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Who Is Controlling Your Creativity?

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Setting Up My Story:I’ve got this brilliant idea that only I can pull off. A slip over jacket that is made just for me that goes with my stage costume. It’s got glitter coming out of the wahoo and complimentary colours to go with my look. It’s my world wide debut in 2 weeks and I have just summoned up this idea in my brain. Now the question is where to shop?

The obvious choice is the massive retailer because of its convenience. So off to the store I go and suddenly my brain is overwhelmed with colours that aren’t matching what I had in mind. Furthermore, I start getting disappointed with the colour schemes and suddenly when I think something is close… there’s clearly not enough on the shelf to pull off my idea.

I must have walked down the aisle 20 times. I was bad mouthing whom ever choose the colour schemes for the store thing nothing tends to match each other really well. I then start doing what the rest of us do… “I BEGIN TO SETTLE ON A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THEME!”

Creativity Control:

This is what prompts this story. I see myself on stage with a brilliant jacket… I’m so entranced with the idea of it. I realize my colours aren’t exactly what I wanted and I begin to reason with my subconscious that it’s okay if my shade isn’t exactly what I wanted or I have chosen a completely different colour scheme altogether.

Have you done this? You have an idea and then settle because the store didn’t have what you wanted. When you finished the project you are NOT delighted as you should be because you know in your heart you settled on submission that was 2nd choice. You know darn well what happens next. It will find its way to the very back of the closet never to see daylight until garbage day several years later!

Taking Control Back:

With a hand full of yarn retailing about $70.00 I decided that I am in control. I will not settle for 2nd Choice. I want what I want and I will have what I want! I put everything back down and out of the store I go and the retailer will never know why.

I drove nearly 2 hours to go to a store where I knew I won’t have to settle. http://www.lensmillstore.com Lens Mill Stores of Sourthern Ontario Canada. They have more yarn aisles than 8 massive retailers put together. Everything you could possibly need in quantities to successfully finish a project. For me the drive was worth saving my creativity. Lens Mill Stores was the very first business to ever support my dream in 2009 of The Crochet Crowd.

This is also a wonderful opportunity to check with smaller business owners who sell yarn. Maybe they can get you something special in quantities you need. It’s hard to stock everything due to so much selection. I was going to bug a stock person at the massive retailer but I figured I would get the “Line”, everything we have is put out.

So what do you do? Do you search online for Yarn? Do you check with smaller businesses? Or do you do what most of us do… SETTLE?

For more fabulous ideas on exploring your creativity, visit www.mikeyssmail.com.

Hook’d On Scrapp’n

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Have you been caught by the creative bug of scrap booking? Teresa Church, of Clinton Ontario is passionate about the world of preserving her memories through “Scrapp’n”. As crafting sections such as fabrics and yarns have depleted from the shelves at the stores, the scrap booking mania has expanded. After speaking to Church, her level of enthusiasm draws you in and you suddenly feel like you need to run out and buy up a storm of scrapping materials to be part of her energy wave.

It’s about telling the life story of a subject, person, or event that has happened. Photo albums are great; however, why not add some embellishments such as ribbons, stickers, or extra writing to explain the moment captured. It allows the scrapper to document who people are in the pictures and reduces figuring out who people are in the future to come. Scrapping solves some mysteries that may be left behind and is a wonderful reference resource to trigger memories that may have been forgotten.

Scrapp’n is art. The way you cut your materials, display the pictures or treasures you want to keep, and how you colour code your book is extremely personal. Church explains that it reveals the level of creativity along your scrapp’n journey. Looking at the first books and comparing to how much more creative you have become is satisfying to see your personal growth creativity wise while walking down memory lane.

Church even attends “Scrapp’n Retreats” for getting away and diving head first into her artistic getaway. Together with 20 – 25 people they scrap all weekend long. They share memories, trade tools, try interesting ideas, and leave with finished scrap books. It allows them to sit down and really think about their art. Think of it this way, she is preserving her memories and creating new memories at the retreat while she is making her books.

