How I Keep My Creative Process Sustainable (without Burning Out)

Sustainable Creativity: What My Process Actually Looks Like

If you're anything like me, your creative process isn’t always a straight line. It’s a bit like gardening—there’s planning, planting, messy middle stages, and bursts of beauty. Over the years, I’ve tried to build a sustainable creative process that works with my energy, not against it—and that’s meant letting go of the idea that I need to hustle or overproduce to make meaningful work.

As a manifesting generator (familiar with Human Design?), I usually pursue things that excite me, and once they no longer do, I move on to something else. This tendency to follow my passions used to frustrate me, and I was often perceived as flighty. As I am maturing, I've realized that it's not a total departure but more like taking a tangent when I change direction.

To keep things moving along in a forward motion, while working with my energy I focus on:

• 30 minutes a day: I’ve shared this before, but it’s worth repeating. Whether I’m digitizing artwork, adding metadata, or playing with natural dye tests, I give it 30 minutes of focused attention. Consistency matters more than perfection.

• Using what I have: From reworking old sketches to using leftover natural dyes, I try to build from what’s already around me. It keeps waste low and sparks unexpected ideas.

• Batching my energy: I group tasks by how I’m feeling—low-energy days are for light admin or weed pulling, high-energy days are for painting, planning, and product creation.

The result? A creative business that feels sustainable in every sense of the word—creatively, financially, and environmentally.

Impressionist result of ice dye and some hand painted illustrations using thickened dye, and hand drawing techniques.

Sustainable Tips for Left Over Dye

Here are some ways I use my left over dye material and dyes to create new art or simply play with new to me processes and ideas. I dry my left over harvest. I use these flowers for dye baths during winter and early spring when fresh dye material from the garden is not ready yet. Sometimes I will use the crushed petals in my collage art, or to make paper with a botanical flare. I freeze left over dye baths in different shapes and sizes and create impressionistic results with ice dyeing. I have used thickeners/binders and painted on fabric using the dye/ink and hand drawn over the painting to create beautiful, unique and interesting illustrated fabrics. Sustainability is fundamentally about frugality—leveraging what you have and extending it's usefulness and life by recreating, reusing and reinventing.