Have you ever lost your creativity?

[ken masoumi]

Does it ever happen to you?
It has been a week that I can't think of any thing to do or build in my shop, just before Christmas I was full of ideas ,little things to make in fact I made a side table,a coffee table ,a trinket box,and a few small decorations for our Christmas tree but now I feel like the little creativity I had is not there.
Mind you it is cold up here in the cottage country and has been snowing off and on for the past 2 weeks
It could be the cold weather is getting to me,just to give you an idea where I live here's a pic of my little shop:


249413

[Brian Kent]

Dear Ken,

Yes.

Sincerely,
Brian

PS. I experience some wonderful times of creativity followed by even months of woodworking zombi-hood. I used to get down on myself when I would experience gaps in my shop work. I have gradually realized that I always come back to creativity again. My Sawmill Creek friends see me trying new things at a good clip, then see me going a couple of months when I just join in with an occasional joke - and no woodworking. Usually it has to do with the normal stresses of life and work, the abnormal stresses that come along, the changing of seasonal light and temperature, and whether I found a really great old TV series on Netflix.

So go easy on yourself, kick back, and look forward to the next cycle of creative productivity.

[Matt Marsh]

Does it ever happen to you?
It has been a week that I can't think of any thing to do or build in my shop, just before Christmas I was full of ideas ,little things to make in fact I made a side table,a coffee table ,a trinket box,and a few small decorations for our Christmas tree but now I feel like the little creativity I had is not there.
Mind you it is cold up here in the cottage country and has been snowing off and on for the past 2 weeks
It could be the cold weather is getting to me,just to give you an idea where I live here's a pic of my little shop:


249413

Ken,

I have several hobbies that I've held on to over the years, woodworking, photography, hunting/shooting, gardening to name just a few. Throughout my 55 years my interest and creativity within each one has ebbed and flowed, and seems to cycle between each one. I think it's a normal thing for most of us. Sometimes it just takes a new tool to spur yourself back into the swing of things. ;) I'm sure you'll come around again soon.

[ken masoumi]

Thank you both,I recently retired and this is all new to me,I have always had a list of things to build specially projects I put off until retirement ,what's scary is anything I choose to do I loose interest right away,nothing seems to get my juices flowing,although I know deep in my heart this only temporary but your replies helped me realize I'm not alone.
Thank you .
Ken.

[Sam Murdoch]

Have you ever lost your creativity?




Do mountains tumble? Do lobsters molt? Does ice go dry? Does the Ice Man cometh? Does pride goeth? Does paint peel? ...

And so goes the creativity of creative people - woodworkers included. All will be well Ken - just enjoy the quiet time.

[curtis rosche]

When you lose your creativity, buy a new peice of machinery, spend a long time getting to know it till creativity come back.

[Shawn Pixley]

I was going to answer differently based purely on the title alone. I don't necessarily view a time without a project to do as a lack of creativity.

Creativity to me comes and goes. When my job doesn't allow much creativity, it tends to come out at home. When I am stumped for creativity in composing, I often regain it in wood and vice versa. Sometimes just daydreaming while doing something zen (like washing dishes) can re-spark something inside. I was practicing hand cutting dovetails yesterday. Today these dovetails became a box. Sometimes just doing something can restart the creative process. So can project avoidance. I need to swap out the kitchen faucet. I hate plumbing, so I have been creative in finding excuses to put it off until tomorrow.

[paul cottingham]

I can't lose something I don't have. I enjoy woodworking, and the accompanying creativity, but mostly build other peoples designs, with little personal tweaks.
lm not especially creative.

[Rick Potter]

Sounds like you are talking about interest, rather than creativity to me. You just retired, and have more time, so you don't need to hurry projects. It's a hobby, enjoy it when you feel like it. Take a break from it when you don't.

Rick Potter

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Ken,

I retired nearly two years ago. What I find is that I take interest in my woodworking in spells. I will go for a couple months where I am in the shop daily and some of those days are long. Then I will reach a point where I lose interest and don't go into the shop for a couple weeks. Then something will tweak my interest again and I'm back in the shop.

Right now I have been struggling with how to safely, accurately and repetitively cut some very small wood parts and I have designed and test built some special jigs to do it. I'm still struggling with it. In this mode, I will often wrestle with the design in my head and not go near the shop until I have 2 or 3 new ideas or techniques to build/try.

