"On Creativity" with Maria Whetman

In our blog series "On Creativity" each week we will feature one of our members and their perspectives on keeping their creativity alive.

This week we are talking to Maria of Fluxplay


What inspires you?
An event, a place, an object, an artists work, a material....This brooch was inspired by the peninsula of land that I live on which is surrounded by sea and two rivers on the edges of Cornwall & Devon. The pottery shards were found on the shore, remnants of busier times on the peninsula. The boat reflects the maritime history of the place....now most of the boats are pleasure craft, fishing as a pastime. I made it specifically for showing in the Jewellery category at the small, annual village show where I live, a real community show of jams, vegetables, cakes, flowers and local crafts, a celebration of the community. Last year I won 2nd prize in the "savoury flan" category (my jam was a flop)

How does your design process work/How do you come up with new ideas? There is always a starting point of a story for me, a narrative.

How do you stay motivated?
As long as I am not tired then I am motivated by my inspirations...the key is not to work to exhaustion.

Do you ever find yourself in a creative rut? If so how do you get out of it? I very rarely fall into the creative ruts, but when I do, all I have to do is look through my many sketchbooks, scrapbooks, materials or the wonderful books on my shelves. The hard part is staying focused on just one idea...that's why I call myself "Fluxplay", "flux" means change and movement, "play" infers that I am not seriously focused enough to make a range and stick to it, even if something sells very well I find it hard to keep making it...my mind wanders to the next idea........

Do you make other things besides jewelry? I make clothes using my 1971 Bernina. I crochet clothes too. In more time-free days I used to work on my house and garden, building, constructing, decorating, accessorizing....those days are long gone! I teach metals at a college 4 days a week so a lot of my energy goes into that job and looking after my daughter. The problem is finding time to make my own work, this is only the 2nd thing I've made since January.