Creativity Tests - do you use your right or left brain more?

A bit of fun this week, with some creative tests!!

Creativity comes from the right brain and logic from the left.

This week I found some 'tests' you can take to see whether you use your right or left brain more, and see how creative you really are!

One test, which only tooks a couple of minutes was a

Right Brain vs Left Brain Creativity test

My results were as follows:

So I'm more logical than creative!

Mmm

But I do like the choice of possible jobs there.....skating judge??

Really these videos and short tests show that for whatever reason, there are obvious answers to simple questions that the majority of people give.   For me - the first things that popped into my head were the obvious answers that the majority of people give, but I do WANT to give different and creative answers, so when I thought about it I could and did.

So from these fun tests, I would say that I'm not naturally creative, but I can push myself and choose to be so if I want!

Here's one final test to see if you use your right (creative side) or left (logical side) brain more...

 (spinning dancer by Nobuyuki Kayahara)

Apparently if you see her spinning 

clockwise, you use your right brain more,

anti-clockwise you use your left brain more.

According to this test - I use my right brain more!!

Who hooo! there's a test that says I'm creative! I like this one!

I used to be able to see her spin both ways - when I first saw this test a couple of years ago, but seem to have forgotten how to do it...

Which way does the lady spin for you??

Our Creative Geniuses

Do you believe that creativity and inspiration comes from within us or from around us?

Personally I believe that all of us are capable of amazing creativity and inspiration. 

Ancient Romans believed that 'genius' was something that existed outside of us, something that we received or possessed us.

In Arab folklore, a 'genie' is a spirit with intelligence and power. We think of a genie in a bottle - you rub the bottle and the genie will grant you wishes.

The Ancient Greeks had Muses - which were the Goddesses of inspiration.

I like this idea - that creative genius is perhaps all around us. I believe that everyone can be creative, you just have to be open to it.

Creativity is essentially a form of problem solving - it requires space and time for the mind to wander.  Have you ever had the experience of waking up in the middle of the night with a problem solved, or an idea that had until then evaded you?

Single 'light bulb' moments - rather than being flashes of inspiration that come out of nowhere, are more likely the result of a long time studying or researching a problem or topic, and then your brain having time to process and consider all of the input and put it together.  Sleeping, stepping back from something or a change of scenery or task could be just the time and space your mind needs to wander and fit together all the pieces of the puzzle.

Perhaps our creative geniuses are what step in to help put the puzzle pieces together to produce that 'A-ha' moment, or fabulously new and creative innovation or idea!

Thinking of creativity in this way reminds me of a kids movie that my girls used to love and often watched - 

Barbie - a Fashion Fairytale

(Don't laugh - I've always found meaning in the strangest movies!)

In this movie, there are 3 Flairies, Shimmer, Shine and Glimmer, I think they are called. They basically add the final shimmer, shine and glimmer to already great designs of clothes.  They themselves do not make the clothes design fabulous, but can only enhance something that is already great. - I guess this is saying that hard work and good ideas attract the external genius that make them brilliant!

There was also the moral side to the Flairies that their powers could only be used for truly good designs of clothes. When the baddie of the movie kidnaps the Flairies and makes them add shimmer, shine and glimmer to her own designs; which are just bad copies of other people's work; it only produces bad luck instead of adding that touch of genius!

The message that this is giving is that genius (when thought of as an external force) cannot be forced - and should be used for good not evil !

We cannot expect to just magically 'be creative'. I believe that it does take hard work, dedication and perseverance in our chosen field. But if you put in all of that, and are open to ideas and possibilities then you have positioned yourself in the best way possible for your own creative genius to find you and add shimmer, shine and glimmer to your ideas!

--------------------------------------------

For me personally - what I have decided to do differently after considering all of this - is to take time to let my mind wander and process all the input.  Working from home on the computer - and sewing, I tend to stay at home, and go out only when I have a purpose - for example when I need to get something, or take my girls somewhere.

I've decided to take some time each week to get out of the house and go somewhere different, for no reason other than to get out and take a break.  A change of scenery and routine will be good for me, and may help produce fresh perspectives and ideas.

I think I'll take this time to learn and explore with my new camera - see what inspiration I get from looking at things in new places and new ways!

Do you believe that creativity comes from within or is it an external force?

Do you take time to let your creative genius find you and work it's magic?

 Do you have places where you feel you get most inspiration from or are particularly creative?

Credits:

I've recently discovered and have been watching some TED talks on Youtube.  Last week I watched a couple on creativity, which inspired me to write this post. They were:

Your elusive Creative Genius by Elisabeth Gilbert

and

Where good ideas come from by Steve Johnson

Cloth rice bags - several different creative uses!

Ta Da...

Last week I mentioned that I had several of these cloth rice bags:

And had decided it was time to stop hoarding them and find uses for them!

