See Yourself as a Creative Thinker-Part III

Fluency, Flexibility, Originality, Elaboration, and Resistance to Premature Closure

Generating New Ideas for Earring Shapes

In Part II of this series, we discussed brainstorming. Here, we'll explore it further and introduce terms widely used to describe creative thinking. This will help you build on simple brainstorming and make it more valuable for your jewelry making. I'll also show the creative thinking I used to develop different shapes for metal earrings and reference wire wraps used on some cabochons.

Four main components of creative thinking are fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration (FFOE). These are commonly measured on creative thinking tests. I also want to highlight resistance to premature closure, which is important for generating ideas.

The photo below shows a variety of wire wraps for stones, illustrating these terms. As you read, you can refer back to these pieces to see examples of fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration in action.

Fluency is shown when we produce a quantity of ideas through brainstorming as discussed in Part I of See Yourself as a Creative Thinker. For example, the cabochon wire wraps above show a variety of different ways to capture a stone. Those who are fluent exercise divergent thinking which doesn’t always appear to provide a logical path to a problem solution, but does allow for many possible answers. A porcupine is a good visual analogy for divergent thinking. The animal’s quills go in all directions making it possible for the porcupine to spear a predator from any side. Divergent thinking enables us to “spear” ideas emerging from different categories or from different angles. This flexibility helps increase the number of ideas generated.

Just as a flexible athlete bends in many different directions, a flexible thinker generates ideas from many different perspectives. For example, if I were a skilled mechanic what ideas might I have regarding my jewelry problem? Would a seamstress see this situation differently? Would there be other solutions if I examined the problem from a different angle? Flexible thinking is important.

Resistance to premature closure greatly impacts idea generation. I had to resist closure when trying to come up with different ways to wrap some of the cabochons in the photo. We want to continue generating possibilities even after we think we’ve found the most suitable idea. By resisting premature closure, we continue to look for other possibilities. While we may, indeed, later determine that we had found the best idea earlier, we can’t know that until we’ve explored all the other possibilities we can think of. Resistance to premature closure is not the same as procrastination. I think of it as the “let’s keep going” principle of idea generation.

Some may say creative thinking merely involves the generation of unusual ideas through divergent thinking, but convergent thinking is also vital. It’s the more logical type of thinking that helps us plan, evaluate and make decisions. We definitely need this in making jewelry in order to make a decision and get something finished. The ability to think convergently is also a part of being creative. We use convergent thinking when selecting the most usable ideas and then perfecting them.

The term originality is not a mystery. Original ideas are unique and different and we can be hopeful that we find something original among the many brainstorming ideas. Is there one idea that can be developed and will it be different from what we’ve done before? Is there a wire wrap in the cabochon photo that is original? I believe selecting an original idea requires both convergent and divergent thinking since we must both evaluate and recognize potential.

Elaboration is another major component of creative thinking. When we run with an idea by fine-tuning or embellishing it we are elaborating. What do we need to add to the idea to make it usable? You can see that I found a variety of ways to elaborate upon the basic cabochon wrap. Elaboration might also involve planning the steps needed to utilize the idea. Sometimes the idea we actually use has little resemblance to the initial thought due to the development of it. Again, we need both divergent and convergent thinking to be elaborative.

Let’s consider new ideas for copper earrings as an example for the above information. I recently noticed that my copper earring inventory was quite low at one of the stores where I sell jewelry. I needed to add some pairs made from copper sheet and wanted to do something a little different. I tried to be fluent by brainstorming the shapes that I might employ for copper earrings. You can see that my first ideas were fairly common shapes.

I resisted premature closure and continued brainstorming, which helped me become more flexible in my thinking.

I stepped away from traditional jewelry shapes and considered shapes in the sky and in the garage.

Eventually, I explored the idea of shapes on top of shapes.

By changing my perspective, I was able to generate more ideas.

The photo below highlights the ideas that came from different categories.

Were there any original ideas among the shapes I drew? I looked for shapes I hadn't seen or made before and marked them with a star.

You can see these in the photo above. I was pleased to create something usable, though not every brainstorming session produces the results I hope for. Even when I return to an old idea, I do so knowing it may still be the best option.

I elaborated on these shapes by adjusting proportions and sizes, eventually selecting two shapes I particularly liked.

I torch-painted one pair of earrings and used Perma Blue, a gun-blue product, to patina the other textured pair.

There are other shapes generated in this exercise that I believe have possibilities for my work.

Here's the good news: fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration, and resistance to closure can be improved with practice.

Think of it like exercising after a long period of inactivity.

The first session may be short and a bit uncomfortable, but over time, it becomes easier. Creative thinking works the same way.

We need to train our brains to resist closure and become fluent, flexible, original, and elaborative.

Doing so increases our chances of creating unique jewelry and helps us see ourselves as creative thinkers.

In Part IV of See Yourself as a Creative Thinker, we'll examine a specific strategy for generating idea. I think you will enjoy trying SCAMPER.