The Big Toss - will it ever happen?

A week after returning home, I can count on one hand the number of times I've set foot in the studio. Once I stayed for all of 10 minutes, searching for a sketchbook, with good intention of doing "something" ... that fizzled out.

Room with a view

It's summer. Time to relax. Time to catch up with myself after quite an intense time, living somewhere else, getting as much out of being there as possible. Yearning for "something different".

Maybe that different thing is a change in direction, even a moving away from p&q, after all these years. It seems impossible to contemplate paring back the fabric and other supplies, but subliminally, subconsciously, I hope that's happening. It will take ages to sort, sift through it all, thousands of little decisions. I've been practising for The Big Toss, getting rid of things in other rooms.

I'm collecting Reasons, Prods, and Good Examples, to nurture and/or bolster the Big Toss plan - ah, it's something I've planned many times, haven't you?

First Good Example: hearing about Claire's ceramics course: "I made some things that I kept, and I threw out the rest." Wow, that's easy!

Second, reading this on Liz Davidson's blog:
"A couple of weeks ago I walked into the studio and realized there was no room to work, no space, so I started to rip up most of the last couple of months of work; and... put all that in the recycling bin.... And as I filled bag after bag of paper I looked around and realized more had to go, the walls full of ideas not yet realized, into the trash. I need space to work. The lovely thing about this tearing away is how what I had been working on was clearer now, not bright, but not just sensed."

Third ... [two's a coincidence, three's a collection...] - waiting for the third.... and for the energy, the imperative, the impetus, that liberating step over the line.

It was great to be away from it all. Made me realise that maybe I don't need all that unfinished stuff, the boxes of UFOs and the headful of half-planned projects. You reach a point when one thing at a time is enough.

It's summer. It's good to be gardening, or listening to music. And sneaking in a little gentle space-clearing.

Reminders to self:

• it won't happen unless you actually do it
• there will still be enough left 

Practical tips:

• you can do anything for 15 minutes
• "first clear a surface"
• don't put it down, put it away
• ask not what use it might have someday, but whether you need it now