Book Review: Creativity Inc.

I've been doing a bit more reading lately, and have been working my way through Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmul, president of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation.   My husband picked up the book before Christmas, and it's been floating around the house ever since.  While the book focuses on the lessons Catmul (and Pixar) have learned about fostering creativity in a large, corporate environment, I found many parallels to my personal experiences as a solo artist.  His candid look into Pixar's creative process is both refreshing and thought-provoking.  I found myself alternating between "YES! Exactly" and "Huh! I hadn't thought of that" as I read.  My copy looks like a ticker-tape parade with all its little post-it flags pointing to passages that struck me. 

Through the book, Catmul reminds the reader that creativity is a process, and there WILL be lumps and bumps along the way.  Creation is a messy process, and most projects start out ugly. He stresses that understanding this, and protecting the 'ugly baby' is important to allow for it to potentially grow into something beautiful.   He also reminds us that starting on a project is a journey into the unknown.   That at the beginning "There is no movie.  We are making decisions, one by one, to create it".  Sound familiar?  The parallels to any creative endeavor are unmistakable. 

In his introduction, Catmul states "The making of Toy Story - the first feature film to be animated entirely on a computer - had required every ounce of our tenacity, artistry, technical wizardry, and endurance.  The hundred or so men and women who produced it had weathered countless ups and downs as well as the ever-present, hair-raising knowledge that or survival depended on this 80-minute experiment.  For five straight years we'd fought to do Toy Story our way." 

As solo artists, our art can make the same demands - drawing on our tenacity, endurance and technical skills, as well as our creativity - without the support network of a larger creative environment.  We have complete creative control, but often have little in the way of back-up or support.  The book reminded me of the importance of establishing a personal a creative support network.  

Creativity Inc. stresses that an atmosphere of fear is anathema to a truly creative environment.  Mistakes will happen.  Some big, some little.  Fear of the repercussions from those mistakes cripples the creative flow.  Accountability is important.  But so is an understanding that mistakes happen, and a willingness to think outside the box not only in creation, but in response to the unexpected of the less pleasant sort.

A safe environment is crucial to developing one's vision, as is constructive criticism. Constructive being the key word hear.  Catmul devotes an entire chapter to "Honesty and Candor", focusing on Pixar's Braintrust, which meets several times a year to assess each movie they're making.  Introducing this chapter, Catmul states "People who take on complicated creative projects become lost at some point in the process. It is the nature of things - in order to create, you must internalize and almost become the project for a while, and that near-fusing with the project is an essential part of its emergence.  But it is also confusing."

His anecdotes from Braintrust meetings provide beautiful examples of the power of constructive criticism.   Criticism can be difficult for me, no matter which 'side of the table' I happen to be on.  It's difficult for most of us, I think.  Reading through their process gave me powerful insight and examples of how truly constructive criticism can be given and received, and how it can work to improve a project.  Lot's of food for thought.

Other powerful concepts he explores through the lens of his time with Pixar and later Disney Animation include The Hidden, looking at the creative process of going from the unknown to the known; The Power of Limits, how boundaries help us to create; and Post Mortems, looking at what we've done to see what worked, what didn't and what could be done better, then using that information to add to personal and corporate knowledge.  This last resonated with me as what I've been trying to do with my Lessons Learned blog series.  The series looks back at the past year, solidifying what I've learned in a series of essays, then sharing that knowledge with my Internet 'braintrust'.

I could go on; did I mention how heavily I bookmarked my copy?  But I'll end this here:  Creativity Inc would be a great commuter book - it can be easily picked up and put down, while providing a veritable feast for anyone interested in thinking about how they relate to their creative process, no matter the setting. 

Have you read Creativity Inc?  I'd love to hear what stuck you most, what you took away, where it made you think, where it made you exclaim "exactly" to the empty air, at the risk of startling those around you. 

The Creative Journey with Bead Chat magazine

Creative Bead Chat, Spring 2015

Ready for a break, but don't have time to even think about a vacation?  Check out the Spring edition of Bead Chat!  The newest issue focuses on the creative journey, with 'travel reports' from the four corners of the world. 

