3 Things I'm Still Learning About Being a Creator

"Find your thing. Then have the gumption to keep showing up for it."

Some days I wake up and Anam Cara Clay Goods feels like the best decision I've ever made. Other days I wonder if I should keep going. I've learned that both of those days are part of the same journey — and that neither one is lying to me.

Here's what I keep coming back to.

Vulnerability Isn't Optional

Putting your art into the world is genuinely terrifying. It's not like handing someone a report or finishing a project at work — it's handing someone a piece of yourself and watching their face while they look at it. When I first started sharing my jewelry, I held my breath every single time. I still do sometimes.

But I've learned that the fear doesn't mean stop. It means you made something that actually matters to you. The moment I stopped trying to protect myself from the vulnerability of it and just let people see the work — really see it — everything opened up. That's when the connections started happening. That's when it stopped feeling like a business and started feeling like a calling.

You can't share your art authentically while also keeping it at arm's length. You have to let it be seen.

Know What Drives You — and Hang On to It

Inspiration isn't one thing and it doesn't always show up on schedule. Sometimes it's a color combination that stops me mid-scroll. Sometimes it's a conversation with a customer who tells me what a piece meant to her. Sometimes it's quieter than that — just a feeling that pulls me toward the worktable even when I told myself I was done for the day.

Figuring out what fills you back up when the creative well runs dry is some of the most important work you'll do as a maker. For me it's people. It's community. It's remembering that the jewelry doesn't end with me — it goes somewhere, it means something to someone. That's the thing I come back to on the hard days. Find your thing. Then, as my dad would say, have the gumption to keep showing up for it.

Trust the Process — Even the Ugly Middle Part

Nobody talks enough about how long it actually takes to find your style. I spent two full years learning polymer clay before I launched Anam Cara Clay Goods. Two years of following tutorials, making things I didn't love, making things I did love, figuring out what made my work mine. It wasn't glamorous. It was just repetition and patience and a willingness to keep going anyway.

Your creative voice doesn't arrive fully formed. It reveals itself slowly, through the doing. Every piece you make — even the ones that don't work — is teaching you something. The process isn't the thing you get through to reach the good part. The process is the good part

Still figuring all of this out, honestly. But that's kind of the whole point.

Are you a fellow maker or creator?

I'd love to know what lessons have stayed with you on your own journey — come find me on Instagram or join the Soul Friends newsletter where this conversation continues. You belong here.