Don't get discouraged.......occasional loss of interest is not unusual.....it varies for all of us individually.

[Joe Bradshaw]

Ken, I retired in 08. The first three years I spent being a caregiver to my wife. After she passed, I would spend long periods of time just sitting on my porch and reading. I would not go near my shop for months. I am beginning to spend more time in the shop. Retirement is hard. You should have gotten a mentor to help you through this phase. I am a turner, so we don't need much creativity. It will come back. Now that the holiday season is over, I am bursting with new idea to try. Best of luck.

[Mike Henderson]

My advice is to expand into new areas. For example, if you've never done veneering, learn veneering. That will open up all kind of opportunities for you to do new things. Like many new skills, veneering takes a long time to get good at so you can do many projects and see improvement with each one.

And if you're married, just ask your wife what she wants. My wife has a "to do" list for me that will keep me busy for years. I have to put off her stuff so I can do things I want to do!

Mike

[Ed Aumiller]

When I retired years ago I started making cabinets for my shop, all of them looked the same but every cabinet had a different type of internal construction.. was practicing different joints... i.e. half-laps, mortise/tenon, sliding dovetails, etc... wanted very badly to get them all done...
Suddenly, one day after about two months, it was a beautiful WARM February day and was on one of the last cabinets and thinking I can get it done today but it was very nice outside....
Looking out the window I realized that I had the rest of my retirement to finish the cabinet..... I forced myself to put down the tools, went into the house, poured a glass of wine and went outside and sat on the deck enjoying the weather.....
Since then I take retirement as it comes... one day at a time and enjoying it...
Always thought that woodworking would be my "stay busy" activity in retirement, but I may spend months without doing any woodworking and then I may spend months doing nothing but woodworking...
Take your retirement for what it is... enjoy woodworking, not doing anything, relaxing, watching it snow while in your shop doing something or nothing...
Today was in shop and it was snowing outside.... listened to music & read 3 days worth of newspapers and enjoyed it...

[Prashun Patel]

I too feel a little burned out after the holidays doing several gift projects under deadlines, and rough turning a lot of bowls after Sandy. Just take a break and let it come back naturally.

Woodworking isn't a 24hr virus. It's a terminal condition. Your creativity or inspiration may be in remission, but it'll come back.

[Sam Murdoch]

When I retired years ago I started making cabinets for my shop, all of them looked the same but every cabinet had a different type of internal construction.. was practicing different joints... i.e. half-laps, mortise/tenon, sliding dovetails, etc... wanted very badly to get them all done...
Suddenly, one day after about two months, it was a beautiful WARM February day and was on one of the last cabinets and thinking I can get it done today but it was very nice outside....
Looking out the window I realized that I had the rest of my retirement to finish the cabinet..... I forced myself to put down the tools, went into the house, poured a glass of wine and went outside and sat on the deck enjoying the weather.....
Since then I take retirement as it comes... one day at a time and enjoying it...
Always thought that woodworking would be my "stay busy" activity in retirement, but I may spend months without doing any woodworking and then I may spend months doing nothing but woodworking...
Take your retirement for what it is... enjoy woodworking, not doing anything, relaxing, watching it snow while in your shop doing something or nothing...
Today was in shop and it was snowing outside.... listened to music & read 3 days worth of newspapers and enjoyed it...

You are a wise man Mr. Aumiller 249475

[Chris Damm]

I never worry about what to make. With a wife, 7 kids and 16 grandkids there is a list of projects a mile long and I will probably never get to all of them. I'm taking a break for a while after building a dollhouse, 3 toy boxes, and many other gifts for the holiday season.

[ken masoumi]

Thank you all ,wow,there's a lot of wisdom here,I read every reply two three times and gained strength from every one of them,I thank god every single day for what I have and very grateful for for not having to deal with any sickness in my family ,both my wife and my 28 year old son are my biggest fans and genuine source of encouragement.

What it boils down to is how to deal with retirement and the time which I have plenty of it seems.it has only been 5 months since we both retired so it's all new to both of us.
What I have gathered from you all is:

A)That I need to change my attitude toward my new life,retirement,hobbies,etc. I need to slow down and find a happy medium in everything,need to either take it easy and take it as it comes or be hard on myself for not having a fulfilling/productive day.

