Finding your Creative Voice: How to stop copying and start designing your own pieces

Do you think of yourself as an artist?  Have you made pieces featuring your own original design ideas? Do you have a distinctive style that is immediately recognizable as your own?Learning design and pursuing original design ideas is a difficult and little talked about topic, yet it can be of the utmost importance for our businesses and our personal fulfillment, affecting all of us who make things regardless of form or material. In this presentation, my goal is: (1) Help you identify what, if anything, is holding your back from trying to design using your own original design ideas, (2) Discuss how to go about learning design in a practical and applied way, and (3) Explore the many places we can look for inspiration to fuel new creative design ideas when we feel stuck or in a rut.  I hope to have a lively and inspiring discussion together on this important topic that changes how we see our own work.

About Paul Jasper: Paul Jasper began woodworking in 2005 after befriending his 80 year old neighbor, "Hal."  Hal introduced  Paul to many of the fundamentals of woodworking, and set him on his journey to become a more educated and capable craftsman. Paul then continued to refine his craft, studying at The Furniture Institute of Massachusetts and The North Bennet Street School, and apprenticing with full time maker and restorer, Freddy Roman.

Paul's focus is unique art and design, translated through wood. This has manifested in a wide variety of unique home decor items including sushi boards, tea boxes, serving boards, watch boxes, and more. Paul says: "It brings me deep personal satisfaction to know the pieces I make bring small moments of joy to their owners and become deeply loved family heirlooms."