Here's what I came up with..

A Rice Bag for aching muscles, joints or just for keeping us warm in winter!

I just snipped off the bottom portion of one of the bags, filled it with rice and sewed up the top!

Then I made...

A Mug Rug

Using the front and bag of one of the bags, with a layer of scrap fleece sandwiched between and plan scrap fabric sewn together to make a strip long enough for the binding!

(Please don't look too closely at my binding - it's shockingly bad, and one day I'll knuckle down to practice till perfect!)

Notice the cute mug which I was given for my 40th birthday last week!! :)

I also made a set of...

Pot Holders 

(using my own tutorial and a pair of back jeans pockets)

And finally these bags are great for...well...just plain bags 

- with an added touch of a handi-pocket

 (see my tutorial for the Christmas Handibag as to how this pocket works) 

so they can be slipped in bags or the car glove-box for emergency use!

I also used a couple of the bags to store various left over plastic party plates, cups and napkins we have..

Much neater and easier to put away in the cupboard now!

AND I sent my daughter off with one of these bags to her school camp!  On her list of things to take was a 'dilly bag'

A dillybag or dilly bag is a traditional Australian Aboriginal bag, generally woven from the fibres of plant species of the Pandanus genus.^{[verification needed]}. It is used for a variety of food transportation and preparation purposes. 

She needed one of these 'dilly bags' to keep her camp plate, mug, bowl and cutlery in when not in use - and one of these bags fit the bill perfectly!!

So now I have three solid zips, from the bags I used the fabric from, and a two and a half bags left over!

Not a bad attempt at using up these bags!

Thanks to those of you who commented last week with suggestions of what I could do with these bags.

Megan from Meggipeg said:

"I use these rice bags for my picnic set. Plates in one, cups and plastic wine glasses in another and cutlery in a bag that I cut to size and restitched. It keeps the sand out and it's easy to find everything in my big picnic basket. I look forward to seeing what you do with them."

and Sassss said:

I love doing things like this! A few ideas of the top of my head would be cloth napkins, herb filled eye bags (to keep in the freezer for a cool compress for fevers, burning, aching, puffy eyes), hot compresses, filled with dried kidney beans (to warm in microwave or oven), sprouting bags for growing your own wheat grass, alfalfa sprouts, broccoli sprouts, etc. All things to save money & theplanet, lol. 

You can melt 1 part beeswax & 4 parts thin, food safe oil (peanut oil would be good for this)together & 'paint the bags with it. Allow them to dry & use in place of plastic sandwich bags.

Although I did come up with a few different uses for these bags - I realised that I just thought of uses that involved things I've done before - ie  pot holders, handi-bags and mug rugs, and a rice bag.  I don't feel that I was overly creative - perhaps I'm getting a bit stuck in a creative rut......

I definitely do feel like I need a 

fresh outlook 

and a

burst of creativity. 

Time to explore a little more and see what can help me with that!

Any suggestions very welcome!

Many creative uses for a single object

As I've been looking at creativity over these past few weeks I've found in several places the idea of brainstorming as many different uses for a single object as possible as a way to encourage and stimulate your creativity.

This made me think of something I did a couple of years ago.

I had several old silver windscreen shades that I kept because I just knew they would come in useful one day!  (we all have things like that in our cupboards, right?)

Well, I decided it was time to finally use these things - and so I came up with several different uses for them:

A fabric pie or pizza box:

Insulated lunch bags:

(the silver shade provided the insulated lining for these)

A little Space Jem!

Drinks coasters:

 Placemats:

And even a shiny clutch purse!

 I think I managed to find some good creative uses for these old windscreen shades - and used up most my stash - although I do still have some silver scraps left!

So - I thought that it was time to flex those creative muscles again with something else I've been collecting knowing I'll find a use for them one day!

Rice bags:

Last year I found these in our local supermarket.  Previously we'd only been able to buy rice there in large plastic bags, so when I saw these lovely cloth ones I changed to buying them straight away - more eco friendly to have a cloth bag rather than a plastic bag. Plus they have a sturdy zip and are re-usable......for something!

However - I'm now amassing quite a collection:

13 bags and another in the cupboard still with some rice in!

So - rather than just endlessly saving these bags - I think it's time to do something with them!

Putting it out here on the blog should push me to actually do something!  

By next Wednesday I want to have made at least one thing from these bags!  Come back then to find out what I've come up with!

Meanwhile - any and all suggestions and ideas are very welcome! Please do leave me some comments!

Update - to see what I made with these bags...go here.

What have you been saving that you need to get around to using - come on, I'll bet there's plenty other out there hoarding things - let's get creative!!

How to stimulate your creativity!

The book I'm reading at the moment is the very interesting:

The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely

The book explores what motivates people to do things like work harder. Dan Ariely has some really interesting and fun studies to share seeing for example whether bigger and bigger financial bonus really do make people work harder and harder.  What effect do people's reactions to what we produce at work have on our productivity or desire to work more or less.

