Category: the creative process

Celebrating the Journey Of Nature Bound Design Co

January 4th, 2021

One of the things that I have loved doing in the past on my blog is author interviews for books or series I have read. I’ve decided that I want to broaden that concept and start doing interviews for other people too. There are so many wonderfully talented individuals out there, and I want to celebrate at least some of them on my blog.

So I’ve created this new blog series that I hope to post on at least several times a month, celebrating the journeys of some interesting people I either know, or happen to meet along my own journey.

I’m going to get the ball rolling with Sophia who I met through this blog. She has a business creating handmade jewelry. I saw her products and decided I had to know more about her and her business. So I’m going to hand this over to Sophia, so she can tell you more about her journey.

I love your jewelry designs. I’m curious to know more about your business Nature Bound Design Co. Can you tell us how you got started?

I really got started through my love for nature and the outdoors. I was born in Germany, and I was always out and about there, exploring the beautiful forests and natural areas that my part of that country had to offer. Sometimes my family would go on long hikes as a group, and sometimes I would just spend time in the woods near my house. I was lucky enough to live at the end of a road that terminated near a large forest, so there was plenty of nature to explore right in my backyard! From that exploration grew a love of natural materials, like stones.

I have always been a creative type. From building things to painting and creating music, I have always felt an overwhelming urge to create. One day, I was exploring YouTube and noticed someone creating jewelry from polymer clay pieces that looked like colorful stones. I gave this a try myself, but I found that I didn’t like the non-authentic nature of the clay or the way it smelled when baking. So I decided to try to create with the real stones that I had adored since I was young.

Wire wrapping seemed to be one of the most popular ways to approach this, so I started devouring YouTube videos about how to wire wrap stones. After much practice, I got good enough to feel comfortable opening an Etsy shop to sell what I had created. Close friends were my first customers and support, and I am so thankful that they provided me a foundation to get started!

Tell us a little more about the products you make?

I create mostly wired wrapped jewelry, although I do some beaded pieces that are strung together without any kind of wirework. My hope is to start doing some projects with leather this year, since I just launched a men’s line, so I will be offering woven pieces soon as well!

What makes jewelry making so special to you?
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Journaling Series Part 3: How to Stick With Journaling?

May 4th, 2018
The content in this journaling series is from what I shared with my recent in-person journaling class. My original idea was to try and create an online class, but ultimately decided to create a blog series in which to freely share this information.

Last week we talked about What is Journaling? The week before we talked about Why Journaling is Important? Now let’s finish up with ways to keep inspired and to keep journaling.

Ways to Stay Inspired

We all know how hard it can be to stick with something, but it helps if we can get some inspiration here and there. Here are some great places to help inspire your writing!
- Journal with Purpose, inspiring creative journaling http://www.journalwithpurpose.co.uk/
- Lavendaire is a blog about personal growth + lifestyle design.https://www.lavendaire.com/about/
- Kaizen Journaling, a home for people who want to have their personalized arsenal for success, which is fueled by their dreams, guided by their courage, and stamped with their unique personality. http://kaizenjournaling.com/
- Creative Writing Now, where you’ll find creative writing courses, ideas, prompts, free online classes, and step-by-step guides to writing fiction, poetry, and drama. https://www.creative-writing-now.com/ (also has a creative journaling section)
- A Writer’s Wings, my writing blog that has posts mostly on writing techniques and writing in general, but also things that inspire me, or books that I read and have really strong feelings about. I’m also using it as an author page to promote my published works. https://cynthiadgriffin.com/
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Journaling Series Part 2: What is Journaling?

April 27th, 2018
The content in this journaling series is from what I shared with my recent in-person journaling class. My original idea was to try and create an online class, but ultimately decided to create a blog series in which to freely share this information.

Last week in this series, I talked about Why Journaling is Important? This week let’s talk about what journaling is and is not. Let’s also get rid of some preconceived ideas and stereotypes about journaling and understand how powerful a tool it can be for every person of any age.

What is Journaling?
- Is first and foremost an expression of the Self
- A form of self-expression that works best if it comes directly from the heart (don’t lie, don’t be in denial, just let it all out)
- Is a written record of thoughts, experience, and observations
- It can be something you do regularly or just when you feel you need it
- There are no rules to journaling, expect for the ones you make yourself (if you decide to make any at all)
- You are in charge of what you write or don’t write and when you write
What Journaling is NOT.
- Something you HAVE to do (so don’t stress over journaling if it’s not something that speaks to you, or you only journal every once in awhile)
- A place where you need to worry about proper grammar, spelling, or punctuation
- Journaling is NOT just writing, it can include paintings, drawings, pictures, stickers or keepsakes that have meaning (like ticket stubs for a dried flower, ect.)
This sounds easy enough, and usually it is, but I think journaling can have a bad stigma because it might seem to only be for “girls” or something that can be considered boring because no one thinks their life is interesting enough to talk about. I say not at all to both these things. Journaling is for EVERYONE of all ages. It can be very fun too. It all depends on how it’s approached. What kind of journal you keep matters too. What might work for one person, may not be as effective for another.

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Journaling Series Part 1: Why is Journaling Important?

April 20th, 2018

The content in this journaling series is from what I shared with my recent in-person journaling class. My original idea was to try and create an online class, but ultimately decided to create a blog series in which to freely share this information.

I feel very passionate about journaling and the great tool it can be in helping to discover more about who we really are, but I find information on journaling is scattered over many places. Also, there’s a lot on bullet journaling (the most popular type of journaling right now), but there isn’t a focus on all the broad possibilities of journaling or why it is so important. I hope through this blog series I can address these things as well as express why I find journaling to be such a vital part of my life.

So let’s start with why I believe journaling is so important. The best way I can do that is to tell you how journaling has affected my life.

I didn’t always journal, and when I did start it was very infrequent. Maybe once a month or two and it remained this way for a while. Usually my journaling was just a dump of negative emotions and when I went back to read what I wrote, I’d become incredibly depressed. Because of this, I decided I didn’t want to write because I didn’t want to depress myself further. I thought “What’s the point?” “Life sucks and it’s nothing but a gaping raw wound. Why make it worse by spilling my crap on purpose?”

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Creating Opportunities to be More Creative

October 5th, 2017

As a writer, being a creative person is a pretty big deal. We pride ourselves on how creative we are and yet there are times when we feel we just aren’t creative enough. It’s sort of a Ping-Pong match between the two. Some days it’s one, and a whole lot of other days, it’s the other. There have been quite a few times when I personally felt like I lost the game all together. Many times I found myself asking “Am I creative enough to be a writer?” or “What can I do to be more creative?”. In the end though, maybe it’s more of a question of how can we be the right amount of creative to accomplish our goals?

I want to tell you a story. Something that happened to me over the last few years that changed my life forever (causing me to abandon my blog for awhile too––sorry!) and made me see things in a little different light, especially concerning the way creativity works.

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