I don’t know how many times I’ve had people look at something I’ve made and confess to me that they wish they were artistic – but they just don’t have any of the necessary skills to create something.

Usually I tell them they might be too worried about making something perfect, and if they just allow themselves to try something and not worry if it comes out flawed, they’ll find they have more talent than they think they do.

And sometimes, if I know them well enough, I manage to find something they’ve created that’s artistic without them even realising it. One thing I think people tend to overlook in the quest for creativity is just the ability to assemble interesting things. A collection can be very creative and artistic without involving the elusive skills that people tend to believe they need in order to be considered ‘artsy.’

I love to decorate with my own creations, and I realized recently that the collections I have are, in fact, a form of my own creation even though I didn’t actually make the individual objects that comprise the collections.

As an example – I didn’t make the shelf or the bright colored bitters bottles that hang in my bedroom, but the collection, as a whole, makes an interesting piece of art.

Do you have any collections that you display in an artistic way? Tell me about them!