A Creative Mess

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit this but I'm a kind of a slob. I don't like dirt. Dirt is gross, but I am A-okay with mess. My kitchen cupboards are disorganized, my living room is filled with toys and my dining room table looks more like an office hit by a tornado than a place you'd like to have a dinner party. But my studio... my studio is a mess in a league of it's own.

But I like to call it a "creative mess".

For example, here is my desk. As you can see I've given myself about 2 square inches of work space which is surrounded by little piles.

I don't know, maybe it's just the way I work but I like to see my favorite beads laid out in front of me. They often serendipitously come together in ways that probably wouldn't happen if they were neatly tucked away in drawers. I try and work this to my advantage and have a collection of little ceramic dishes and boxes that I fill with goodies that I think might work together. Sometimes they come together into a great piece of jewelry!

This pile...

Became this bracelet!

And a pile like this...

Became this bracelet!

Every now and then I do clean. Just like I'll clean my dining room table for Christmas dinner my desk gets a good cleaning every once in a while too.

This was taken several months ago.

It's kind of nice when everything is in its place but I have to admit, I do my best work in a creative mess. Now I know I'm not the only artist who works this way. Just Google "creative mess" and you'll see some studio photos that make mine look as organized as a kindergarten classroom!

I'd like to think though that "a creative mess is better than tidy idleness" ... right?