The tip of the creativity iceberg
A lot of forethought goes into making; thankfully it's fun
Happy Friday, all. Here’s to putting in the thought for an enjoyable weekend. ~JRC
From start to finish, I love the creative process. Yes, getting my hands dirty while making is incredible. But I also love thinking about what I will make. And it's a good thing that I enjoy it.
Dreaming up a plan is by far the longest part of most builds.
This last week, I made a custom rack for my acrylic paint set. The bottles are small, about three inches tall, and hold just over half an ounce of paint. I've started to amass a collection of these in various colors and wanted a convenient way to store and use them.
There are many off-the-shelf racks, including some nice laser-cut plywood options. But most take up a lot of desk space - something that is in short supply in my maker-verse. Instead, I wanted a "convertible" storage option that folded up small but opened up to display the paints while in use. Since nothing like that was available, I decided to make it myself.
And so began the thinking. Followed by more thinking. And more after that.
What I finally conceived was elegant in its simplicity. It's a basic wood rectangle, about 11" x 14" and 1 3/4" wide. Within it are four pivoting shelves that each hold eight paint bottles. The shelves rotate on hidden dowels allowing the paints to stay upright, no matter the angle. The whole rack can be stored vertically, with paints inside, like a book. But it can be positioned on a slope, resting the top shelf on a book or small box. This configuration provides tiered access to all the bottles at once.
It's a pretty simple solution. But getting there was anything but efficient. Before arriving at the final build, I considered several more elaborate configurations. Any one of these would have been overly complicated. Worse still, they would have been challenging to build.
One such idea involved a series of sliding mechanisms that allowed the whole box to open up. I imagined something like a Transformers toy that would reconfigure, revealing the paints inside. It was cool but unfeasible. Reason prevailed after a great deal of thought and consideration. And boy was it ever a lot of thought - for a simple paint rack.
In truth, it's often hard to gauge how much thought I put into my creations. I fill many of my waking hours with ponderings of future builds. While doing the dishes, driving, making the bed, and other routine tasks - I think about creating. It's easy to get engrossed, imagining the steps and modifying them. Coming up with solutions to yet-to-be-solved challenges. Thinking about making is honestly one of the best parts of creating.
All told, I would say at least half my waking thoughts are about making.
As for the paint rack, the final design took maybe six hours to execute. But I put four times that into thinking about it. Why so much thought? Does a simple build need all that advanced planning?
Arguably no.
But the final plan benefited from it. And as I started this essay by saying, I enjoy thinking about projects. It's a time when I not only work through plans for a new build, but it's an escape from other thoughts that compete.
Finishing my taxes, fixing my house’s failing plumbing, securing paying contracts so that I can keep at this maker/writer thing - these thoughts are vital. But they're also worries, and worries are no fun. Conversely, thoughts of making are mental gold for a creative person. Happiness for makers is about all that making entails, not only the act of creating.
So whenever I can, I let my mind wander into the mental maker space. Here, the creative juices begin to flow. And the sparks of imagination ignite an idea that will become my next project.
In my head, I begin to create. And it's fun.
Until next time.
JRC