Searching for Ideas

Do you have times when you come to a barrier with your work, a time when a blockage occurs and everything you are doing has lost its sparkle and  you don't know which direction to go in next? That is the point that I am at right now.

I am happy with my fine art work. I have plenty of ideas for that and I know just where I am going. At the moment though, I haven't the time to work on it as I have craft fairs coming up and its gift making time for the run up to Christmas. I need fresh inspiration and my head is empty. I have lots of items to finish off and that is keeping me going as the stock is growing but I want to be inspired by a new idea.  Perhaps I am just not ready to get into the pre-Christmas spirit yet. I am still in that jamming, pickling and bottling end of summer frame of mind. I am more attracted by the thought of walking Jasper the Wonder Dog through the forest and picking blackberries as I go than visualising snowflakes and getting out the glitter.

As the weather gets colder and the nights continue to draw in then maybe visions of sugar plums will dance in my head.  Who knows what dreams will fill those long dark nights; what inspirations will come from winter reveries? I shall be ready with my sketchbook and needles to tease out their gossamer threads and fashion their forms as if by magic.

For now, I shall watch the colours changing on the treetops and the mists rising upon the river. I shall prepare warm soft blankets and sit and spin the fleece of sheep shed in summer. I shall place new wool in baskets made of willow and wait for the changing of the season. This is the time of year to be patient and drift with the day. The harvest is in and the fields are ploughed. The earth is slowing down ready for it's winter sleep.  As the darkness comes will it be the the tinsel brought out to catch the remaining light or the flickering of firelight that will bring the ideas hurrying in so fast that I shall have to make my fingers fly to capture them all?

In the meantime, 'Jasper, lets go and find conkers!'.