I’ve just finished making a gorgeous garland that I’m really proud of while listening to an interview with Austin Kleon and it got me thinking about my creative process.  I love making things but really only with flowers.  Not only do I find it calming but it’s like everything is in tune while I’m working on that piece.

I’ve learnt that for me my best work comes when I let go.  I have my materials in front of me and I have an idea of where I’m headed but I’m open to diversion, I’m open to going off on a different path if that’s where the flowers are taking me.  Sometimes it’s because the flower heads are facing a different way to what I expected and sometimes it’s because I’m really enjoying the look of a particular flower and want to see more of it, or it’s an unexpected colour etc.

But if I’m trying to turn it into something else, to be more like the picture that’s in my head then that’s where I come unstuck because it’s like trying to swim against the tide.  And then there are those times when it just doesn’t feel like it’s going anywhere but that’s when you have to push through and keep going and trust that it will turn out. 

I’m also learning to just start, to try because the first iteration of something isn’t supposed to be perfect.  You only get better at it the more you do it and if you never start then you never give yourself a chance to improve and just maybe become great at it.