Fluency, Flexibility, Originality, Elaboration and Resistance to Premature Closure
Generating New Ideas for Earring Shapes
In Part II of this series, we discussed brainstorming and what follows herein is further exploration of that process introducing terms widely used to describe creative thinking. Hopefully, this will help you build on simple brainstorming, making it more valuable for your jewelry making. Following this introduction, I will show you the creative thinking I used to develop some different shapes for metal earrings. I’ll also reference the wire wraps I used on some cabochons.
Four of the main components of creative thinking are fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration (aka FFOE). These are the areas measured most often on tests of creative thinking. I also believe that resistance to premature closure bears discussion because of its importance in generating ideas. The photo below shows a variety of wire-wraps for stones that help document the terms we’re talking about. As you read the discussion you might refer back to these pieces to look for evidence of fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration.