After doing
GOOD WORK, I urge you to make YOUR work.
Making other people's work can get you so far. Then it will keep you from going further.
I'm talking about using other people's designs in all forms—copying other people's work, using designs you've found in a magazine, or a store, or video, or using designs supplied to you in a kit or from a class, or work you've seen in a store or at a fair.
This is a fuzzy area to talk about, too. We are ALL inspired by others, every day. I didn't invent faux ivory. But when I saw a piece made by Victoria Hughes, I knew it was exactly the technique I needed to make my artifacts.
I copied the TECHNIQUE and not her work. I modified her "recipe" to serve my own creative purposes.
The same with my fiber collage technique. I took a workshop from a talented fiber artist, Susan Carlson. I used her fish quilt pattern from the class, so I could focus on learning her technique. By the end of class, I "got" it.
Over the years, I've kept the basics of what I learned from her—decorative machine quilting to tack down layers of cloth instead of piecing them. But my designs, my story, my compositions, my themes look nothing like her work. The piece I made in her class hangs above a workstation, as inspiration. It's never been publicly displayed or exhibited as my work, except as an example of student work in Susan's book, Free-Style Quilting.
I know there are countless people who are happy to knit sweaters, sew quilts, build tables from patterns. Some of them even sell their work to friends or local fairs.
If you read the fine print, though, these patterns will say (or imply) that they are created for the private use of the individual who bought the pattern, and are not to be used for commercial purposes. Same with the patterns shown in magazines and in videos. If you get to a point where you are trying to jury into high-end shows, or sell to discriminating stores, the work has to be YOUR work, YOUR designs. And yes, usually they can tell.
Even if the artist truly doesn't care if you copy the work exactly, think ahead. If YOU copy the work, what's to keep hundreds of other people doing exactly what YOU did? Eventually your work will be seen as yet another "clone" in a sea of clones.
There's another way we can lose sight of our unique vision, and that is being too immersed in a sea other people's work.
There are more craft books and magazines than ever being published, on every craft imaginable. There are craft shows on television, videos and DVDs. There are how-to articles on the internet. Everywhere we look, we can see the latest gadgets and tools and techniques.
There are people who love taking these classes, love learning the latest craft craze. They always have the newest tool, the hottest gadget. It's fun, it's exciting, it's sociable.
I love it, too. I love seeing what other people are doing. I like to see new ideas.
But there is a downside to this.
It makes it really, really hard to find YOUR inner muse, to develop your own personal vision and aesthetic.
Years ago, I knew an artist, an unusually creative person. She said she didn't like to look at too many craft books or take very many art classes. She said it spilled over into her work, made her lose sight of her personal aesthetic. And I could see that in her work. It wasn't really like anyone else's work.
It's a fine line, being inspired and stimulated by the beautiful work that's out there, and being able to come up with work that is distinctively yours. It's a delicate balance, taking enough classes and workshops to update your techniques and freshen your aesthetic, and yet not having your work end up looking like everyone else's work.
Again, the choice is yours. Some people are happy to stay students, happy to make work this way. If you are yearning for something more, go off the beaten path a little ways. You may find something there that's wonderful. Different.
Something totally YOU.