Cynthia Machata (of Antiquity Travelers) takes us to Malta to meet artist and designer Marica Zammit, and on the road with Janice Lucas, who has traveled to Nepal (and beyond) in her Mercedes Benz long-haul truck.  Even her 'truck' is cool - it looks like something out of a sci-fi movie to my American eyes. 

The brainchild of Melinda Orr, Creative Bead Chat works to connect kindred spirits - beaders, lampworkers, polymer clay artists, bead weavers, designers - there's something for everyone.  Bead Chat, their beautifully curated quarterly digital magazine, is written and produced by artists, for artists.

There's so much that I love about this magazine!  I can enjoy it simply as eye candy, flipping through the 'pages'.  It's a great resource for one-of-a-kind art beads by individual artists that you could incorporate into your own designs.   If I'm in the mood for more, the articles take me into the world of other designers; people I'd love to spend an afternoon with  around a beading table.  Best yet, when I see something I love or want to learn more about a particular artist, I can immediately click through to their website or blog.  The magic of digital magazines. 
 

Journey to Malta to meet Marica Zammit, interview by Cynthia Machata

Share Janice Lucas' journeys (I love the insert photo of her long-haul truck!)

So you can guess how excited I was when they approached me to ask if I'd be willing to allow them to write a review for Explorations in Freeform Peyote Beading!  Uh, Yes!?  Please?  Linda Younkman wrote a lovely, two-page review.  I was even more thrilled with how well my book fit into the issue's overall theme of creative discovery. 

Linda Younkman's review of Explorations

It's always interesting to hear what my work looks like to others; what catches their eye and draw them in.  Only a portion of the first chapter is devoted to Color, but I am flattered that Linda found it comprehensive enough to view the section as an entire chapter.  The chapter (and book) opens with a review of the basic peyote stitch, followed by an in-depth look at the ways in which freeform peyote differs, then continues on to a review of the design principles (including Color) that can help give direction to our freeform bead weaving.  All told, the book includes over ninety pieces by twenty two artists, with in-depth photo essays exploring about a third of the designs.


I've touched on just a couple of the things which caught my eye in this particular issue of Bead Chat.  It would be easy to write another page or two.  Instead, I think I'll close this here and leave the rest for you to discover on your own.  After all, isn't that what creative journey's are all about?  I hope you enjoy Bead Chat as much as I have! 

Book Review & Design Thoughts

Kristen reviewed my book, Freeform Peyote Beading this past week for the popular blog Art Jewelry Elements.  I've followed Kristen's personal blog, My Bead Journey, for some time and have gotten to know her online.  While she's a seed beader extraordinaire, she started out firmly in the "no way" camp towards trying freeform herself.  I think I may slowly be tempting her to the wild side, but in the meantime, her review provides a very different look at my book, focusing largely on my discussion of color and design.









Which has had me thinking more about design.

Sketches - translating coral to a design

In my book, I look at a number of the elements of design that I use most often in my work, then briefly touch on the principles of design.  Early on, those two really confused me - what's the difference between elements and principles?  I finally figured it out like this:

Elements of Design are like tools or building blocks you use in constructing your design.  The design element's I use most include:

• Value
• Color
• Line
• Texture

Principles of Design are more like a set of architectural blueprints or plans.  They help you figure out how exactly everything goes together and include:

• Unity
• Rhythm
• Balance
• Proportion
• Opposition
• Variety

And since I'm thinking about them, I thought I'd launch a weekly series; every Monday for the next several weeks, I'll focus on one of these in turn and whatever I'm doing with them at the time.

Book Review: How to Make Money Using Etsy

I ran across How to Make Money Using Etsy: A Guide to the Online Marketplace for Crafts and Handmade Products by Timothy Adam a while back and decided to check it out.  I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting, and when it arrived, I flipped through it and set it aside as a 'someday' read.  The interior's black & white and reminded  me of a little too much of a programing textbook.  Glancing at the table of contents and first few pages, the contents seemed pretty simplistic, too.

Earlier this week, I took it with me to read on my commute.  I quickly became absorbed to the point that I kept stopping to jot down notes on action items to improve both my website and my Etsy shop and almost missed my stop. 

