Do Flower Essences Improve Creativity?

In Greek mythology, Iris connected Heaven and Earth by creating the rainbow thus bridging the real world with inspiration.

Similarly, Iris essence is believed to increase your intuition and enhance creativity, especially if you are feeling blocked. Dr. Edward Bach made flower essences popular through the remedies he developed in the 1930s to help patients with emotional issues.

Today, spritzing iris essence under your tongue or applying it to pulse points daily may provide you with inspiration for your next project.

• Find it here.

Creative Materials for Art

Have you ever thought about what you could use around the house for your art? I'm not talking about traditional materials, but something, well creative. Creativity involves taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary.

(Photo Courtesy of Jennifer Maestre)

Artist Jennifer Maestre uses pencils, which she cuts into small sections and threads like beads to create beautiful sculptures based on sea urchins. She started her work using nails but couldn't get them to create the effect she was looking for. She started looking at other pointy objects to use and found pencils worked best.

(Photo Courtesy Avon Heritage Duct Festival)

Another interesting use for a household object inspired an entire festival. The Fifth Annual Heritage Duct Tape Festival runs June 13-15 in Avon, Ohio. Besides the practical uses of this versatile tape, you can see sculptures and parade floats created using duct tape.

• Can you come up with a new use for a common household product?

Creativity Loses Value

The appeal of creativity has exploded during the last several years, with everyone from schools to CEOs proclaiming its importance. So does this eliminate the value of true creativity if everyone is seen as a creative thinker?

Possibly. Thinking creatively is a skill that should be taught and learned by everyone, but are we also learning how to apply that thinking for every day solutions? Probably not. Most creativity books and classes preach expressing our creativity but few help us to use it constructively.

The Arts Column in the Telegraph (via the Applied Imagination blog) recently explored this topic emphasizing the need to learn more skilled crafts or at least a practical use for creativity as this, not solely ideas has sustained humankind.

• Agree or disagree?