Introducing Creativity to a Pair of Scissors

Creativity seems to hold a life of its own inside of every creator. Like a hibernating animal, it can survive in the deepest, darkest places of a soul only to bear itself into the light whenever a creator is ready to explore. It never dies, but only goes dormant. A Creator’s task is to not only breathe life into creativity with time and energy, but to be a lifelong learner of its personality. Introducing creativity to tools and an open, determined mind can generate unique beauty that continues to provide it with sustanence.

Introducing Creativity to a Pair of Scissors

My relationship with a good pair of scissors started my Senior year of high school. I had to decide my major and knew that DAAP (school of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning) was where I wanted to land. I heard that the Interior Design program involved a lot of math so I chose fashion design instead (consequently I found out that creating slopers and sewing seams was intensely math driven). I can remember the exact time and place where I purchased my first pair of Fiskar scissors in order to prepare for the year of cutting fabric that lay ahead of me.

Fast forward into adulthood, where I had switched careers to become an Early Childhood Educator, and found myself neck-high in hobbies one summer. My twin sister was pregnant with her first child and I was giddy to create something (several somethings) to commemorate this exciting experience. The skills I had introduced my creativity to in college were waiting to be awakened and I decided to try quilting.

A good quilt can not only be a piece of generational history but a blank canvas for the relationship of pattern and color.

Creativity is Costly

To get my feet wet, I found a pattern connecting colorful triangles. I should have known from spending hours of studio time in design school creating patters, that triangles would be much more difficult than squares to sew together. Nonetheless, the quilt was a success. I found a stirring in my soul to continue to explore this craft, continually motivated to see vision come to completion.

I decided to challenge myself by tackling the art of creating large quilts. I would cover my entire bedroom just to smooth out the batting in between layers. This process was costly.

A creation itself comes at a cost to the creator-both to let go of what was created and to find value in continuing to create what has yet to exist.

I began a small business in order to be able to continue feeding this creativity with funds.

Where it begins and where it ends

Once this side of my creativity was awakened, it was consistently in a state of curiosity and influence. I was inspired by the art deco tile flooring found in dozens of buildings in downtown Cincinnati. I would find color combinations through the artwork children created, the colored pencils in a jar, or illustrations in a children’s book.

Each design motivated me to continue to explore new territory with my medium until I eventually ran out of resources (both time and funding) to be able to continue my small business.

In my mind, the beauty of the creative process matches the beauty of the pair of scissors that lay dormant in my creative closet. As life changes and our availability to create shifts, the personality of our creativity never leaves us. At any moment it can be picked up, moved, and inspired to behold the beauty stored like a treasure in its chest.