The appeal to scrapp’n is the inexpensive start up costs. You can start off with a few items and slowly build your collection of supplies over time. She’s a crafter at heart and like many of us will “Bee Line” directly to the crafting section before walking around the store. Church emphasizes that Canada seems to lack of the availability of finding supplies. She’s talking about large retailers that don’t change their products for lengthy periods of time. She finds herself ordering most of her stuff online from the United States to keep her books unique.

If you like to see your family and friends in pictures all around the house, than this craft is definitely for you. Enter the world of scrapp’n and see if this art is for you!

For more fabulous ideas on exploring your creativity, visit www.mikeyssmail.com.

Dismissing Your Crafting Compliments

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Are you the type of person who will receive a compliment for your work and you easily dismiss your project as being amateurish or easy to do? I would be broke if I had to give a dime for every time I receive a compliment and I just dismiss the compliment without accepting the praise at face value. For some reason, I feel anyone can do what I do which doesn’t make me special at all. Deep down I know that I have special gifts but in a way I feel I don’t deserve the recognition for my work.

If you have ever been to the Mikeyssmail Facebook Fan Page, you will see 100’s of people continually posting and sharing ideas. Most of what you will see will knock your socks off. Like me, many of the people feel amateurish because they thought to do something brilliant and just feel like a regular people willing to share.

On the flip side, a few designers may have never thought of what the regular crafting amateurs have done and accomplished. Or they have a team of people figuring out what the designer should do next to “WOW” the audience. It doesn’t take much for a designer to see an amateurish idea and give it a boost with the designers signature spin to it, add in mass media & television, and “presto” you have a designer launching a new product idea based in part of an amateurish idea. In many ways too… because a designer says it’s hot we tend to follow their trend and we are led to believe it’s hot.

Amateurs have an advantage. They are just crafty people willing to take a chance on a failed idea without many consequences. A person who reaches to a designer level has a reputation to uphold and can’t afford to have ideas to be just another project or worse… a failure.

Amateurs need to give themselves permission that they are artists too. They may not have cameras or media attention but they are just as vital to the world of creativity as a main stream designers. Without our amateurs trying new things… the designers wouldn’t be inspired by what they see or use parts of an idea for something greater. It’s like team work. It’s not about having the winning idea all the time, sometimes it’s about just being part of the brain power or a thought that contributed to the final idea.

Remember, when someone is complimenting you on your work… it was your hands or idea that made it possible and by all means that makes you a designer too! Accept the compliment and realize your ideas and work was appreciated.

To see some of the crochet videos check out AllFreeCrochet’s YouTube page.

Mikey Launches More Tutorial Videos At AllFreeCrochet

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This week, Mikey from Mikeyssmail has posted more videos for you to learn on the AllFreeCrochet You Tube Channel. There are two tutorials to follow along with:

Tutorial 1 – How To Filet Crochet – Part 1 and Part 2

  1. If you have ever wanted to learn how to crochet your name into your projects using Filet Crochet ideas, this is for you.
  2. The tutorial is highly informative showing you how to read the graphs.
  3. Don’t limit yourself on just names, you can do numbers, and shapes.
  4. Mikey has provided a side link in the information. It will take you to his website where you can print your own graph paper to make your own shapes, numbers, and letters. There’s even a link for CrochetKim who is giving away free graphing on letters. She even provides basic shapes and a few names.
  5. This filet crochet will awaken your creativty with a brand new challenge.

Tutorial 2 – How To Crochet A Jumbo Fan Pattern – Part 1 and Part 2

  1. Both of these two tutorials are available in Left & Right Hand so everyone can follow.
  2. Mikey takes a regular fan, jumbo sizes it to quadruple crochet techniques.
  3. This would be the type of project that would grow really fast. It’s an interesting pattern and changing colours would be fairly easy to take an already “WOW” pattern and make it “Fabulous!”
  4. Good Luck with this one… it’s a very simple idea and Mikey believes beginners have an opportunity to be able to do something like this.

See you next week where we will launch 2 more tutorials for AllFreeCrochet.

Exclusive Video Crochet A Long

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Mikeyssmail, aka designer Michael Sellick, has been working along side AllFreeCrochet.com since May 2010. Michael has been uploading on a weekly basis to AllFreeCrochet’s You Tube channel every week four tutorials. http://www.youtube.com/allfreecrochet Michael shows viewers the RIGHT Handed approach, he also does the LEFT handed versions of the same stitch so no one is left out.  You will find these videos have a strange short form at the end of any video title. Here’s an example:

How To Crochet Basket Weave – RH or How To Crochet Basket Weave – LH

The RH and LH are short forms on which version you are watching. RH = Right Hand and LH = Left Hand. Video search engines will also pick this up if you enter in Right or Left Handed Crochet.

