>I am glad that I have been
> able to do something that makes me proud,
> and I think it would be interesting to hear
> another persons take on the creative process,
> and what other's do to express themselves
> creatively.

The thing is, I don't know what it's like to *not* express one's self creatively. I always have more than one project going, and if I get bored with one for a while I just work on another (which may not be the smartest way to do things, but that's not the point). I've got my more serious, I-Want-To-Do-This-Professionally stuff, my It's-Just-A-Hobby stuff, and the stuff I Simply Must Do, like creating worlds, putting people into them, and writing about what happens next. I have always *made* stuff, and I'll always *have* to make stuff. But it has to be stuff that's pretty, but with meaning, and the prettiness has to reflect the meaning and not hide it or detract from it (if that makes any sense).

Now, if you want my opinions on the creative process, it really depends on what I'm working on (since I work on a lot of stuff). I guess my biggest creative outlets are writing and making artist dolls (which includes painting, costume and jewelry design, and sculpture in a certain way), but both of those would take a lot of time to talk about, and a lot of people have said a lot of the things I would say, only better. If I had to condense the creative process of everything I work on, I would say this: I think about it, I make it, I think about it some more as I find mistakes, I fix the mistakes or adjust everything else so it's not a mistake at all, and then it's done. And it makes me happy because it's meaningful, even if that meaning's 'it was fun to make and boy, it looks good on the shelf'.

I guess I'm a pretty creative person, if 'creative' means to do what I simply have to do, or to be the way I've always been. Quite frankly, people with no imagination or little to no artistic talent confuse the heck outta me. How can they be that way? How could a person possibily exist without having to create? If you haven't even *thought* about the possibilities or why-this-is-thus or how you could do it yourself only better, how could you possibily live?

Now, I've paused for a few minutes and I've realized I never even got around to adressing *your* post. It's been all me, me, me. ;^p I think, like you said, that you're still adjusting to the creative rush you had, and I think if you wait a while you'll get back to normal soon. And perhaps if you must create something and you haven't found any fashion design classes or groups, you could just find a project to work on (I'd automatically suggest collecting Barbie dolls and repainting them, and I'm sure LaZorra would do the same, but that's just us).

~Qua "One thing I'm not good at: brevity. Whew" rtz