Pondering My Creative Process
Mar. 7th, 2015 01:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kerravonsenI've been writing long enough to be pretty clear how I go about it. With my symbolic jewellery, it's only been a few years. But I've made enough pieces that I think I have a decent idea about how I go about it, and the interesting thing is that it isn't very much like my writing process at all. Some things may be similar, since they are both creative processes, but the pacing and weight are different.
Stage A: Study the Subject
The first stage is what you might call "immersion". If I am working to a specific prompt, I contemplate the prompt. If I am doing a character-study, I contemplate the character. Sometimes contemplating the prompt requires contemplating the character also. Additionally, I may refresh my memory of canon to refresh my understanding of the character. What are they like? What qualities do they have? I make lists of qualities of the character or aspects of the prompt.
For example, the chief concept to consider in "Snape Angel" was "protection", since the prompt was "Hermione likes to feel protected. Severus likes to protect." The secondary concept was how to represent "Hermione" as the protected one, and "Snape" as the one doing the protecting.
Sometimes I have skipped this stage when I've been inspired with an idea out of the blue (such as with "Idris and her Thief").
Stage B: Juggling Concepts
This is where one ties the qualities found in Stage A to the symbols used to represent them. I have made a personal Symbolism wiki to aid me in this. It is a collection of symbols and their qualities (and qualities and their symbols) which I have gathered from various sources. The symbols can be anything from the abstract (such as colours or numbers) to the concrete (such as animals). I've focused on the more ancient and Eurocentric symbolism rather than the New Age type, and focused on sources which explain their reasoning, rather than ones which make arbitrary declarations that I don't understand. For example, it makes sense to me that "five" can be associated with Perception, because it is linked to "the five senses". One of the fascinating things about symbols is that they can have a slew of meanings, and indeed that the same symbol can represent both a quality and its opposite. Which is one reason why I always have to explain the symbolism of my works, because any given symbol can't have all its meanings at the same time, so I need to say which meanings I chose out of the possible ones.
During this stage, I make a list of possible symbols, with the qualities I am wanting to represent. Often enough, I cycle back to Stage A in order to see what other qualities may go with the possible symbols I've listed, which can in turn lead to more possible symbols to list. I seek symbols and qualities which are harmonious and/or reinforce each other, and throw away symbols which conflict. For example: the bees in the Hufflepuff necklace reinforce the meaning, because (a) they are hard workers, and (b) their colours match Hufflepuff colours; so one gets two things for the price of one symbol. Contrariwise, the fox, while it is a symbol of cleverness, is not something I would want to use to represent a cold, intellectual truth-seeker such as Sherlock Holmes, because the fox is most often thought of as a trickster, and its colouring is warm rather than cold.
Likewise, a symbol may come higher or lower in the list for aesthetic or technical reasons; things which I think will look pretty get more weight than things which are unattractive or difficult to represent. Not only does the symbolism need to be in harmony, but the visual aspects such as colour and texture.
At the end of this stage, I should have a list of symbols and and an idea of how I will link them together; a conceptual design.
Stage C: Technical Design and Prototyping
Once I have a conceptual design, I need to figure out whether I have the materials and technical ability to represent it, and which methods will work better and look nicer. In this stage I may look through my existing supplies, try out new techniques, make test-pieces, and/or buy new materials. This is where I decide what crafts to use; whether I'm going to use crochet, knitting, chainmaille, beading, macrame, Kumihimo, wire-wrapping etc. I also choose the specific stitches or weaves or patterns in those crafts. This is where I also decide which materials to use; the specific beads, charms, yarn, rings, wire etc.
For example:
* With "Idris and Her Thief", I wanted to make a spiral that was in the form of a double-helix, so I could attach beads to both sides of it. I knew how to make a spiral in crochet, but that was in the shape of a spiral-staircase; it had an inside and an outside, rather than two equal sides. So I asked the folks on the M.A.I.L. forums for help, and eventually found a chainmaille weave that would work.
* With "Broken Heart", I initially made a wire-work heart, but I didn't like the way it looked. Then I found some "friendship" charms which were in the shape of a broken heart, which I thought were perfect for the idea, much better than my original idea. Then I tested out a few different methods of colouring the metal charms until I found one that worked.
* Also, with "Broken Heart", I was using a new chainmaille weave, so I did a couple of test patches to figure out how the weave was done.
* With "Seasons", I made a test piece where I figured out the techniques needed for adding the leaves to the crocheted base.