Starting for the Month of August, we will have a project specifically designed for AllFreeCrochet & Mikeyssmail Viewers who have been following along with the tutorials designed for AllFreeCrochet. The project will be a baby blanket. We will use the stitches already taught in the video channels with a spin to them.

Many of the stitches we assume are just taught line by line. But in Fact, they can be manipulated to other shapes with a bit of thought.

Michael will have the pattern & sample blanket available for those who know what they are doing or want to jump ahead. The tutorial will have 4 parts with each part being released week by week. By the end of August you will have been able to follow this through for the entire project. The tutorials will be in RH and LH versions to accomodate everyone!

Join us in August for an exciting crochet a long!

This Week’s AllFreeCrochet – Mikeyssmail Tutorials

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Exclusively on AllFreeCrochet.com and Mikeyssmail You Tube Channels, Mikey will be teaching some new tutorials which are answering many viewers questions.

How Do You Attach Granny Squares Together?

Mikey will be demonstrating some techniques for you. The techniques are simple once you understand the principles of attaching. Some things to look for is the designs of each of the squares. Mikey will take you through Step By Step.

These videos will be ready on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 for your weekly tutorial lessons.

You should note, these tutorials will not be filmed in both right and left handed versions. The concepts are so simple that you will be able to follow along no matter which hand you are doing.

Buying The Artist’s Vision and Stories

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Nearly 20 years ago I was an Artisan’s sections of the Canadian National Exibition where there was a couple of guys selling some “Self Made Jewelry”. The jewelry was unlike anything I had ever seen. One of the guys had a dentist friend… He was making some jewelry with false teeth. Before your cringe and think that’s pretty gross… there was something about the jewelry that was somewhat “goth”  but out right fascinating. It was undeniably the most unique thing I had ever seen. The stuff they were offering wasn’t for me… but their ideas for the jewelry was memorable.

10 years later. As I scanned across a table at another Artisan’s Festival, the jewelry on the table was indexing my brain from a memory of the work that I had seen before. When I looked up, it was the same two guys. This time, they had developed interpretive passion about their jewelry. By now, their collection was enormous. They were busy with people standing 2 or 3 people back from the table just to get a look and listen to the stories about the ideas they had. In the 10 year span since my last visit to their table… their passion was being incorporated into their work… it wasn’t just jewelry anymore… it was wearable artwork. You knew when you bought a peice that you were buying into their creativity.

From that moment and the last time I seen them nearly 10 years ago… I was so drawn to the ideas I had seen on the table. Not so much the “Goth” but the idea that something can be created to have emotional creative energy which is captured inside the artwork. The artwork tells its own story, but now the jewelry has a second story by the actual designers.

When someone is buying creativity… it’s not just the colour and shape. Its the emotional connection and meaning associated with whatever you are producing. If your a designer… or wannabe designer… it’s important to think about who is your purchaser and what would draw the type of customer you are looking for.

After all, they are not just buying some fabric, metal, or plastic… they are buying into the creative dream of the designer.

Video Tutorials Available Through AllFreeCrochet

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It is my pleasure to film Crochet Video Tutorials on behalf of AllFreeCrochet who is affiliated to Favecrafts. Each week, I get to pick 2 tutorials in which to film a step by step video demonstration on. I am broadcasting through AllFreeCrochet’s new You Tube Channel and my own.

Concept:

Pick stitches or concepts that many viewers would be interested in learning. Teach simple tutorials for beginners but also focus on crochet that is a bit more complex for those who are wishing a challenge. Teach it clearly trying to answer all questions in the tutorial along the way. Keep it quick paced yet slow enough for the majority to follow. Provide the tutorials in both Left and Right Handed so “everyone” has an opportunity to learn.

I work closely with one editor at AllFreeCrochet who decides before filming if the idea I have is appropriate or wanted. Once I get the green light, I begin mentally planning my steps, words, and begin doing up sample peices for my viewers to see.

