Surrender to Your Story: Find and Refine Your Creative Voice

Experimenting with pop-up folds of Loja, my Spanish town © Cherry Jeffs 2015

Have you considered your story?

It's comprised of everything you have ever been, done and seen seen through the eyes of your personality and described by your own creative vocabulary.

It is from this personal history that your creative voice springs. 

​Looking at the elements of your story can give you tremendous insight into how to take your creative work - and life - forward, into stronger, more confident territory.
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Knitting the Strands of my Personal Story

While I didn't consciously set a goal this year to tie up the strands of my own personal story, they seem to be knitting themselves together of their own accord.

​Perhaps by reading about how I am tying together my strands, it can help you see how to find and unite your own.
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Works on with Paper

I find myself increasingly and inexorably drawn to focus on paper.

Marks on paper, cutting and sticking paper, graphic design, paper products and even unusual paper packaging are all things I love.

Surrendering to this passion has led me to numerous creative projects all centred around paper in one way or another.

Poppy Box - playing with paper engineering © Cherry Jeffs 2015

Pop-Up, Origami and Artist's Books

A long-held idea of making a pop-up book has gradually morphed into an interest in all sorts of 3D paper elements from origami to artist's books.

As a tentative step towards bringing this idea to fruition, I'm teaching myself the art of pop-up.

It's no mean feat figuring out the mechanics of this sort of stuff but since delving into David B. Goldstein's book, Creative You: Using Your Personality Type To Thrive, last year, I've realised my brain is wired the right way. 
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My short-term aim is to hack a sufficient understanding of pop-up's and interesting book mechanisms to create a fold-out paper piece as part of my ongoing 'Grow Wings and Fly' theme. 

Working on a pop-up/artist's book hybrid © Cherry Jeffs 2015

Art Paper Dolls

I've also been working on ideas for a new set of paper dolls with a Wild West theme.

This is another 'home-coming' for me, not only because I have made paper dolls before, but because the process throws up memories of researching costumes when doing my degree in theatre design. Another strand in the skein... 

Ideas for Wild West Paper Dolls © Cherry Jeffs 2015

Paper Printables for eBooks

My former life as a graphic designer has also been making its presence felt as I've been pondering ways to make my Kindle eBooks more tangible. 

Leaning towards juicier downloads to accompany the digital format, I've been developing a new version of the 8 Habits Landmark Planner for the 8 Habit Plan for Creative Growth as a style-study for a printable workbook. ​​

8 Habits Landmarks Planner © Cherry Jeffs 2015

Time to Knit Together the Strands of Your Creative Expression

• What ways could you be 'even more yourself' this year?
• What are the things you just love?
• What underlying threads are trying to make themselves visible?
• What elements of your personal story combine to make your unique creative voice?
• How could you exaggerate them to help your voice speak even more clearly?

​Share your ideas in the comments!