Ok, well if I've got a severe case of creativity block I go for a walk. It's that simple, wether I walk in the park or on a trail  there's always something to spark inspiration.  I would say nature is the queen of inspiration, like..."oh look at how those violet flowers pop in the long golden grass" or how the reflection of the tree flows and sways in the water. Even the crowded city can provide inspiration however, like the way the bright neon lights illuminate the darkness. All three of these situations can inspire jewelry, bright purple beads on gold wire or chain or even on hemp cord! Dark, light and bright green beads along with royal blue beads dispursed randomly throught the piece, or brightly colored beads wrapped with jet black artistic wire!! Oooh the possibilties....aaah....I'm in heaven, yes I'm in heaven....LOL!! Please reply to tell how you unleash your creativity, I would love to know ( and so would everyone else I'm sure!) !!  :)

LOL

Tabitha

Well, I get inspired by everything I think. I once made a bracelet inspired by a t-shirt that reminded me of a quilt

Lately I have been using stamps in my jewellry, and am currently looking for miniatyres... So that´s how nuts I am :) I just feel that when it comes to creating I have no restrictions

But lately I have been pressing myself to much (still am) to create, so I to have a block, tons of ideas, don´t know where to start ( just start with one doesn´t seem to work for me, I want to make them all at the same time!) and so what happens when I do sit down and take the time is that I go blank. Thankfully I do write down and draw all of my ideas, so I don´t forgett them

/Lina 

 I'm like Lina, I have tons of ideas and never seem to have enough time to use them all and sometimes find myself not knowing what to do next.

So I keep a sketchbook handy all the time, in my purse, on my nightstand, next to the computer, in the studio, at shows.  As soon as a new idea comes to mind I sketch it or make a note about it. That way when I'm ready to tackle a new idea I just flip through one of my books to find something that jumps out at me.  I also clip pictures out of magazines and catalogs that inspire me,mabye it's a shape combination, or color combo, other times it's the overall style.  They get taped or glued into my sketch books with notes about what caught my eye too.  Sometimes I  can't sleep until I brain dump into my sketch book, there's just too many ideas flying around in there!

I also find that when I clean my messy studio the clean workbench makes it difficult for me to start again. So I keep a  box of pieces that just didn't workout for me, I dig through it and find something that interests me and start playing with it, trying to make it into something that works.  Even if the final product is comepletely different from my usual stuff, it's normally enough to get me going again.  I don't have to make something perfect, it's like giving myself permission to fail, I just need to see what I can do with it and have fun too.   

 Other things I do to get inspired is to go for a walk, go shopping in cool boutiques and galleries, go to the beach, go to a museum, go to a craft or art show, read trade magazines (The Crafts Report, Sunshine Artist, Art Jewelry Mag -- of course!, Niche, American Style, etc.).  I also find taking a class to learn a new craft or at least a new technique is often a good way to get the juices flowing too. 

I also listen to music all the time, especially when I'm in my studio.  I don't know if I get inspired by the music but it helps occupy my subconscious so that I can focus on what I'm doing better.  I love all kinds of music, it just depends on my mood.  Lately I've been listening to Rodrigo Y Gabriella, Los Loney Boys, Seal, Tears for Fears and INXS. I know, strange mix, but hey it's what I'm into right now.

Oh and I read, read, read. Fantasy, Fiction, self-help, comic books, you name it.  I think reading helps my imagination, which helps my creativity.  Some of my current faves are Laurel K Hamilton,Terry Pratchett, Jim Butcher, Jennie Breeden, and SARK. 

 

You guys are cool, I am new beader, polymer clay person and just very recently a quilter but have always had art in my system.  A couple of years ago I studied madalas and how to draw them and actually found that if I section off a sqare of paper into quadrant I automatically start seeing things to draw in the sections.  Some I might mirror and some I choose to do opposites in color, textures, etc. I am not so sure why sectioning off the paper does that but the shapes just come to me.

 I too love to look at nature, mostly near a body of water, especially my favorite lake.  The ducks, rock formations, water movements and if you can believe it I also look at different tree barks for those organic type designs.

 I just went through a dry spell after a stressful show.  I went to my mentor's website and paged through his smithing.  I am not normally in the camp who believes image flooding is a good thing.  However; my mentor's work inspires me despite the fact that we do very different things.  I think it is the fact that his work evokes the best practices he was teaching which in turn inspires me to do my best.

 WBF 8)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wbfgr
 

It may be that the release of your stress associated with the show was what unblocked your creativity. I lived through Hurricane Katrina, which headed our way quite suddenly (it was headed for Florida until about 36 to 48  hours after the storm). I am disabled and don't tolerate 16 hour evacuations to travel less than a hundred miles at any time, but I had just been spayed (total hysterectomy) a few weeks before the storm hit, so evacuation was even more fearful. Luckily, our home did not flood when the levees broke, but the aftermath was like waking up in a twilight zone movie where you were the last people on earth, except for packs of roving dogs, who quickly became quite feral when their steady food source was gone. We lived this way with no infrastructure, surviving on our wits alone for 3 or 4 days (time was a blur) before being able to navigate our way out of the city or even alert family and friends that we were alive.

Naturally, our 1st thought processes were geared simply towards survival.  Then, we underwent a period of shell shock, which I discovered really messes with cognition and memory. For example, when I got out and was filling out "new patient" forms to see a doctor, I couldn't remember my husband's middle name (we had recently celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary and had been together since 1974).

However, as only a little time passed, I experienced a wave of creativity such as never before. I wrote poems, songs and prose. I drew and painted. I was flooded with ideas so quickly that I couldn't even capture them quickly enough to remember them.  To this day, when I see the X's painted on houses(by search& rescue teams to denote whether there were occupants and whether they were dead or alive) or a storm-weathered piece of wood, etc.  this flood of ideas continues.  I can't tell you how many pieces of art I've made out of salvaged or found items. Many of my jewelry or art pieces are influenced by water (what a surprise).

I don't know if this reaction to stress is normal, but it seems that a "let-down" response could foster more free and tangential thought processes.

Has anyone else had a similar unleashing of creative thought after a stressful event? 

P.S. To me, it's important to help the world realize that this was a man-made rather than natural disaster.  I have been through worse storms that hovered overland much longer several times.  What decimated my precious New Orleans was the failure of sub-standard levees created by the UNITED STATES ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS. Our levees, we discovered, are designed to a lesser standard than inland damns.  Even now, the repairs are a joke.  There have actually been patches that were found to be filled with old newspapers! The greatest loss of human lives was due to lack of response by our federal government. People were on rooftops without food or water for days while helicoptors flew over without even making food and water drops, much less rescues.  We received aid from foreign countries, even those with whom we are not on good terms (and we know how many of these there are) before our own government acted.

I'm sorry for the diatribe, but I love my home and am passionate about our screw job, and want people to know what really killed and is still killing us.  I even  let my many bill-collectors know, whether they are in  Indiana or India. Hence, my signature.