Open To Suggestions:

I am open to ideas from viewers and fans of Favecrafts, AllFreecrochet & Mikeyssmail. Please note that many patterns are not allowed to be filmed or recorded in what I do without the express written consent of the author. The key to Mikeyssmail is to teach stitches that are standard and sometimes add a twist here and there for interesting creative variation. Many concepts of crochet are considered open source standard crochet stitches which makes many tutorials limitless in possibilities.

Recording of tutorials appears to be easily done as my video programming makes it look pretty snazzy. What appears to be 5 minutes of a tutorial is literally hours in my studio editing out “bloopers” or “hiccups” during the filming. Adding graphics, sounds, and keeping the tutorial flowing seamlessly. I’ve got it down to a science but it all takes time.

If you are interested in a stitch tutorial that you think many people would enjoy seeing, send me an email to mikeyssmail@gmail.com , I will see what I can do to locate it, ensure it’s not copyrighted, and then if time allows to film it.

July’s filming tutorial list is going to be soon drafted up, maybe you have an idea on what you would like to see. This also applies to my own Mikeyssmail You Tube Channel as well.

Resting… To Energize Your Creative Self

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Viewers write me questions that I originally found strange because I think there’s guilt or worry when they don’t feel motivated to continue their crafting.

“I am just not interested in crochet right now… nothing is inspiring me… and I don’t feel the urge to want to pick up a hook and yarn to force myself to do something because I will just resent my project as I am working on it. I think I am just loosing my interest in crochet.”

The answer is very simple. “Give yourself permission to rest and take a break.” As an online tutorial maker… there are times where I feel overwhelmed with viewer email responsibilities, tutorial making, scheduling, and crocheting for my own enjoyment. I feel the pressure which can make the craft feel like a job instead of a pleasurable hobby. I feel guilty when I look at my hook on the desk and it’s not doing anything but collect dust.

I talk to many people who feel like they need a break but concerned it will be for the rest of their lives. It’s very possible that you could never crochet again, but it’s more than likely you will pick it up again when you see something that gives you the inspiration. Inspiration seems to come when you are relaxed and non pressured.

For me, when I feel like Crochet is a chore instead of fun… I turn to other creative avenues to explore. I don’t turn off my creative self, I am just recharging my own batteries with new experiences which can lead to more possibilities. Usually when I get back to Crochet… there’s a level of enthusiasm and self satisfaction because some other type of crafting  project I was working on has inspired a new idea that I could do with Crochet. Crafting gives me a sense of happiness and joy that is undeniable.

So don’t panic… just allow yourself to rest. Discover what other crafts you might be interested in… and from there… just relax and go with the flow!

iTunes and Free Creative Resources

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My free online tutorials, Mikeyssmail, has been broadcasting Free Loom Knitting and Crocheting Tutorials for iTunes for 1 month now. iTunes is something I have stayed away from because I never owned a Mac Product. I figured iTunes is just for iPod-like products. I never realized the power and free accessibility for everyone online that has access on iTunes. If you are not listening or watching a PODCAST, you can just turn on a radio station that is specific to your listening pleasure broadcasting live.

I was encouraged to join iTunes about a year ago but I didn’t know how it exactly works. There are costs associated to uploading the Podcasts to iTunes but it remains completely free for all users who subscribe. Some of the iTunes stuff does cost money such as downloading music or movies… but “Podcasting Remains Free For Everyone Which Favecrafts Radio & Mikeyssmail Are Broadcasted On!”

I recently stumbled across Tiffany Windor’s Favecrafts Radio. OH WOW! What a treat! I am working at my workplace and people think I am listening to the radio… but don’t tell anyone… I am being inspired and getting the itch to get home and get some yarn and crafts into my hands to begin something that I have heard about on her show. Her guests are creative and just regular people who have found a way to really expose their creativity.

The advantage to iTunes is that if you own an iPod or something equivalent, you can simply download and take it with you. This allows you to do tutorials on roadtrips and continue to be inspired without being wired to your home.

Come on over to the iTunes store and search Mikeyssmail or even Favecrafts Radio. You will find both of us there. Inspire, Create, & Celebrate!

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