Sometimes you pick up your Craft Resin kit, you grab your molds and equipment and you start mixing, pouring, adding glitters and other items to the mix, everything just comes to you and you start making the most amazing projects whilst singing and dancing round your craft room like a complete pro artist!
And then other times, you get your Craft Resin kit out, you stare at your collection of molds, you look at your colours and additives mindlessly as if staring into space - Blank - What can I create right now, why can’t I think, where’s my flow gone, please come back!
Creativity we believe comes in waves, sometimes you’re flowing, the projects are jumping out at you and you actually can’t create quick enough (or the projects don’t cure quick enough to get creating more lol!). But then the wave lowers and sometimes your creative juices stop flowing and you can feel a bit lost.
Doubts and fears can creep in at this stage, self talk like can I even create with resin, am I any good, what am I even doing I’m not an artist who am I kidding start coming into your head…
STOP!
Take a breath!
Let the air back out with a sigh!
You are good enough, you are an artist, you can create, you haven’t lost your flow, you simply need to ignite it again.
Sometimes the biggest blocker to our creative flow is life - Life can be busy, it can be stressful, you have million other things to juggle than just your resin work, you might have impact happen, mental health challenges, illness etc. All of these can throw you off your creative flow, and that is ok.
Know that even that amazing, incredible, high up on that pedestal you’ve put them on, Instagram Resin Influencer has days, weeks, months and even sometimes longer periods of time like this. You are NORMAL, nothing is wrong with you.
Our creativity comes and goes sometimes, and taking time away from creating can sometimes be the best thing for you, when you then return you can be full of ideas that you otherwise wouldn’t have unleashed onto the world.
So here are some tips to help you get some of that creative flow back:
1 - Step away from your creative space. So you’re asking us to step away, to not enter our creative space? Surely that’s counterproductive, isn’t the creative space supposed to inspire me?
Well yes sometimes it can do, but actually when you are in a bit of a creative funk you need to take a step away from everything that is usually in your awareness, like your creative space, that you spend every day in.
You need to spend time elsewhere, in a different room, in a different space, somewhere entirely new. The break away will open your eyes to new things all around you and start implanting fresh ideas into your head so that when you return to your creative space you return with new eyes.
2 - Spend time outside. Most people create with resin in a room, a workshop, one area, you could spend the whole day inside and not see any sunlight at all.
Sunlight and fresh air is one of the best healers and mind refreshers you can get, these are also free and widely available to all of us. Measure, mix, pour your resin project, then head outside for a walk, or a sit on a bench in a park, clear your mind by taking in the nature around you. Once you return you will have a renewed energy and more of a creative flow too.
3 - Go on coffee/tea breaks with friends - This goes back to a similar theme to question 2, but getting out of your craft room that you’re probably in on your own most of the time, and socialise with other humans, your friends, family, other local resin artists.
Talk about lots of things, but don’t spend the whole time talking about how you’re not in flow and complaining that you’ve lost it! Just escape that reality for a moment and think about other things, talk about other things. When you return you’ll have given your head the space it needs to think of creative thoughts again, fresh new ideas and perspectives will come to you.
4 - Scroll social media, but set a timer! Scrolling social media through the thousands of resin creations online can be a great way to get inspired, save the ones you love to your collections folder so you can easily find them again later.
But…
Set a timer!
Scrolling for a short period of time can be inspiring and just give you that nudge to regig your creativity with a few ideas. Scrolling for longer periods of time can be mentally draining and zap your creativity, a timer will jolt you back to reality and make you stop. Good luck trying to stop without a timer!
5 - Journal, with this you’re either thinking that’s a great idea I love journalling, or you’re thinking what! When you are in a creative block it’s usually going to be because you are stressed, or something has happened to cause impact in your life, you’re stuck in your head overthinking everything.
Journalling is a way of getting everything in your head out of it, by writing it all down you release it from taking up valuable creative space in your head. The overthinking slows down and sometimes goes away completely and you create space to flow again.
Get a pad and a pen, and write down what’s in your head. There’s no right or wrong way to journal, what comes to mind write down, get it out of your head, don’t overthink it, don’t judge what comes out, be kind to yourself, just release it all. If what comes out is very difficult tough emotions and thoughts you can always destroy the paper afterwards so that you know no one will see it and that in itself can be a huge release, or you can keep it, it’s what works for you.
All of the above are basically different ways to just take a step away, to take a breath from your creative funk. When we take a break, when we step away from what is causing us to be blocked we find space and fresh perspectives to open our creative flow again.
You’re not broken, you’re not rubbish, you’re not anything because you are blocked right now, you’re human, having a human experience, you can get through it and create again. Be kind to yourself always.
If you have been blocked before, but got through it, please do share your tips on what worked for you in the comments below.
Team Craft Resin
