Studio Time: Creative Rabbit Holes and Distractions

I love a rabbit hole. I take that back. I dislike rabbit holes when it comes to business meetings. Creatively? I love falling down a rabbit hole into a warren of possibilities. Playing leads to so many interesting results.

• When i get to my disorganized desk and assess the materials laying there, my mind speeds off in an interesting and unexpected direction

• Unexpected materials or colors land next to each and I must play

• My experience doesn’t match my expectations and the resulting play session ends up disappointing

• Halfway through the process I end up really loving the results of right where I’m at, even if it still isn’t getting me to where I intended to go

I start out with a an idea in my head and rush to the workstation to start trying it out. But many different situations can send me down a rabbit hole where I get lost end up in a very different place than I intended:

The following photos were from falling down a rabbit hole and just following it. This was a combination of "speeding off in a different direction" and getting "halfway through the process.” Both of these are off track of the next theme for Kanna Inspire, but there are some really interesting possibilities for the future. These are not high quality polymer work, but rather prototypes. They’ll get put into an idea bin for future design possibilities.

I starting making canes for some Folk Houses that I wanted to make, but got all distracted and entranced with the prettiness of the canes themselves. I love the millefiore look of the polymer.

This is another example of “halfway through”a process. I was mixing scraps together. The really cool thing with polymer is mixing a whole bunch of crazy colors together and running them through your pasta machine. The partially blended results are really stunning. (The beads were poorly made, but I wanted to make them quickly to capture the idea for use at a later time.) These two experiments will go into my ideas box.

Your turn: How do you fall down the creative rabbit hole? Where have your adventures led you that made you very pleased? 

P.S. - here is a link to some truly gorgeous polymer clay finished product on Polymer Clay Daily. A gorgeous necklace posted back in September 2012.