Prototypes are deliberately made only when I'm uncertain of a technique. If something fails aesthetically, then I stop and retroactively declare the item to be a failed prototype, but it wasn't intended to be a prototype from the start, it was intended for the final piece. The wire-work heart above falls into this category. Thus the line between Stage C and Stage D can be somewhat blurred.
Sometimes it can be the case that a prototype (whether intentional or retroactive) fails so spectacularly that the technical design is no longer viable. If that happens, I may need to go back to Stage B or even Stage A in order to re-think the design.
Stage D: Implementation
This is where I make the actual piece. In some ways, this is the easiest and quickest part. All the thinking is done, all (or most of) the prototyping is done. At this point I'm fairly certain it will work; I just have to put it together. It is physically more difficult than writing, since there are physical skills involved, but it is less intellectually taxing than writing, because every single stage of the writing process involves brain-work, right to the very end. With the jewellery-making, there are parts that one can just do on autopilot, which is soothing.
The chief risk with jewellery-making is the risk of RSI, if I work long stretches without resting enough. I did that to myself when I was working on my scale-maille bracer. (silly KA!)
Another risk depends on the type of crafts being used: the risk of ruining everything and having to start again, or even worse, not being able to start again. Some crafts are easier to back-track on than others. Chainmaille can be un-done and re-done (if necessary with new rings). Knitting and crochet can be frogged, but sometimes it's difficult to frog and/or the yarn is kinked/frayed too much to be reusable. But I'm likely to have another ball to use, even so. Wire-work has to be frequently thrown away (I'll get better, I hope) because one cannot re-use the wire because it's already work-hardened. The worst disasters are when I have some unique irreplaceable item (such as an expensive pendant or charm) and I've done something to it which can't be un-done (such as gluing). Fortunately, something that bad hasn't happened to me yet. But I can understand why my brother-in-law who does woodwork much prefers to use traditional wood glues rather than modern ones, because the traditional ones can be removed by heating, while the modern ones can't be removed at all.
Stage A: Study the Subject
The first stage is what you might call "immersion". If I am working to a specific prompt, I contemplate the prompt. If I am doing a character-study, I contemplate the character. Sometimes contemplating the prompt requires contemplating the character also. Additionally, I may refresh my memory of canon to refresh my understanding of the character. What are they like? What qualities do they have? I make lists of qualities of the character or aspects of the prompt.
For example, the chief concept to consider in "Snape Angel" was "protection", since the prompt was "Hermione likes to feel protected. Severus likes to protect." The secondary concept was how to represent "Hermione" as the protected one, and "Snape" as the one doing the protecting.
Sometimes I have skipped this stage when I've been inspired with an idea out of the blue (such as with "Idris and her Thief").
Stage B: Juggling Concepts
This is where one ties the qualities found in Stage A to the symbols used to represent them. I have made a personal Symbolism wiki to aid me in this. It is a collection of symbols and their qualities (and qualities and their symbols) which I have gathered from various sources. The symbols can be anything from the abstract (such as colours or numbers) to the concrete (such as animals). I've focused on the more ancient and Eurocentric symbolism rather than the New Age type, and focused on sources which explain their reasoning, rather than ones which make arbitrary declarations that I don't understand. For example, it makes sense to me that "five" can be associated with Perception, because it is linked to "the five senses". One of the fascinating things about symbols is that they can have a slew of meanings, and indeed that the same symbol can represent both a quality and its opposite. Which is one reason why I always have to explain the symbolism of my works, because any given symbol can't have all its meanings at the same time, so I need to say which meanings I chose out of the possible ones.
During this stage, I make a list of possible symbols, with the qualities I am wanting to represent. Often enough, I cycle back to Stage A in order to see what other qualities may go with the possible symbols I've listed, which can in turn lead to more possible symbols to list. I seek symbols and qualities which are harmonious and/or reinforce each other, and throw away symbols which conflict. For example: the bees in the Hufflepuff necklace reinforce the meaning, because (a) they are hard workers, and (b) their colours match Hufflepuff colours; so one gets two things for the price of one symbol. Contrariwise, the fox, while it is a symbol of cleverness, is not something I would want to use to represent a cold, intellectual truth-seeker such as Sherlock Holmes, because the fox is most often thought of as a trickster, and its colouring is warm rather than cold.
Likewise, a symbol may come higher or lower in the list for aesthetic or technical reasons; things which I think will look pretty get more weight than things which are unattractive or difficult to represent. Not only does the symbolism need to be in harmony, but the visual aspects such as colour and texture.
