In this ongoing series, Five Little Questions (About Creativity), I’m talking to creative people all over the world to find out about their creative process. This week I heard from Juliann Krute, who lives in Austin, Texas.
Juliann is otherwise known as The Sick Chick at her blog …although she notes that her blog has been a bit dormant as she’s also writing for the upcoming Tre La Creativity magazine, a publication with an added focus on how creativity helps people with stress and health issues.
A little about Juliann—I do just about every kind of craft project with the exception of some kinds of embroidery. If I don’t know how to do it already it’s on my to-do list for the future 🙂 My favourites right now are dyeing, felting and beading.
Q. Is your creativity a solitary pursuit, or not?
A. Both. I do most of the actual making by myself but I would be lost without my creative communities online and my guilds and craft groups offline. Plus I often have friends and family over to craft with me.
Q. What resources do you depend on for creative maintenance (magazines, TV, YouTube)?
A. I don’t have a TV right now so it’s mostly online. Things like Pinterest and Craftsy.com are especially good.
Q. What’s on your work surface right now?
A. I have three work surfaces: One for dye stuffs, one for sewing and the other one is just piled with stuff that needs to be put away but I haven’t had the energy to do it yet.
My current projects are related to the upcoming fashion show being put on by the Austin Fiber Artists guild of which I am a member. Meanwhile I am also trying to make new curtains for the kitchen.
Here’s one portion of Juliann’s sewing workspace. It has all of the necessary components: Sewing Machine, Lamp, Iron, Ironing surface, Feline Supervisor. (Pixiebelle loves crafting and is usually snoopervising at all times when she’s not taste-testing the yarn or thread!)
Editorial comment: I don’t knit, but I still want to reach into the computer and touch all of those gorgeous yarns and fibers!
Q. Say you’ve just sat down to a project but the energy just isn’t there. What do you do?
A. If I don’t have the physical energy — which is common as I have a lot of chronic illnesses that cause fatigue — then I watch crafty videos. If I don’t have creative energy I dip into my pile of things that need mending/fixing — often just getting started on something will help the ideas flow.
Q. Is there an art/craft you’ve never done but want to try?
A. Anything I haven’t tried yet 🙂 I’m particularly looking forward to learning rigid heddle weaving later this year. For me the learning process is at least half of the fun so I go to as many workshops and classes as I can physically get out to. I always come back with new ideas!
Thanks again, Juliann, for sharing your creative insights with us. We’ll keep an eye out for your contributions to Tre La Creativity magazine, too!