Listing title becomes page URL
First line of text grabbed by search engines
Need to rework to include my key words 'freeform peyote'

Timothy's book goes far beyond the simple mechanics of working with Etsy, focusing heavily on SEO (search engine optimization), both inside and outside of Etsy, and leveraging your social networking using blogging, Facebook and Twitter to build name awareness and bolster sales potential.

Here are two simple tips I picked up regarding SEO from the section on listing your first item with Etsy.

1) Timothy recommends including your most important keywords in your listing title - and most specifically in the first 40 characters of your title - because this becomes the title of your listing page, which can improve your Google search rankings.  Checking my Etsy shop, I was pleased to see that I'd done that, mostly. 

2) Include your key words again in the first sentence of your description text.  That first line of text becomes the meta-description for your page and is the line of text that shows up in Google searches below the URL.  I'm not so good there, I discovered as you can see at right.  I tend to include my key works in the second paragraph, rather than the first.  Something I will need to work on in future postings.

Using Etsy includes a comprehensive section on blogging - from setting up your first blog (using Blogger) to topics, strategies and ideas for keeping your established blog fresh.  Following some of his own suggestions, he also includes several interviews with established bloggers from some of the top Etsy stores.  Again, while I was familiar with much of the material, I found a number of real gems within each of these sections.

Timothy also pays considerable attention to tracking the performance and reach of your various efforts using everything from the various sites' in-house statistics to Feedburner and Google Analytics.  I hadn't realized I could set up Google Analytics for my Etsy store; turns out it's under "Options".  And it reminded me to go look at my Feedburner stats for the first time since I set it up. 

All in all, I found the book easy to read, with gems of information for anyone considering setting up their first Etsy store.  But even if you don't have an Etsy store, or if you're simply looking to improve the reach of your blog or Facebook page I think you'll find considerable information of worth.  I know I did.  My burgeoning to-do list attests to that!

Updating my Photography Set up

Earlier this month I decided it was time to upgrade my photography set up. While I still like
the stone and old wood backgrounds of my patio and studio floor, there are times when
I want something a little more polished. Specifically, I wanted to be able to take high quality photographs of my work on light colored backgrounds.  To take clear, color correct photos of my work where they weren't overwhelmed by the white background had become something of a holy grail for me.

Fotodiox light tent set up on my dining room table.  Doesn't it look huge?

Now that I've had some time to play with my new set up, I thought I'd do a bit of a review.  First what  I purchased was a Fotodiox 20 x 20" light tent. 

It is quite portable; folded up it looks like a square, mid-sized portfolio. It even has exterior pockets to hold the lights and camera stand that came along with it, although I recommend emptying the pockets before you set up the light tent, since the pockets end up upside down as you set up the tent.

Crocheted lace on top of the white velvet drape

I've found a couple of different ways to set it up -  including two white sides with a black back & white top, and three white sides with a black bottom & open top.  In both of the set ups above, I'm using the white velvet drape.  It's fairly thin cloth, so you can see the black background and tablecloth shadowing through it in the left photo.  I find it works best to use a sheet of poster board underneath to make it more opaque.  It also came with additional black, red and blue velvet backgrounds.  I've only used the black and white - the red and blue seem pretty garish. 

I also haven't used the lighting much, preferring to work with natural light.  It's nice having them, though.  And I tried to use the tripod, but it wasn't adjustable enough to work with what and where I wanted to photograph.  Maybe someone else could figure out how to make that work better.  That said, I have been quite pleased with the purchase and the quality of the photographs I've been able to achieve.

All in all, I am really, really pleased with this investment - still have more to learn, but I can already see a marked improvement in the range of my photography.

Acrylic display tables & some attempts to use them, still working on this!

I also purchased a set of black and white acrylic display tables.  They're a bit more of a mixed bag as far as what I think of them so far.  The black in particular can be difficult to work with - it attracts lint like a magnet and is difficult to keep clean, the surface already had a small scratch when I removed the protective paper, and it's hard to frame the picture so that unwanted reflections don't appear in your image.  But, when you can get it framed right, and if you can keep the lint away (this would be easier if I didn't have a cat), the results can be pretty darned cool.