At the end of this stage, I should have a list of symbols and and an idea of how I will link them together; a conceptual design.
Stage C: Technical Design and Prototyping
Once I have a conceptual design, I need to figure out whether I have the materials and technical ability to represent it, and which methods will work better and look nicer. In this stage I may look through my existing supplies, try out new techniques, make test-pieces, and/or buy new materials. This is where I decide what crafts to use; whether I'm going to use crochet, knitting, chainmaille, beading, macrame, Kumihimo, wire-wrapping etc. I also choose the specific stitches or weaves or patterns in those crafts. This is where I also decide which materials to use; the specific beads, charms, yarn, rings, wire etc.
For example:
* With "Idris and Her Thief", I wanted to make a spiral that was in the form of a double-helix, so I could attach beads to both sides of it. I knew how to make a spiral in crochet, but that was in the shape of a spiral-staircase; it had an inside and an outside, rather than two equal sides. So I asked the folks on the M.A.I.L. forums for help, and eventually found a chainmaille weave that would work.
* With "Broken Heart", I initially made a wire-work heart, but I didn't like the way it looked. Then I found some "friendship" charms which were in the shape of a broken heart, which I thought were perfect for the idea, much better than my original idea. Then I tested out a few different methods of colouring the metal charms until I found one that worked.
* Also, with "Broken Heart", I was using a new chainmaille weave, so I did a couple of test patches to figure out how the weave was done.
* With "Seasons", I made a test piece where I figured out the techniques needed for adding the leaves to the crocheted base.
Prototypes are deliberately made only when I'm uncertain of a technique. If something fails aesthetically, then I stop and retroactively declare the item to be a failed prototype, but it wasn't intended to be a prototype from the start, it was intended for the final piece. The wire-work heart above falls into this category. Thus the line between Stage C and Stage D can be somewhat blurred.
Sometimes it can be the case that a prototype (whether intentional or retroactive) fails so spectacularly that the technical design is no longer viable. If that happens, I may need to go back to Stage B or even Stage A in order to re-think the design.
Stage D: Implementation
This is where I make the actual piece. In some ways, this is the easiest and quickest part. All the thinking is done, all (or most of) the prototyping is done. At this point I'm fairly certain it will work; I just have to put it together. It is physically more difficult than writing, since there are physical skills involved, but it is less intellectually taxing than writing, because every single stage of the writing process involves brain-work, right to the very end. With the jewellery-making, there are parts that one can just do on autopilot, which is soothing.
The chief risk with jewellery-making is the risk of RSI, if I work long stretches without resting enough. I did that to myself when I was working on my scale-maille bracer. (silly KA!)
Another risk depends on the type of crafts being used: the risk of ruining everything and having to start again, or even worse, not being able to start again. Some crafts are easier to back-track on than others. Chainmaille can be un-done and re-done (if necessary with new rings). Knitting and crochet can be frogged, but sometimes it's difficult to frog and/or the yarn is kinked/frayed too much to be reusable. But I'm likely to have another ball to use, even so. Wire-work has to be frequently thrown away (I'll get better, I hope) because one cannot re-use the wire because it's already work-hardened. The worst disasters are when I have some unique irreplaceable item (such as an expensive pendant or charm) and I've done something to it which can't be un-done (such as gluing). Fortunately, something that bad hasn't happened to me yet. But I can understand why my brother-in-law who does woodwork much prefers to use traditional wood glues rather than modern ones, because the traditional ones can be removed by heating, while the modern ones can't be removed at all.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-03-10 10:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-10 10:38 pm (UTC)It doesn't seem that similar to my own writing process, though. I mean, some things are obviously the same, such as contemplating the subject and brainstorming, but I think I tend to be both less intuitive and less structured in my fic writing than with my symbolic jewellery. Or maybe I'm intuitive and structured in a different way... I mean, with my jewellery, there is a lot of "sit back and let my subconcious mull over this for a while" in the early stages - a lot of "letting go". And then when I'm at the point where the concepts jell, I can plan out the whole look of the work. While with story-writing, on the one hand, I can't go forward until I have an end-point, and I like to have a high-level outline, it squashes my creativity if the outline is too detailed, which means that, on the paragraph-by-paragraph level, I'm making it up as I go along.
Maybe I'm putting too fine a point on it - but the two processes feel different to me, even if they aren't that different.