Anyway, on with the post.
Prioritize
The main and only priority is to work in the studio. However, studio work is different from evening projects or sewing projects. I mean ‘art’. Kind of. I don’t mean sewing cushion covers. I don’t mean making Christmas cards. I mean working towards something that might one day have some meaning, at least to me.
Experiment
I don’t want to experiment other than experimenting with actually working in the studio.
De-clutter
I have a load of yarns I don’t really like to use so I should just give them away. I also have some samples that seem wasteful to get rid of but are not very useful to have hanging around. They should probably go. Do you know, I didn’t even consider de-cluttering as part of this month until this very moment. I am too busy screaming ‘Just do some work!’ in my head. Healthy.
Action!
Just work in the studio Kim. Just do it. Don’t make me hurt you.
Sustainable & Aspirational
I decreased my working week from 5 days to 4 this year. (An amazing achievement and a dream come true.) I did this to get more rest in the short term and in the long term I will still be working on that day, working on my ‘real’ work. So ideally this would be 8 hours of making or working towards the practise of making things or moving towards re-directing my career.
A wise friend pointed out that it might be over-ambitious to aim for 8 hours, maybe start with 2 or 4. She’s right of course (unrealistic expectations is one of my main stumbling blocks by the way) so I am going to aim for 1 hour on the weekend and one afternoon a week. Even this feels hard.
Less lists and more action
I only have one studio list and it’s more like a list of ideas. I don’t want to get stuck simply because I don’t know where to start. So I just start at the top and keep going.
Stick to it
It’s December already so I might as well tell you now that I almost started out to fail. But in some good ways. I took a trip of a lifetime during the first week of November. I was out of the country so I wasn’t in the studio but it was such an amazing and inspiring trip that I think it will only keep coming back in a positive way.
I also spent a bit of time helping friends move and I moved some of my own furniture around as I had ordered some new stuff. I went to see some bands and generally had a good time.
Let it go
Reading above feels like massive resistance on the one hand and on the other it’s reality. The trip was planned months ago and I didn’t know exactly when my friends would be moving. Both of these experiences I would not change. So I am just going to let it go. It was a great month and I did do something towards my practise. I didn’t do nothing. More on that in the next post.
Moving forward
There are a number of things that hold me back in various ways but for studio time there are two main barriers.
I am not at home often enough
If I go out too much chores build up, I get tired and overwhelmed and then I end up spending time recovering instead of doing the things I love to do.
Building a habit in the space in my head
There are certain times when I feel ‘ready’ to be in the studio. These are:
- Weekend mornings if I wake up early (and then I swim).
- Quiet afternoons or evenings when I feel rested. This is almost dead time, time when everything else is done and I am going out later and have an hour and a half to spare.
- Sunny days. On sunny days the bedroom is sunny and lovely and that’s where the loom is and that’s where I want to be.
In short, I need to go out less and (more importantly) I want to put my bottom in the studio on Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings.
Kim
Co-founder, The Clean Sheet