All of this is 'behavioural economics'. Now if you'd mentioned that title to me I would never have picked up this book.

But reading about the experiments he has done and how people have reacted in them is fascinating!

I discovered this author through a Youtube video where he talks about what motivates us to work. 

Anyway - how this brought me to creativity was this 'thought experiment' mentioned in the book...

"What if I paid you a lot of money, say $100,000, to come up with a very creative idea for a research project in the next 72 hours? What would you do differently? You would probably substitute some of your regular activities with others. You would not bother with your e-mail; you wouldn't check Facebook; you wouldn't leaf through a magazine. you would probably drink a lot of coffee and sleep much less. Maybe you would stay at the office all night. This means that you would work more hours, but would doing any of this help you be more creative?"

This made me think about my 'creative' blog and that my goal is to make it into a business that makes me a decent financial income.  I am in effect doing this 'thought experiment' but without the time constraint.  

I know that plenty of people have made more than $100,000 from their blogs and take the attitude that if someone else can do it then so can I. - I just have to figure out how!

However can financial gain as an incentive make you more creative? Perhaps it is more likely to stifle your creativity by putting pressure on you to come up with ideas?

But it does pose the question..

How do you stimulate your creativity?

Do you have something you do to help get your creative juices flowing?

Personally - I like to get some good music on and do tasks that don't require me to think about them - like exercise or sometimes housework!  

Exercise I find particularly good as it wakes me up, gets the blood flowing and if I do it in the morning it motivates me for the day. I've solved a few 'problems' and come up with lots of ideas when running!

I Googled - "how to be more creative" - and here's a selection of the ideas I found:

Let your mind wander

Do things differently

Walk in the rain

Stop watching television

Block out interruptions

Listen to music

Eat with your hands

I'm not sure why eating with your hands would stimulate creativity, but I'm willing to give it a try!! 

I also tried to look up which colour might enhance or stimulate creativity - but found several different answers - blue, grey, purple and turquoise.  Who knows - perhaps if I'd looked for longer I could have found more colours mentioned!

I guess it's all a personal choice - and finding what works for you.

After my post last week -

"What is Creativity and why do we need it"

I really want to look at ways that might encourage creativity in myself and also my kids.

Perhaps some kind of creativity challenge - does anyone have any suggestions? - perhaps I will work one out for next month - a small creative challenge each day? 

Would anyone be interested in joining in with something like this?

Any and all suggestions welcome!

What do you do to stimulate your own creativity?

Crocheting onto objects

Last week I stumbled across a great little tutorial for making crochet picture frames over at Lola Nova, by crocheting onto a basic bracelet.

Now I have two daughters who have recently grown out of all their bright plastic jewellery - leaving me with a large collection like this:

I've kept them knowing that one day I'll find some use for them - and this just seemed perfect!

So I gave it a go..

It was quite easy to crochet around the bracelet - although my stitches weren't very even - with some looser than others! I only did the basic first layer over the bracelet, the tutorial has further layers to make the 'frame' wider.

But knowing how easy the basic idea is - this is definitely something I will play around with. I showed it to my daughter and she picked it up very quickly. She's been practising and has started attaching them to keyrings and bags, and also making them for her friends!

I tried again using the whole tutorial and ended up with this...

I'm very pleased with it - especially since it's the first whole crochet pattern I've managed to follow!! Still not perfect, but I'm excited nonetheless!!

It's also got me looking around the house wondering what else I can crochet onto?

Any suggestions anyone? What have you creatively crocheted onto?

Crocheting a granny square in My Creative Space

This year I'm learning to crochet together with my youngest daughter (aged 7).

We've been practising with our basic stitches - chain, slip stitch and double crochet - just playing around with them, creating and getting the hang of the hook and wool.

We've made lots of friendship bracelets:

And also lots of ugly little amigurumi monsters - with wonky eyes, lots of missed and extra stitches - but it's been fun to have actually 'made' things, even though our skills are very basic and we're still learning!

My daughter particularly liked playing with adding beads.

It's been good to just practise but I'm now just realising that I can understand (sort of) basic crochet patterns  - which at the beginning of the year when I started out were completely alien and unintelligible to me!

So I decided it was time to focus a bit and see if I can make something with a bit more order to it!

Here's my first try at a granny square:

It's a bit round for a square I know-  but at least you can make out a shape and a kind of pattern in it!

At least I'm starting to get the basic concept of how a granny square is formed - I think I just need some more practise - and probably to try a few more tutorials to find one that speaks to ME! - I find that with something I don't get straight away.  If I have several different people try to explain it to me, then eventually I get it - either as a result of repetition, or perhaps it is finding one that explains it just a little bit differently and my brain finally grasps the concept!

