Creativity Series: On Making Mistakes

There are several categories of "mistakes" we can make in art. Some are technical-IE. missing a stitch in a needle arts project. Some are artistic decisions gone awry. Both types of mistakes can turn into happy accidents, as I'm sure we have all had the experience of.

The point I want to make, with creativity in mind, is that generally, with artistic mistakes the best way to continue is to just... continue, work around it, work with it, work over it, but incorporate that "mistake" into the piece, as it is a part of the artistic journey that you have followed while making it.

With technical mistakes,  I generally have an internal battle. Sometimes, they are small enough that -really- no one will notice but me. Other times, they NEED to be fixed in order to preserve the integrity of the piece. But the hardest one to make decisions about are those that fall somewhere in the middle of that range. Something that might effect quality only superficially, something that may or may not be noticed by others, or something that could be better but is OK as it is.

I tend to notice these mistakes well after making them. Four rows later in a crochet project, for example. I really make the effort to go back and correct these mistakes, most of the time. Sometimes it is a gut wrenching decision -tinking 100 stitches in a knitting project- but it invariably makes the piece better as a whole. By better, I mean that I am happier with it, and isn't that what generally matters?