Creative Play: The Importance of Making for Fun

Imagine you’ve taken the first steps into a new art form. You’re creating samplers, you’re experimenting, you’ve encountered frustrations and revelations. Finally, you proudly show someone a piece you’ve created… Only to be met with the dreaded question:

What is it for?

Chances are that if you’re the creative type - and if you’re here, I’d bet you are - you’ve probably encountered a situation pretty similar to this. In the best cases, you may have politely explained that it's for you to enjoy, to have brought you peace and mindfulness in the moments of making, and beauty now that it's complete. In worse cases, you may have found yourself feeling totally discouraged to make anything that isn't purely functional or useful.

While there are many beautiful, functional items that you can make, I think it's also important to use some of our creative time just to play. Perhaps you've seen artists like Rebekah Johnston or Nichole Vogelsinger create beautiful pieces using their intuition, and you've thought that you just aren't that kind of artist. But intuition, like our creativity, is a bit like a muscle - the more you use it, the stronger it gets. Creative play is one way of building those muscles.

So... how do you even start?

Once every week or two, I like to have a little play date with myself. This can be done in any medium, but I'll share how I do this with stitching.

First, I like to embrace the feeling of it all - literally. I'm a very tactile person, and there's something very soothing and grounding about holding fabrics in my hands and touching them. I start by looking at my scraps and any offcuts from past projects, and usually I can find some fun shapes or textures. If you are brand new to stitching and don't have scraps yet, you could do a similar thing at a local thrift store, hunting for colours and fabrics that speak to you in the clothing aisles. You can start with just one, or grab a handful.

Next, I go to my little bowl of thread ends, where I stash any threads that have been trimmed from a project but are still long enough to do some stitching with. Again, I get to enjoy the tactile experience of holding my threads whilst I choose a general colour palette. This might match with my fabric if I'm in a subtle mood, or it might be contrasting if I'm feeling a little bolder. 

Now I have my little handful of treasured bits and pieces, and I'm ready to start playing. I like to do this on a flat surface, usually my studio table, so that I have lots of space to lay things out.

I'll start by putting down a base fabric layer - something that is roughly the size I think I want my finished piece to be. I love stitching on denim and I have an abundance of it in offcuts, scraps, and unpicked garments, so that's often what I'll use for my base.

Then comes the playing. This is where I lay out my chosen scrap fabrics on my base fabric and create the composition. It sounds simple, like it would happen quickly, but I love taking my time and being really mindful here. I really enjoy the process of layering fabrics together, seeing how the random offcut shapes interact, and how the textures and colours play into each other. Sometimes I will lay everything out and really like it, but it just doesn't quite feel ready; in these cases, I will photograph what I've got and either begin shuffling things around or start fresh.

Once my fabrics are in place, I can start laying out my threads and seeing which ones I'd like to use where. I often have a mix of thread weights as well as colours, which can make for some interesting textures and is another good thing to take into account as you play. I'll sometimes even lay the thread down in shapes, for instance if I'm thinking of stitching a spiral or curve. Once I have things roughly how I like them, I take another photograph so I don't forget my plan, and I begin stitching.

The other playful part, for me, is that I'm not looking at the photograph while I'm stitching. I may reference it a few times, but I'm not following it to the letter. I've given myself some time with the materials, I've planned out some decisions, and now it's time to practice following my intuition. I know roughly what is going where, but I can trust myself to make decisions in the moment, too. You might be asking why I'd even bother with the photograph, and for me, it's a bit like a safety net. I feel more confident in making decisions as I go when I know there is something I can come back to and reference if I feel stuck.

Stitching and crafting in general in this way has helped me build a lot of confidence in my intuition, and in my problem solving skills. It's also helped me create a lot of art - some of it has become functional over time, and some of it hasn't. But when I play in this way, it's never been about the practicality of it; rather, the process is the point. And I hope my little playdate guide can help you enjoy the playing and the process, too.

If you're interested in playing a little more, but you want some suggestions or parameters, I would love for you to check out my printable Mindfulness and Inspiration Prompt Cards! There are four decks of cards containing different inspiration prompts (mediums, questions, and word prompts) to use in your playdate, plus two decks of mindfulness prompts for journaling, meditation, and mindful moments.