Developing Creative Habits for a More Inspired Life

A mentor is a tremendous help. Former teaching colleague Jerry Williamson taught me, in small, manageable steps, how to do stained glass. My first projects were small and always followed the pattern provided — no true creativity. Gradually, I learned that choosing the best glass and patina colouring added extra uniqueness. My pièce de résistance was a large floral design for our front door. Much of it used a clear swirled glass. I challenged myself to divide one large piece into seven sections while still preserving the original swirl design. Others may not notice or appreciate the result, but that special touch is a personal treasure.

The idea of adding a personal touch carried over into other projects. Not totally creative, but tweaking is another technique in my “take-an-extra-step” toolbox. My woodshop neighbour, Dennis Fisher, was known for mosaic mantel clocks. He used odds and ends of what most people would discard to puzzle together a mishmash of sizes, shapes, colours, and depths onto a semicircle of wood. At first, I felt I was copying his style, but eventually I found my own spin. Instead of wood scraps, I used small pieces of driftwood and pebbles collected along the Oregon coast to arrange my timely, functional artwork.

Often, nature offers an array of opportunities. My son-in-law Chad Deschamps of Revelstoke, British Columbia, takes excellent photos of the flora and fauna of the forest. His nature photos inspired me to play with a combination of vertical slabs of local live edge wood and 5"×7" pieces of tin of varying colours with Chad’s 4"×6" otter photos. There will never be two identical combinations in photo displays like this.

Finding a specialty can be gratifying. I like to play cribbage and came up with the idea of designing my own crib boards and pegs. From a round of wood cut from a tree that was salvaged when my birth home was demolished, I designed a track and laboriously drilled the necessary holes. Later boards came from a wooden duck decoy, cut in half and with a two-player track. Next was a bowling pin.

Keeping an open mind can frequently lead to some of the oddest, yet still satisfying, creative challenges. While playing tennis recently, I spied a garbage pail filled with the cardboard lids from the sleeves of tennis balls — what a waste to throw them out! This idea led me to arrange the lids onto a 1/8 inch panel board in the shape of an oversized tennis racket.

As you can see, I tend to gravitate to what I call “handyman” projects. But the creative habit can be employed in almost any endeavour. The same mindset helped me to develop my recently published children’s book and a crime drama I penned. Suggestions for book club questions are currently in the planning stage.