This summ
er I had a wonderful opportunity to go to Haystack School of Crafts in Maine. If you don’t know about it, look it up. It’s an intense, generative, beautiful spot on the coast of Maine on Deer Isle.
I was there for two weeks and the weather was warm, the water an icy 55 degrees fahrenheit, and th
e food was incredible. Not only was every meal incredible, but after dinner the big table in the dining hall was laid out with fruit, a giant bowl of popcorn and an enormous bowl of cookies!
I was fortunate to have an incredibly knowledgable teacher, Kristin Mitsu Shiga. The group of 13 other students were from a wide range of locations around the country as well as being very diverse in age. The one thing we all had in common was a love of metal working.
Our studio had the most incredible view of the other coastal islands except when the fog rolled in across the water. We worked hard from 9-4 and often much much later.
At a certain point each of us got burned out. For me it was around the middle of the second week.
Kristin taught us how to enamel and I made an enamel cat head just for fun.
Then I was hooked.
I loved it!
I wanted to make many and give them away to the people in my life that also love cats.
While I felt silly making multiple cat heads- it became a slightly ridiculous production line of cat heads- that was what I wanted to do, and making them for th
e people I love was a complete inspiration.
Where I had been burned out before I was completely revitalized by this process and the idea of giving something away that I had so much fun making.
Where does your inspiration come from?
Do you remember the last time you made something for someone just for fun?
You just got such complete joy from the experience that you wanted to share it?
Take a moment to think about it and see if you might be able to revisit that experience.
Happy creating!
Love,
Courtney