February 25, 2010

Creative Momentum

Earlier this month I got a Skype call from my daughter, Alexandria. She began by telling me about her felting project where she was making mittens for her high school art class...

She said...

“Dad, you know how you try to make something and it doesn’t quite turn out right?”

She had been working over a month creating felt mittens from scratch...oh...it’s a very time consuming task...instead of knitting you are actually poking the wool fibers together until they form something...

Anyway...I had to give her my words of wisdom, I pulled up the standard fatherly advice and said...

“Yes, Alex...sometimes you have to try several times before you get things right.” Sound advice I figured...

She says. “Ahhhh...yea...I know,
the mittens did not quite turn out...But take a look at what I made instead!!!!!”

WHAAAAA!!!!!


Instead of boring old mittens, Alex ended up creating a puppet that should star in Muppets from Space!! I was impressed, to say the least...how did she make the teeth, eyes, mouth, etc. I am still amazed.



...she spent the next half hour joking around with Kermit’s cousin via Skype, I was beside myself...


I am so pleased she worked through how things don’t quite turn out as planned. She intuitively demonstrated that if you maintain your creative momentum, you can end up with something unexpected and even more wonderful than you originally planned.

As a parent, it seems the best way to teach this is to stay out of the way and show enthusiasm when asked. I am sure if I kept bugging her to finish the project...she would have done just that. And Alex would have been left with mittens and no lesson learned...and would not have found what made her passionate...

I firmly believe that this applies to managing people...not just parenting...

Alex sent me more photos...too bad I don’t have any of the original mittens...they were kind of cool work in progress...


Alex doesn’t have a name for him yet...Here he is with a cape...She put arms on him later...but I don’t have a photo of that.


...Ouch!...and teeth!!!


This is the raw felt...how Alex created a puppet, I will never know...


These were her only tools...you figure it out... ;-)


Oh! I think he needed a root canal...


Also, a nip and a tuck...

Alexandria has loads of energy and doesn’t like to follow directions or a straight path. So, I am not a bit surprised that she strayed from her original intent. However, it looks like she has some talent...seeing that this is her first felting experience.

Hope you enjoyed!

PS
He needs a name!