C is for Coffee Shops
There's something about coffee shops that makes me feel like creating.
Crafting in Coffee Shops
A couple of years ago, a friend and I took a knitting class at a local yarn shop. We fell into the habit of going to class and then going to a coffee shop right after to practice. When we were at The Wild Boar, we sat at a table that had a window next to it that looked into the next room where customers placed their orders at the counter. At one point, we looked up to find about 4 or 5 little faces pressed against the glass, eyes wide and mouths hanging open, looking at our yarn and moving sticks.
Apparently, not everyone knits at coffee shops.
I've never done beading or jewelry making in a coffee shop—most of my projects just aren't very portable. And some to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen any crafting in local coffee shops except for knitting and that's fairly unusual. (If you've done any crafting in coffee shops, I'd love to hear about it! Did everyone think you were odd or was it no big deal?)
Writing in Coffee Shops
Writing is a different story. It seems like coffee houses are full of people writing (or maybe just pretending to write or avoiding writing by reading Facebook). Since becoming a freelancer, I have spent a significant amount of time writing and editing in coffee shops. For some reason, I can be totally stuck on a story or not feel like writing at all, but when I sit at one of those wobbly little tables with my latte, I can write for at least an hour or more. I'm usually the type of person who needs some quiet to write, but the music and chatter don't bother me at all. Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones explains:
"The cafe atmosphere keeps that sensory part of you busy and happy, so that the deeper, quieter part of you the creates and concentrates is free to do so."
Maybe you think that I'm just buying into the stereotype of writers in coffee shops, subconsciously thinking about how the phenomenally success J.K. Rowling (author of the Harry Potter series) wrote in cafes. (The Elephant House mentions her, along with Ian Rankin and Alexander McCall-Smith, as customers.) But it works for me. I may not sell everything I write there, but it gets me in the chair and working like nothing else I've found.
Do you feel more creative at a coffee shop? Do you have a favorite coffee shop to share?
Update May 3, 2011: My Coffee Cup Earrings will be appearing in the October 2011 issue of Bead Trends. The magazine's policy is to ask that images be removed online until the issue is published, so they are no longer on this blog post. Instead, I'm posting a different pair of coffee-inspired earrings. (I still have a pair of the Coffee Cup Earrings for sale; send me an email if you're interested.)