little mistakes and think deep inside that everyone will see them too. This is where some people hide their things away. Put them in the back of the closet so that no one else can see them. The stupid thing about this stage is that it really does not serve you. It harms you more than it protects you. You must not let this stage stop you. If you must, set whatever you made aside for a day or so, and them come back to it with fresh non-critical eyes, so you can move on to the next stage.
7: Pride: This is the most important stage. The whole reason you made the thing in the first place. That feeling you get when you come back and look at what you made and love it. Just like a kid does when they've done a nice drawing. You see, kids skip stages 3 and 6 all together, (until they get older) and are much happier for it. This is the stage where you show everyone what you've made. You give it as a gift, wear it when you go out or display it proudly in your home. Post it at your Etsy store. This is the stage you need to get to as quickly as possible if you are going to continue to be creative.
8: Addiction: This is the good kind of addiction. The kind that keeps you fired up. Makes you feel alive. Makes you want to create and create and create. This is the stage that I am at. This is where my daughter is at and where many of you are at.
I have been working with polymer clay for about 15 years now and am still as addicted as I was the first time I laid eyes on it. I have tried so many techniques over the years. Your videos and tips are an inspiration to all. I check your blog daily for the latest tip, pearl of wisdom. I have sold many pieces of work lately to friends and coworkers and seem to have hit on a great design. ~Sam-M
Celebrate your strength and your passion. For your ability to get past the negative stages in your creativity. For you to continue to grow and learn and create until your dying days. That's what it's all about my friends!
If you liked this article, you may also enjoy reading:
- Dealing with Creative Blocks when Making Polymer Clay Beads
- Polymer Clay Artists | How To Discover Your Unique Artistic Voice
Filed Under: 12: Inspiration, 13: Musings-News by Comment. 
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Comments on 8 Stages of Creativity for Polymer Clay Artists – Can you Relate?
5:20 am
Oh Cindy,
What a beautiful gift you have given me today. To know that even you are vulnerable to doubt and insecurity in your creative process gives me courage to push harder through those #3 and #6 moments I experience all too often. I could have written this (though not so beautifully) and I thank you for capturing in words the struggles and joys that for me, naturally go along with turning those little blocks of clay into something beautiful.
.
5:40 am
Thank you for your inspiration. I guess it helps us remember that you, our Polymeriesta of Inspiration experiences insecurities and come across bumps in the road. I have recently have been fighting a cold for a few weeks and my energy and inspiration have been on the downslide. I did just finish teaching 4 community education classes; lots of work but lots of fun. A friend recently had a birthday, last year I made her a polymer clay Rat's Ass necklace as, "I don't give a rat's ass!!!" was one of her famous saying. This year…sorry no energy for anything creative or fun. I think she was disappointed as she said, "So what have you been making lately?" Sorry, no energy right now… but, maybe a Rats's Ass Christmas ornament.
5:59 am
Wow! I can't believe I am going thru the same thing. I actually had 2 people call me this morning (and I've only been up an hour!) to find out if I've made any jewelry for Christmas yet. Another person asked me the other night at my grandsons football game. I have the supplies all laid out on the table and I keep looking at it…I have ideas in my head…but I just can't seem to get up the motivation to get started. It's been like this since September. Maybe it's the winter doldrums?? I keep telling everyone that "I've lost my mojo!" Then I think about all the extra Christmas money I could be making and that makes me feel worse that I…just…can't…get…going! Any suggestions on how to push yourself out of this? Sometimes I think I'll just put everything away and forget about it for good. But I don't really think that will make me happy. Help!!!
6:17 am
I'm in the same boat as Maureen. I just can't get going. I want to make some beads, or do some wire working (it's all laid out and ready to go!) but I've got no mojo… Maybe voicing it will help and I'll start something this afternoon… *sigh*
~Lisa
6:19 am
Actually it does help! After I posted this I went to the table and just cut up a whole bunch of wire peices for a necklace. The mojo is coming back!! Gotta go while the gettins' good. Good luck Lisa!
6:24 am
Oh, one other thing! I belong to the New Jersey Bead Society and the NJ Polymer Clay Guild. The NJBS meeting is this Thursday night. Going to those meetings always helps to inspire! Try to take a class or join a local guild. That might get you out of the doldrums. I always talk about Cindy's site at my PC guild!
