Creativity in Covid times

First I called this topic suggestion for the Jewelry Artisans Community blog carnival a personal one and then I forgot about it completely. Mind you, that was on November 1, and on the next day something happened that managed to make this year even worse than it had been the months before.
It's hard for me to be clinical about this year. When hearing 2020, all I want to do is swear in the worst words I know, but I have never done that on my blog and won't start it now. I also won't tell you everything that happened because most of it is very personal, and not all of it has to do with Covid.
Covid, however, has been hanging above me like Damocles' Sword, waiting to make everything more difficult, more scary, more uncertain.

Being immunocompromised, I have rarely left the house since March. I am lucky, I have wonderful people running important chores for me and bringing me groceries (which makes me feel grateful, but also guilty sometimes), and I had turned into a homebody in the last few years, anyway.
Working in home office suited me very well, too. Not having to commute saved me a lot of time.
Sounds perfect, doesn't it?
Even a homebody like me can become restless eventually, though, or feel trapped. I didn't embrace the same things as others. I don't cook or bake much, and Covid wouldn't make me change that. I don't follow video workouts. I don't like video chats. I did talk a lot on the phone, however, in fact I don't think I have ever been on the phone so much before, not even as a teenager. A lot of it had to do with the private matters I mentioned, though.

So I had time for being creative like crazy, right? Theoretically yes, but it didn't work out that way.
One side effect of Covid were shipping restrictions to other countries. My business which is mostly aimed overseas was practically non-existent this year, and once restrictions were lifted, shipping overseas was so delayed not just across the ocean, but also within the destination countries that I didn't feel like taking chances.
I'm not complaining about my business per se as it's not that big, and I have an income from my part-time job. I'm so sorry for those people who are not as lucky.
I'm just mentioning it because not being able to sell influenced my creativity more than I would have expected.
My motivation was at a low and so was my creativity at first. It simply didn't make any sense to me to create something under these circumstances, it felt as if that part of my brain also had gone into lockdown. Of course I had had creative blocks before, but this was worse. I questioned everything and I'm pretty sure I got on quite a few nerves with my whining about it.

Looking back, however, I noticed that I got a few things done after all although not many of them were jewelry.
I finally started trying out a new technique, bead embroidery. I made some jewelry first, and then bead embroidery took me on a new journey, big projects like The Box, The Tiara/Headband, and finally The Sneakers. Yes, in capital letters because these felt BIG.
I also beaded two more doll outfits, and lately I have been working on another pair of sneakers.
It's actually a little surprising to me that I managed to pull all of these through. On the other hand I ignored my wire almost completely and jewelry was suddenly on the backburner.
These are a few of the things I made.

Don't ask me what that means because I don't know.
Will things become normal again eventually? Will my creativity change back, completely, in parts or not at all?
Has my interest shifted from making jewelry to making, well, whatever? What does that mean for my business? I have never sold any of my bigger non-jewelry projects because there was so much of my time and heart in them that I didn't manage to part with them, not even mentioning that I don't intend to underprice myself, but also don't believe in people wanting to pay the prices I would have to ask.
The conclusion is that I don't have the slightest idea at the moment, and you are probably already tired of my rambling, anyway ;-)

For now I'll just be waiting for what's going to happen next. Will the situation improve with the vaccines, if so, when? When will I have to leave home office and commute again? What else will the new year bring me?
Interesting times ...

What are other JAC members' experiences? Check it out here.

Jewelry Art by Dawn
My Bijou Life

Creativity

The other day my friend, The Crafty Chimp, wrote about "That Creative Gene". She tells us that she is from a creative family and encourages others to go look for their creative gene.
Her post made me think about my own creativity. I usually just take it for granted. I wasn't one of those kids who made maccaroni pictures, I have a glue trauma as I like to point out at any possible occasion, and if had to sew my own clothes, I probably would get arrested for indecent behavior after showing myself in public. I used not to knit half bad, though, when I still did it ... even though I only started knitting because my bad doodling wasted too much paper.

Then I found the wire and the beads, the big ones and finally the tiny ones, with a little adventure here and there like polymer clay.
Now it makes me wonder why we stick with some things and not with others.
Why is it so appealing to me to turn yards of wire into a mesh of stitches while I hated crocheting with yarn? Where did I find the patience to put tiny beads together on a loom, but not the patience to do it without a loom? Why can I waste wire experimenting for hours, knowing the project could well end up in the trash while I can't find the patience to look at a thirty minute video tutorial?

Sometimes people tell me I should make this or that, and they probably think that I'm very stubborn if I ignore it (yes, I am stubborn, but about other things).
Why don't I feel the urge to even try some things - wire wrapping, off loom beading, bead embroidery only to mention some of the things that could be seen as natural for me to try. I have most of the material around, I could jump right in and see if it's for me, but there is still so much I want to try in my own line of work, patterns are lined up in my bead program, wire ideas fight for that last bit of space in my brain, and then there is my need of keeping it fun and relaxing for myself.

Last night I spontaneously forgot all my patterns and ideas, instead I took a necklace I had been given by someone from a former life and which I never wore, cut it apart, and then there was only my wire, my crochet hook and the tumbled stone beads.
About 145 cm later I had a new necklace and felt good. I may not have the answers to my questions, but as long as what I do makes me feel good, all is well.

The necklace will be in my shop eventually after I had better light for pictures.

Random thoughts - creative moods

You remember Mabel, my muse? The voice in my head, the feeling in my fingers, the lady poking into my brain with a stick to cause sudden deviations?
Mabel who sometimes is a simple girl with a simple taste, then changes to an elegant lady who demands gemstones and silver, and makes a seamless transition to a dark soul or a geek afterwards.

What I'm talking about? Well, I often say that I like to explore and it's true. I like to experiment, go down new paths, change patterns in the middle of a project. When I look at the work I have done, I wonder if someone who hasn't known me for a while yet would be able to tell it's all mine.
What does it say about me? Is Mabel a bit crazy, and does that make me a bit crazy? ;-)
If I make, say a bowl, and suddenly it wants to be an octopus, should I really give in? Or should I finish the bowl, and then start an octopus? Would I even still want to make the octopus after I have finished the bowl, though?
Is it wrong that I rather follow the giggle sometimes? Yes, I actually do giggle while making some things, and honestly, it's a good feeling.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. Are you always serious about your projects? Do you start something and end up with something else? Do your creative moods jump wildly about the place or are you trying to contain them and keep them in order to always take the one you need out of its "mind drawer"?

Let me show you some randomly picked pieces I have made lately to explain what I mean.
These all come from the same muse and the same hands over the course of a few months.

Don't worry, Cara IS wearing a wire crochet body underneath, even if you may not see it at first sight.

Know now what I mean?