B)that each day that I manage to be happy is an achievement on it's own and I don't need to build or produce anything to prove myself of that.

It also seems to me that for every one of you who is retired there was a time of realization or a turning point when you truly sense and feel what it means to be retired and only then you slow down to look around and enjoy the time you have on this earth,Well I'm getting it now,slowly but surely.

Well again I sincerely appreciate all your inputs and wisdom,I feel I am steps closer that point/goal Today than Yesterday.

[Roger Myers]

Ken,
I retired a year ago and there are certainly days and times like this...
Your photo brought an immediate reaction to me with respect to advice... (which is of course worth exactly what you have paid me)... but it is advice I received from several very very accomplished furniture makers and designers...
Get yourself a small notebook or sketch pad... doesn't matter if you can draw or not.

bundle up and go for a walk... in the woods, by a stream, somewhere nature is present and it is quiet. Set down the folding chair you brought, pull out your thermos of warm beverage, and observe...
Their is so much inspiration in nature and the shapes, sights, and sounds we are present with every day, but don't see...
Sketch some shapes that you like..might be a branch, or a cloud or a rock formation... Don't worry about what it might become, that will come to you later.
In addition to becoming a source of ideas, you will have enjoyed a walk, some solitude, nature, and that hot or cold beverage of your choice.
Over time you will find yourself going to that sketch book again and again, and sketches will turn into ideas, which will keep you more than busy enough!

Enjoy your retirement and each and every day of it... I am having a ball!!

Roger

[David Keller NC]

Ken - I cannot answer about how to deal with retirement, that is unfortunately something I will never have direct experience with.

However, I do have a couple of suggestions about how to get over "writer's block" (or the woodworking equivalent):

BUILD SOMETHING. I can't say this enough; while I've built many enormously complex pieces of colonial-period furniture, starting a project like those takes concerted effort and discipline. There are many cases where I just don't have either of those things (concerted effort and discipline). So I make something relatively simple that someone else has designed and that tests my skills but not my patience. After a couple of these projects, I find renewed interest in designing something myself or planning and starting a complex piece.

Here are a few suggestions:

A Chris Schwartz sawbench; even if you're not into hand tools, these benches are fun to build and extraordinarily useful around the shop. Just one example of their usefulness is as a lightweight and easily stored set of supports for an assembly table. You make 2 of the benches (Chris published a set of plans for a couple of nesting sawbenches, so they store easily), and a torsion-box top.

A moxon-style twin-screw vise. If you're not familiar with one of these, just search the SMC forum. Again, even if you don't use hand-tools much, you will still find this item extraordinarily useful.

A shaker-style step stool. There are a ton of plans on the web for the most recent popular incarnation of this two-step stool. They're relatively easy to build (6 pieces of wood), and you get a nice, useful item out of your efforts.

If you don't care to make shop tools or simple furniture/boxes/frames, then you might consider Mike H.'s advice - if you don't know how to hand-dovetail, this would be an excellent skill to learn. It takes very little in the way of tools and wood, and you can stop cutting practice pieces anytime you wish. Google "the 5 minute dovetail" - the phrase came from an article in Fine Woodworking a while back.

[ken masoumi]

BUILD SOMETHING

A shaker-style step stool. There are a ton of plans on the web for the most recent popular incarnation of this two-step stool. They're relatively easy to build (6 pieces of wood), and you get a nice, useful item out of your efforts..
great advice


That's within my level f experience,I have only been in this hobby for a couple of years.



Ken,
bundle up and go for a walk... in the woods, by a stream, somewhere nature is present and it is quiet. Set down the folding chair you brought, pull out your thermos of warm beverage, and observe...
Their is so much inspiration in nature and the shapes, sights, and sounds we are present with every day, but don't see...

Roger I did exactly that except I took my camera for Today,thoroughly enjoyed it.



Enjoy your retirement and each and every day of it... I am having a ball!!

Roger
I am and have no regrets .thanks for your advice.

[David guetta]

I never worry about what to make. With a wife, 7 kids and 16 grandkids there is a list of projects a mile long and I will probably never get to all of them. I'm taking a break for a while after building a dollhouse, 3 toy boxes, and many other gifts for the holiday season.
7 kids and 16 grandkids? Its unbelievable for me. But now you can create thousands creations within no time. Which is difficult for single person.