6:31 am
Thank you for the inspiration, It's interesting to read how many of us experience many of the phases you described. I never think my jewelry is good enough but after doing so well at the craft show last weekend I'm feeling better. My husband is my biggest fan and reminds me often how people enjoy my work and the fact that people often buy what I'm wearing! So there's hope for all of us!
7:10 am
Jeanne,
I could have written your post, too. I don't know what I would do without my family fan club. I also did a craft show last week-end–it's so validating to get positive reactions and comments in a public forum. congrats on your successful show.
8:19 am
Oh Yes, Cindy! Like the others I can totally relate to your list. I do think though that I sometimes get stuck at stage 2 which is why I have lots of "stuff" and not a lot to show for it. On another site someone was showing a bunch of "jewelry gourds" and what could be done with them. I was totally looking at buying a box of gourds–not that I have had any interest in gourds up to this time. I did stop myself finally and am telling myself to put that energy into using things I already own. Glad to know I am not alone in fear and insecurity. Useless waste of energy, but they seem to be part of the process.
10:48 am
Cindy when I first got interested in polymer clay I saw a Carol Duvall show on TV with Donna Kato. I was so in love with that show. I bought a bunch of clay on Ebay and a few tools and a pasta machine. I knew I had to have the machine because of my hand and wrists. I got everything ready and I was like a deer in headlights. Left it out for a week then put it up and did not get it out again for over a year. Now that is just plain silly. At the time I had been working with wood and found my comfort zone so that is what I returned to. Then I came across Polymer Cafe magazine and started watching Carol Duvall again and just jumped in. Was it great no. But my grandkids loved it so I stuck with it and fell more and more in love each day. I can truly say I didn't get comfortable with it till I joined your sight and bought the beginners course and all the back Videos. I go through what most everyone else does everytime I make something. There is no worse critic for your own work then yourself. But I have learned perfect or not I am haveing way too much fun and that is what the most important thing is for me. I learn more everyday with your videos and blog. I read and reread, I watch and rewatch and learn something new everytime. I am totally mesmerized with your talent and you.
Once again Thank you for being YOU!!!!!!!!
12:48 pm
Sometimes #5 gets the best of me! My husband asked me just last night, why don't you finish some of the things you have laying around before you make something new? (This comment came after I read 2 new clay books and was telling him all the things I wanted to try). I get to the point where something needs sanded and put together into a finished piece, stop, and toss it in a tupperware container! He also was curious if it was just me. Do you all have TONS of half finished projects laying around the house?
1:12 pm
So…. this is a fabulous article of introspection and contemplation… I was late today getting to my computer because I was so enthralled with getting everything ready for my first craft show…. EVER! I am definitely addicted or infatuated or perhaps utterly in love with polymer clay, however, the only showing off I've really done is the times I've taken my creations to work or I've shown them here…. This show will be my first public display of my work and hopefully all will go well but there's still that deep dark fear of failure…. which is step 6… and my major stumbling block and I'm so glad you shared this to remind all of us that's its a normal stage, everyone experiences it, and it's totally beatable.
1:35 pm
Carrie…I have a whole plastic container of finished PC beads that I made to include in jewlery. Some are over a year old! So yes, there are others (many, I'm sure) who have unfinished projects. (Once in awhile I open the box just to look at them! And think about what I will do with them…lol)
Melinda…good luck with your 1st craft fair! Let us know how it works out. What to us might look humdrum after we have looked at it for so long while making it, is something new and exciting to someone who has not seen it before. I'm always surprised by that!
3:34 pm
There is a large glass jar on my craft table full of orphaned beads. Most have been sanded, thanks only to my tumbler, but I am a bit of afraid of "messing up" a piece of jewelry, so there they sit. Lot's of us out there! :)
3:35 pm
You couldn't have explained the steps any better than that! I feel the same way. I will try to keep a sketch book handy so I can write or draw ideas down so I won't forget. Then when I have a design "block" I can use that to stimulate my clogged brain! Sometimes I need to draw out my ideas before I tackle them anyway. Now, we know where we stand in our creative path, thanks!!
5:12 pm
Yeah, I get stuck at #5 as well. Not because I get bored or don't like sanding or whatever, but because by the time I've put something in the oven I'm already onto the next project! It's like I'm so impatient I just can't wait to create something else.
It's the same with piercing beads, I usually leave beads for a day or so before piercing so they firm up a bit and don't distort, but often they wait for weeks before I get to them because I've had another idea or seen another technique I want to try.