I used to feel like that in my physics lessons at school - but with persistence I always got there in the end!

So - any links to granny square tutorials would be gratefully received.

If you've never crocheted before - then do take a look at my 2 crochet videos - the first is the basic chain and making friendship bracelets, and the second adds slip stitch and double crochet and then shows you how with these basic skills you can play around and make a crazy little monster while you practice! 

It may seem odd that I'm a complete beginner but decided to make a video to show others how to crochet. 

Well - I wanted to have a go at making videos - and I like to encourage others to try things . 

I believe that anyone can do anything they want to - they just have to have the courage to try, make mistakes and not worry about perfection!

My daughter also likes that she can watch the video whenever she wants to help her practice - she doesn't need to wait until I have time to sit with her!

So there you have my crochet journey so far!  I'm going to keep on practising and trying tutorials, and encouraging my daughter to keep  it up too! 

Are you learning any new crafts or skills this year?

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What is Creativity and why do we need it?

Creativity is a great motivator because it makes people interested in what they are doing. Creativity gives hope that there can be a worthwhile idea. Creativity gives the possibility of some sort of achievement to everyone. Creativity makes life more fun and more interesting.

Edward de Bono

I've recently been re-reading a book that I enjoyed last year called A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink

In this book, Daniel Pink talks about how the skills you need for top jobs are different now, compared to previous generations.
Here's what I've taken from this book:
Traditionally, you needed to study hard at school, get good grades in exams and tests and the best jobs were considered those that you needed to be academically good to get into - like doctors, lawyers, accountants etc.  Essentially 'left brain' jobs - those that use the logical and ordered left side of your brain.
However, Daniel Pink mentions the 3 factors that he believes have changed this: Abundance, Asia and Automation.
Abundance -  Just a trip to the shops shows you abundance - when you want to buy something - you are faced with a massive array of choices of style, size, price and brand for what you are looking for.  How do you choose?  It is no longer the best product we necessarily buy - but more likely to be the best marketed product! - the importance is no longer on the object -but how it is promoted and sold - how creative the company marketers are! Information is something else that is abundant - particularly on the internet - you can find the answer to anything. How many times have you self diagnosed 'illnesses' by Googling your symptoms rather than going to the doctor?  The abundance of free information available at the touch of a button is also reducing the need for some professions.
Asia - a huge amount of technical computer, and many other jobs are now outsourced from for example the USA, Australia or the UK to for example India, because living costs and so wages are lower for the same level of skilled worker. As a result there are fewer jobs like this available in more westernised countries.
Automation - this speaks for itself. Computers and machines can do  so much for us now that many jobs don't need actual people to do them.
What is happening now is that it's not the people who do well at  studying and learning facts, figures, academic subjects etc who are headed for the top jobs; it is those who are good at being creative. It is those who can offer something different, new and innovative that are headed for success now.  Those who use actively their 'right-brains'!

“Don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.” 

― Rumi, Essential Rumi

So if creativity is the key to success in this day and age - all of us creative, crafty souls are a step ahead in the game!  
If I am 
'Creating my way to Success'
Then I am going about aiming for my goal the right way! I knew it!

So what is creativity? Wikipedia defines it as:
Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby something new is created which has some kind of subjective value (such as a joke, a literary work, a painting or musical composition, a solution, an invention etc.). It is also the impetus and motivational force behind any given act of creation, and it is generally perceived to be associated with intelligence and cognition.

Creativity then, is something to be nurtured. Ideas are the starting point of creativity - mix that with some inspiration, risk-taking, brain storming and you're on your way!   There are thousands of creative blogs out there, then there's sites like Pinterest, which for me at the moment is my favourite go to place for inspiration. The endless linky parties we all join in and host provide a breeding ground for creativity - with everyone sharing their own ideas and innovations.  Even when you follow someone else's ideas and tutorials, you inevitably put your own spin on in by choosing your own colours, designs, fabrics or adding or removing features.
If Creativity is the skill of the future - then it is to be nurtured and grown as much as possible.  Our kids should be encouraged to flex their creative muscles to help prepare them for the future, as much as, if not more than their school studies and textbooks will help them.
I have decided to make more of a conscious effort to explore creativity, and how we can encourage and develop it in ourselves and others even more.

“Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people”

Leo Burnett

When I see a great upcycle idea - I'm always so impressed that someone could look at something in a totally different way to that which it was intended.  Like someone who can look at a chair, and not just see a chair, but see the shape, construction and other possibilities - turning it into a shelf, or a storage rack. I think a large part of creativity is the ability to look at things in a different way - to think outside square so to speak. Are you good at doing this? I always feel that there must be something I could sew to solve a problem - do you feel the same way about your craft?

An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.

Edwin Land

“You can't use up creativity. 

The more you use, the more you

 have.” 

Maya Angelou