When NOT to Plan?
Have you ever tried pottery?
I'd been longing to do a pottery class for YEARS now but never quite got around to actually finding one.
And then... one fateful day, when I was wandering the streets of Florence (Italy), I saw a little shop full of artisan ceramic pieces and next to it - a poster that said "Pottery Workshop in English".
IT WAS MEANT TO BE 🤩
I just love how effortlessly opportunities can come to you when the time is right. And I honestly could not have asked for a better teacher!
Mila (my pottery teacher) shared stories about how she discovered pottery when she lived in Africa as a young lady. How she brought her passion back to Europe, studied in Austria before settling back in Italy, Florence with her children.
Almost 20yrs later, she opened up her own ceramic studio and now shares her love for pottery with children and adults in her weekly workshops.
We would switch between English, German and Italian - and I loved how much more enriching our conversation was being able to understand and speak each other's languages (even if just a little!)
At one point, I was working some clay on the table looking rather lost.
I said to Mila: “I feel like I should have planned out what I wanted to make first instead of just diving straight into it. Should I stop and draw it out first?”
And Mila said to me: "No perché? Non pianificare quello che vuoi che sia. Creare quello che vuole essere creato." (roughly what she said in Italian)
In English:
Don't plan what you want it to be.
Create what wants to be created.
Amen to that! 🙏
There are times when planning is helpful in giving structure to the creative process.
But sometimes, planning too much can hinder your potential and what it is that really wants to be created.
In my head, I was planning to create a cup, or a little tapas bowl or something basic and simple.
But after I heard that, I felt encouraged to just let myself be free to create what I was feeling called to.
I moulded layer after layer of clay, still lost and unsure what it would be, but no longer discouraged.
After some time working with clay on the wheel, I returned back to my blob-like creation in the last 5 mins of our first workshop.
That's when it hit me.
I let my creative download take over and started to bend the tops into corners until it curved like a petal. I repeated it for all 5 corners until it looked like a star-shaped flower.
Then I took a special kind of tool and started to poke 4 holes, shaped like a diamond, into each of the faces.
I stepped back, looked at it and declared proudly: "It's a star-shaped candle holder!" 🤩
Obviously a very proud moment 😂
Moral of the story is...
had I listened to the rational, logical side of my brain and tried to PLAN what I wanted it to be. It certainly would not have been this.
I never would have thought to make a candle holder in my first pottery class!
And it makes me wonder... how many beautiful, unique creations could we make if we let go of what WE think it should be - and instead let creativity take over and make what WANTS to be created?
This unexpected lesson from my pottery class has stuck with me. And I wanted to share it with you. To encourage you that you don't always have to have it figured out from the get go.
It's often enough to simply BEGIN.
To surrender to your Creative Energy.
And have the courage to keep going.
It made me realise that many of my websites also begin like this too.
YES we have strategy.
YES we have structure and an outline.
But I never try to FIT a website design into a box.
Because each website (and client) is their own unique expression - and are deserving of a design that truly reflects that.
This is another reason why custom websites take so long.
You can't rush creativity. Just like you can't plant a seed and expect flowers to grow the next day.
You can only nurture it into fruition.
Are you someone who loves to plan what you create? Or simply let creativity take over? I'm curious to know! share your story with me! @arohavisuals