And then there are the two books that were listed in the "Customers Also Bought" section.  I wasn't ready to buy either of them, but curious, I wrote them down and borrowed them from the library.

The Crafter's Guide to Taking Great Photos by Heidi Adnum, is geared quite specifically towards
people interested in selling on Etsy or other online craft sites, though it's suggestions are also suited for print catalogs. While The Crafter's Guide includes a brief introduction to photography, its focus is on storytelling. How to use backgrounds, props and lighting to create an emotional response to your work with separate chapters for fashion fabrics, bags & purses, knitting & needlework, jewelry, dolls & toys, art, ceramics, home accessories and books & stationery. As an added bonus, each chapter ends with a case study of an artist working in the field.

older photo with very short depth of field

For me, this was the more engaging of the two books, despite its less interesting cover and some odd feeling that I 'ought' to be more interested in the other. Its sections on camera settings are deceptively thorough. I say deceptive, because the language is simple enough that even someone like me who has always shied away from the mechanics of camera settings felt reassured and capable of experimentation. 

I especially enjoyed the section on depth of field - what range of the photograph is brought into the strongest focus and how this can affect the feel of the photograph.  Heidi also showed a number of ways you can use black paper to reflect shadows just as you can use white paper to reflect light.  Definitely something I want to play with.  This is a book I plan to add to my library. 

At first glance, Photographing Arts Crafts & Collectibles by Steve Meltzer, is far more focused on the style of photography used for submission to shows, where the focus is entirely on showcasing the pieces itself, its details and workmanship with only minimal emphasis, at most, to storytelling.

Photographing Arts seems to be designed as a manual for those who really want to get to know their cameras, and goes into far more detail on specifics such as apertures, white balance and depth of field.  Since I'm mostly a point and shoot sort of girl, I found these details a little intimidating.

I did get some good ideas from the book and the photography featured in the book is excellent.  I f your primary focus is shooting jury shots, then this might be the book for you, but it I think this is one I'm happy checking out of the library. 

A Little Inspiration - Book Reviews

I haven't come to any conclusions yet regarding taking Freeform Peyote to a digital format and would still love your feedback whether you've used craft books in a digital format, what you're looking for in a digital craft book, and what formats its usually in (epub, pdf, kindle, etc).  There are so many options out there, it's a bit hard to know where to start (or if it even makes sense to do so).

In the meantime, I thought I'd share three more inspiration books from my library.  The first, simply titled "Karl Blossfeldt",   features his black and white plant photography.  His close-up photographs take on abstracted, sometimes alien shapes and often resemble wrought iron.  Which is funny, since it's actually the other way around; his forms have inspired generations of artists, including metal workers - Blossfeldt lived from 1865-1932.  My copy came from a used book store and I think I picked it up for $5.00.  It's a lot more on Amazon, but it's definitely one I'd recommend keeping an eye out for, and definitely worth checking out from the library if it's there.

I picked Reptiles up from one of the bargain tables at Barnes & Noble a couple of years ago.  Even if you don't like snakes and reptiles, it's worth looking through this book.   I don't have it in front of me, but I'd guess the book is at least 14" tall, and most of the photographs take up the full page, with a number of two-page spreads.  The colors and patterns are exquisite, and reptile scales look so much like bead work, the translation is almost automatic.  Searching through Amazon for the book, I came across a number of other titles by the same photographer, Paul Sarosta that look equally interesting. 

The last, Ocean Soul by Brian Skerry, is a brand-new book that I picked up last week after his National Geographic lecture by the same name.  I'm a sucker for fish books with great photos, and this coffee table book definitely lives up to that requirement.  Unlike Archipelago or The Deep, two of my favorite sea-creature inspiration books, most of the photographs in Ocean Soul show the animals in their natural environment as one of Brian's self-proclaimed goals it to act as an underwater journalist for the denizens of the sea.  The book is also wider ranging than most of my collection, both in creatures featured, and in geographic locations, which makes sense as Brian has more than 20 National Geo articles to his name. 

And here's my reader question:  what are some of your favorite inspiration books, and why?

