I talk quite often with my artisan clients about SLOWING down in their design process. When we work from a place of stress and hurriedness we tend to make decisions that aren’t the best for ourselves, our work and our business. So, let’s take a moment to embody that moment of slowing down and let’s imagine being a little fairy, the size of an oak leaf, sitting on a mushroom in a green mossy forest.

What do you hear around you? Maybe the wind in the trees? Maybe other woodland life? Maybe a brook?

What do you see around you? I imagine bright lush greens, deep browns, and all kinds of lovely little flowers. A few ladybugs. Lots of moss and a little stream.

What do you smell?

Have you been in an area like this before? Maybe you can relate more to a tropical area or a coastal area? But I know you have been in those places where you can feel the life all around you, right?

Biomimicry is the idea that nature already holds all the answers and I’d be willing to bet, when you were in those places, surrounded by nature you could actually feel that, couldn’t you? We as humans like to think that we know everything, but nature has learned and evolved over centuries more than us humans, so I argue that we can learn a little something from it (well, a LOT of something). In the end, with humans in charge, we aren’t doing such a great job.

Life’s purpose really is to create conditions conducive to life. WOW! right?

There are principles in nature that exist to be true over and over again which therefore we can consider to be strategies (you know how much I love a good strategy) to apply for thriving. As artisans we can apply these strategies to our lives, our business, and our designs!

Organisms have evolved and adapted through centuries to continue to thrive even in changing conditions. Nature turns waste into food for something else and uses life-friendly chemistry (not toxic sludge). Nature uses cyclic processes where nothing is ever wasted.

We can use these principles to help us align our business and our practices (and our lives) with more natural practices and are more life-friendly AND that have already been proved to work.

For example: Artists tend to work solo. Some are successful and some are not, both in business and in their work. All holding unique knowledge and skills. How do we bridge that gap so that successful skills & strategies are shared and there is more success on the whole for artisans even when the world is changing, consumer needs are changing, and the economy is changing?

The answer lies in Evolve to Survive: Replicate strategies that work

What does that look like in nature? The chimpanzee

“Even without intent or instruction, simply providing the tool for the job is a form of teaching. But adults aren’t only out to teach. They’re still trying to feed themselves as well, so these teacher-mothers approach the termite nests prepared. Instead of losing their utensils completely, the adults have a backup plan: sometimes carrying multiple tools or dividing their own herb stems in half lengthwise to make two useful tools, so both teacher and student can catch a meal. Teaching through sharing has led to developing efficient new strategies to both spread the lesson and minimize impact on the teacher. It fosters sustainable ways to fulfill the demands of less skilled community members and multiplies learning opportunities." "These patterns suggest that chimpanzee communities can maintain more complex tool use patterns when the teaching effort or teaching willingness is relatively high." (from asknature.com) This tells us that passing down skills and knowledge is important so as an artisan you might want to consider teaching you skills, writing a book, creating a blog and maybe most importantly creating an apprenticeship program. Or, if you aren’t ready to be the teacher, maybe you need to look for a mentor who can teach you the skills you might be lacking.

Here’s one more: Birds

"Birds evaluate external threats, their previous success, and the success of others in determining where and how to build their nests. Many species, like kittiwakes and piping plovers, will adjust their nesting sites year to year based on their own reproductive success. If a bird fails to produce young that survive to the fledgling stage, the following year it will build a nest much farther away, whereas a successful bird will stay in roughly the same area.

Even more interestingly, birds who fail to breed will peek at their neighbors’ nests to help them decide where to build next. A study showed that piping plovers with unsuccessful neighbors chose sites 34 times further away the following year compared to birds with successful neighbors.

Once a site is selected, the building of the nest begins and involves an equally complex decision-making process. The color, size, and sturdiness of chosen building materials can all be influenced by a bird’s experience and observations. In one fascinating study, zebra finches were forced to build a nest with material of a color they did not prefer. If they went on to raise chicks successfully, the following year they chose to build their nest out of that same color material, despite having other initially-preferred colors at their disposal." (from asknature.com) For whatever reason, we like think we can figure it out on our own. Maybe it’s pride, maybe it’s stubbornness. But nature has learned over centuries that the best strategy is to learn from those who have had success and those who have failed! The key here is community. You need to have people around you doing the things for you to learn from. Again, artisans tend to works solo and it’s impossible to have people to learn from if you are working by yourself all the time. Find a community of artisans who are thriving and be a part of the conversations. What can you learn?

Slow down. We have a planet beyond the brink and the decisions we make DO make a difference. It’s worth taking a day (yes, more than a few moments because this really deserves your time) and really looking at how your business sits within your community and looking at how your designs are making an impact. Is it breathing life and giving life? Is it creating conditions conducive to life? Would the fairy-you be proud?