the first hour is always wasted and i stopped fighting it
Took me years to admit I'm useless for the first hour in the studio. Coffee, walk around, stare at the piece, move a tool I don't need, leave again. Used to call it procrastination and push through it. Made worse work.
Now I just accept it. First hour is for warming up the eyes, not the hands. The real work starts when I stop forcing it.
What do you do in that dead time before anything happens?
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Ah sure you've nailed it there. That first hour, I call it the prowling hour in my head. Walk in, look at the block I carved yesterday, decide I hate it, walk out, come back with tea, stare at it again, realise it's grand actually, sit down, sharpen a tool that doesn't need sharpening, finally cut one line and suddenly I'm away.
Took me long enough to learn the same lesson though. Used to sit down at the bench and force it, you know the way, telling yourself "right, work, now", and I'd carve something stupid and spend the next day fixing it. The head has to catch up with the hands, that's all it is. The staring is part of the making, you just can't prove it to anyone watching.
I do the same thing now except I've given myself permission. Walk in, kettle on, wander around the room looking at proofs, maybe stand at the window and watch the rain for a bit. The kids call it "Da's thinking time" and they're not wrong, just the thinking has no words in it.
Anyway, dead time my arse. It's the bit that makes the rest work.
"the head has to catch up with the hands" is such a perfect way to put it. i've got a chair i sit in and just stare for like 20 minutes. used to think i was being lazy. nope, just letting my brain arrive before my body does.
That's it exactly. You can't rush your own head to work. I used to feel guilty about the staring. Now I figure if I need twenty minutes to look at a piece before I touch it, that's part of the work.
Prowling hour is right. I like that.
The bit about carving something stupid and fixing it the next day, that's the whole thing. I've got a dozen pieces I kept alive through that mistake. Should have just walked out and come back.