Thursday, May 1, 2008

How To Honor Your Creativity




In this month's Beauty Secret we talked about Honoring and being Loyal to our Creativity! Today I would like to expand on how we might HONOR our creativity.

Honoring our creations can be as simple as appreciating how our item looks, or it can be complex as loving our items even when it seems like no one else does.

It means to me that we charge fairly for our work and that we include in our prices our precious time, knowledge and talent. Tweaking our prices can and should acceptable to us. But under no circumstances should we de-value our creations just to make a dollar or to get people to buy from us instead of our competition.

Not that competition is a 'evil' thing. Healthy competition can gently nudge us to greater and better creativity. Un-healthy competition is when we let jealousy take over because it SEEMS that someone else is getting more business at the time.

I can not STRESS ENOUGH - that there is PLENTY to go around :) Really!!! Business like everything else comes in cycles. You just have to find that rhythm and learn the cycles and make them work for you!!

Honoring our creations ultimately means that we honor ourselves - because after all that is where all our creations come from.....our TRUE selves!!

Thanks for stopping by and here is to HONORING all everyone's creations!! :D

Feel free to leave a comment on your ideas on what is means to honor your creativity!!

8 comments:

Beat Black said...

i completely agree about the pricing. I charge for my time as well as supplies. sometimes I wish others would do the same.

Unknown said...

I make certain I do some "art for art's sake" every single day. When one is self-employed, it is so easy to get caught up in having all of your focus on making things to sell. To be a self-remembering artist, I correct myself with some kind of creative activity which has no agenda other than being an expression of joy and gratitude. Just having a skill, like being able to use a camera is something to celebrate. It is amazing what comes for when you let go!

Mary Richmond said...

nice post! glad i stopped by. came here by way of etsy ;-)

Run Shines said...

I agree. If you put your heart and soul into something, its worth the price you charge. I have a variety of items and prices in my shop to please everyone. :)

Anonymous said...

Nice post! Thanks for visiting my blog :)
I wish I had more time to work on art but the real job gets in the way. Although there is a bit of creativity in writing for a living!

DZFANTASY said...

I like your thoughts on this post. Great job.

DZ

Kelly said...

Great write up! I needed to read that, in fact. I think, as an artist, I don't charge enough for my work and time and understanding of how to make my designs correctly, as I've schooling on it. I undercut because I want to please and cater towards...but end up only hurting myself. Thanks for the inspirational words!

CJ Hodges MacFarlane said...

I'm working on charging what my art is worth - my problems also arise in that thin line between what you want to make, and what you think will sell.
I am getting better - thank you for such an insightful post.

www.HojpojArt.com