Creativity is a funny thing.
Every artist has a few motifs, themes, or colors she gravitates towards all the time. Two of mine are stars and flowers. I think of these as my comfort elements, the ones I can turn to reliably over and over and still be inspired even when I switch mediums or techniques. That's to be expected. What's interesting is that sometimes a theme can have a very long arc and come back to you a decade or more later.
The First Experiment
In 2009, I took one of my first resin classes at a large bead show. The instructor brought a bunch of paper scraps for us to use to create our necklaces. I chose a paper copy of the periodic table of elements. If you're not familiar with this, it's a chart of chemical elements that contains their atomic numbers, names, and other information.
I'm not sure why I was drawn to it. I'm not particularly scientifically minded. It was probably partly a practical choice since the squares on the table were about the right size for the pendants we were making. I've also always liked codes and secret messages, so I might have also chosen a square knowing that many people would not know what it meant.
Here's the pendant I made back then with the "Na" symbol for sodium. (I probably also liked the irony of wearing something "salty" when my language is not especially so.)
Everything Old Is New Again
Fast forward to today and I'm again having fun with periodic table jewelry and gifts, including earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and ornaments. These pieces are cut and engraved with a laser in my home studio which means that I can create custom versions in a variety of colors. It's especially having fun seeing how many words you can create with a limited number of letters. It's like an advanced version of Scrabble! I've already made a few custom pieces with people's initials or nicknames.
Your Turn
If you're feeling creatively stuck these days, why not reach back at least ten years or more and see what you were doing them? It might be time for another look.
P.S. By the way, if you are the scientific type, you might enjoy the book The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean which tells the story of all the elements in the periodic table. I confess I did not read the entire book (a little too much deep science for me), but I did especially enjoy some of the chapters such as the one on "Artistic Elements" which covered the history of the special nib on a Parker 51 pen. I love books that are arranged by broad topic like this one where you can easily dip into the sections that you find most appealing.