Life's easier now I have a rock tumbler because it frees up precious "clay time", but I still end up with boxes and boxes of beads and pendants until I bully myself into making them into jewellery. I have to say to myself, "Right, no more clay play until you've finished 10 necklaces or bracelets!"
6:01 pm
@sarahwww: I'm a #2, too. I accumulate more and more only to stall at the table. I spend hours collecting new ideas, & stocking up. I hope your resolve will inspire me to work with what I have (so much of). I waste so much "creating" time on "planning".
7:29 pm
Well i don't no at the moment if I have time to even think of being afraid to do. I am leaving tomorrow for home again and my husband told me the craft shop want more of my work when am I coming back, so I will be busy for the next week or two, and yes keeping my fingers crossed that I don't get a memory block or to many failures,I thought I was the only one with that self doubt problem. NowI no Cindy that i am not it makes me feel better. chat again when i reach home in Wales U K.
8:03 pm
Well let me see:
1-check
2-check
3-check,check
4-check
5-check
6-CHECK
7-check, especially when someone not related to me offers a compliment
8-CHECK,CHECK,CHECK………….. :0)
8:07 pm
Even after several sales, I'm still amazed that someone would want to BUY something I made, I know it's silly but it still amazes me sometimes.
4:37 am
What a surprise to have my morning coffee, open the website and see my comment at the beginning of this post. Interesting and most appropriate for everyone out there at this time for me to give an update. After my 15 plus year addiction, way too many self doubts, but also a lot of darn "I can't believe I made that's"…2 times lately people have literally stolen my necklaces right off my neck. Cindy I am happy to tell you that those necklaces were versions of your mod cane. One of the " thiefs" owns a store in a nearby town and is now going to.. I can't believe I am going to say this ….try and sell my jewellry!! That's where the self doubt still rears it's ugly head, even after all this time. I am sooo excited but very nervous. It is after years of trial and error, searching, reading books and wonderful tutors like Cindy that we can achieve the next level in our chosen medium. Keep at it everyone and you too will achieve the next level in our clay world and have a basement full of clay, tools, books, ovens, etc…. Now I dream of an official studio in my retirement years… ahhhhh.. we always want more don't we us addicts.. lol
12:03 pm
I've had a lot of stages 1, 2 and 4 lately but no time to fulfill them… I'm in the middle of making a teddy bear and have had no time to finish him :(
12:27 pm
Nathalie, we want to see the Teddy bear! Finish him up and let's see a picture ( even if it isn't PC) :)
8:48 am
In my years before clay and jewelry making, I considered myself somewhat of a writer. I have actually sold some of my written work and it has been published. I totally ran into these steps when writing, especially looking back over it, thinking it is not good enough and stashing or even throwing it away. What is very weird though, is I hadn't had these same pressures on myself for clay and jewelry when I first started. I had no trouble, diving right in, trying just anything. However, the more serious I get about it, I find I am starting to have these same issues, thoughts and fears. I think we start taking ourselves and the craft far too seriously. If only we could just go back to "it's just plain fun" and not put pressures on ourselves.
Thanks Cindy for making us do some introspection on ourselves. I am going to try to focus more on the "fun" of the piece, not just the finished project.
11:32 am
First of all, let me say I am touched by the comments you all have written. I know now that many of you can relate to these struggles and triumphs and it warms my heart to see you all so open about your feelings.
For those of you that have difficulties getting past the fears and the insecurities, I want you to know that you have the strength inside of you to get past them. If you did not, you wouldn't be here, expressing them. You would be cowering alone somewhere.
Please remember that the only one actually judging you is yourself. It is the journey of creativity, not the destination that you are learning this all for any way, right?
We humans would not have been given the gift of imagination and creativity, if it was meant to be feared and hidden away. So come out… the air is sweet out here in the sunshine!
For those of you who have 'Felt the fear and did it any way'… Congratulations! Give yourself a pat on the back and enjoy!
Thank you all for sharing this creative journey with me!
2:49 pm
@sarahwww: Wow this was months ago… but I remember mentioning my teddy here… and here it is, finished at last! photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs122.snc3/16938_318027646207_696356207_5124495_1938953_n.jpg
I stopped working on it months ago when I couldn't sew the nose right, it just put me off. Then I picked it up again today and finished it, I'm really pleased with it! If I wasn't so busy with uni now, I'd definitely be making more! :)
3:29 pm
Very cute and cuddly :-) Congratulations on getting your teddy bear finished finished.