Last Minute Book Ideas and Earring Challenge

While searching for a last minute gift idea for a couple of friends, I found myself thinking about some of my personal favorite books. I thought I'd share two of them here just for fun. Who knows, maybe one will be perfect for someone on your list.

The Deep, by Claire Nouvian

The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss is without a doubt one of my absolute favorite books for inspiration. If you've followed my blog at all, you'll know that the ocean is one of my major sources for inspiration.

The Deep is filled with images of some of the most beautiful and bizarre living forms from the ocean's twilight depths. It's one of those coffee table books that keeps you turning the page. Everyone I've ever shown the book to - male or female, adult or child, has found something to interest them. I just wish Amazon included a look inside feature so you could see how large and lovely the pictures truly are!

by Valerie Peterson & Janice Fryer

Growing up, every Christmas my siblings and I helped our mother make enough cookies to give away to the neighbors on our block. She'd start right after Thanksgiving, and we'd store the cookies in large tins (originally they were empty 10lb coffee cans) until we'd baked enough to give to everyone. A few years ago Mom confided that we made cookies because we couldn't afford to do anything else. But homemade cookies spells Christmas and community to me and I still follow the tradition she began (on a much smaller scale).

A couple of years ago I purchased  Cookie Craft: From Baking to Luster Dust, by Valerie Peterson & Janice Fryer, just before hosting a cookie cutout party.  Just in case my guests needed inspiration, of course! Cooke Craft covers the art of creating beautifully themed sugar cookie cut-outs year round, not just for Christmas, with a huge range of decorating techniques and beautiful gallery pages that tempt me to experiment every time I flip through their pages. And their sugar cookie recipes taste great, too!

I just noticed that they have a newer book out, Cookie Craft Christmas.  If I'd found this earlier in the season, it would definitely have been on my wish list! 

by Denise Peck

Which brings me to the last book on my list and the challenge I mentioned in the title of this post. Jennifer over at Beading Daily suggested taking a New Year's Challenge, instead of making a resolution, with the idea of making a pair of earrings a day, each and every day, for a month.

I'm thinking I just may have to try this in January.  Many of the pairs would be beaded, because that's what I do, but Jennifer also suggested 101 Wire Earrings for inspiration. Reviews mention that it includes instructions on how to make a variety of ear wires and hooks and it occurred to me that I could capture two birds with one net (I'm a catch and release sort of girl) by using the challenge to expand my wire working skills as well. But I wondered if there's an even better book out there.  Any suggestions? 


Anyone interested in joining me in this challenge?

Bookshelf

I'm in the process of working up a tutorial for my website on a simple beaded bead project.  But it won't be done tonight.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share some of my favorite books from my studio library.  (My studio mate and I combined libraries when we moved in - all of the books are tagged with color-coded electrical tape so that we can one day sort them back out by owner, but for now, they're all waiting for me!)

Beaded Tassels, Braids and Fringes by Valerie Campbell Harding.  My library is surprisingly slim on beading books, but this is my favorite.  It's a technique, inspiration and recipe book all rolled into one, with lots of great ideas that work in so many different situations, far beyond what the title might seem to indicate. 

Archipelago: Portraits of Life in the World's Most Remote Island Sanctuary by David Liittschwager and Susan Middleton.  I bought this book for my birthday several years ago paying full list price and it is still one of my favorite sources of inspiration.  The photography is simply amazing!  And if you like this book, you might also want to check out The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss by Claire Nouvian.

Complex Cloth by Jane Dunnewold. This is an amazing technique book.  She also has a new book Art Cloth, which "picks up where Complex Cloth left off, showing how to layer processes with the latest products to create stunning cloth for use in a variety of fiber art" according to her website. Haven't had a chance to look at it yet, but it sounds like it may replace her earlier book. Not sure - will need to check it out.

The Art of Polymer Clay Creative Surface Effects: Techniques and Projects Featuring Transfers, Stamps, Stencils, Inks, Paints, Mediums, and More by Donna Kato. This one actually belongs to Leah, my studio mate.  Neither of us really works with polymer clay, though I have fun playing with it upon occasion.  But, this is a book I pull off the shelf quite often to look through over lunch.  Again, lots of ideas and techniques, and I really like her sense of design