Sunday, March 24, 2013

Ideas Happen

"How did you come up with that idea?"  The answers to this one question, for a creative person, can cover the spectrum.  Sometimes the birth of ideas can be funny stories, and for me, ideas roll from one to the next, like a  line of dominoes falling. 

 I've been working on some new designs and the evolution comes to me often by just staring at my current work. One example, some new mugs that I've been working on.

 
 I was sitting one day in the garagio and I had a bunch of teapot components (rings and faceted bases). I had extra bases and I didn't have the time to throw rings and I didn't want the bases to go to waste, so I started thinking about how I could use the bases. My thought was first about the basic shape and size, what would that work for? A few thoughts came to mind: bases for cake plates, sugar bowls & creamers, and finally mugs. then I started thinking about handles. Because the facets would make the attaching of my regular handles a challenge. How did I know this, you ask, well I tried one and it didn't work. So I created the handles by rolling a tapered coil attached in a normal fashion and had extra coil left at the bottom so instead of pinching it off I made a twirl. Then, the next domino to fall was the need to elevate the mug because now the twirl at the bottom of the handle was below the bottom of the mug, so I had to "lift" the mug. Answer to this dilemma: more twirls. So now we've got a theme going, facets and twirls.

I see the mug and I see whimsy, I'm seeing a jester, I'm seeing a party skirt, I'm seeing fabulous color, I'm seeing mugs that would coordinate with my teapots, I'm seeing that because the bases of the teapots are the same style as the mugs that we've got a party going on.  So from a day that started out with me just sitting and staring, came a new addition to my collection.  As the ideas for the mugs formulated, then came a flood of ideas for additional pieces that could spawn off of the faceted forms.

Lesson here is when you see someone staring, you could be watching the birth of a new idea.  You just never know!