Strategies for Inspiration

Boost Your Creative Energy Through Collaboration

11/14/2019

Wicked Glass & Wanderlust Designs Shop Owner, Belinda Davis-Lesniak (with newly rescued kitten). Photo courtesy B Davis-Lesniak

Wicked Glass & Wanderlust Designs, 234 West Main Street, Frankfort, KY 40601. Phone: 859-693-4426

Get Fuel for your creative flow here!

By Jenny Leigh Hodgins

Nurturing creativity and triggering inspiration often comes straight from interaction with other creative people. Seeking out these relationships is a common practice for successful creators. Listening to the story behind an artiste’s creative process, or watching their specific technique for an artwork can open up new neurological pathways for your own innovative thinking. This is where much creative spark begins.

It may seem counterintuitive for introverted creators like myself, who thrive in solitary work routines. But seeking out and learning from other creative people is an incredible boost to fresh inspiration.

Hence, I look for opportunities for creative collaboration. That’s why I love interviewing creative people for YourCreativeChord podcasts and blogs. I’ve spoken with creators from all over the world, thanks to the miracle of digital technology.

Positive Creative Community in a Local Shop

I believe it’s important to also support connections locally, and I’ve gratefully found a wonderful collaboration with a local shop and its owner in downtown Frankfort, Kentucky. Belinda Davis-Lesniak’s flavorful shop is a boon to downtown Frankfort, adding a robustly diverse retail experience with energetic and upbeat character.

For those who are far away from my home state of Kentucky, have no fear; this wonderful shop is easily accessed online, too. I also highly encourage a visit to this ‘hidden gem’ of a city, with its geographical position next to the beautiful Kentucky River, and uniquely characteristic limestone and Italianate architecture dating back to the late 1800s.

Welcome To My Exclusive Home For Inspiration!

I’ve chosen this local small business to exclusively host my 2020 inspiring nature photo calendars. Additional products will soon include notecards, posters, puzzles, playing cards, kitchen towels, T-shirts, sketch- and notebooks. All my products feature the beauty of nature with self-care themes for nurturing creativity.

I selected this shop because of the intersection of our mutual branding about fostering positivity, inspiration, harmonious living, nature love, spiritual wellness and self-care. It’s a wonderful fit for my upcoming nature photo designs and new products.

I’m so excited to introduce and offer a bit of behind the scenes insight into this beautiful shop and its lovely, warm-hearted owner, Belinda Davis-Lesniak.

Infusing A New Spirit
With Connection & Compassion

In sync with Downtown Frankfort, Inc’s vision and website slogan, “there’s a new spirit infusing downtown Frankfort,” Kentucky, I felt it for myself in Davis-Lesniak’s welcoming shop at 234 West Main Street (Frankfort, KY 40601), “where new age meets Bohemian with a wanderlust flair.”

I popped in to meet the owner, for what I expected to be a short visit to see her store, Wicked Glass & Wanderlust Designs. Two and a half hours later, I reluctantly gathered myself and my mother for the short drive back to Lexington.

This woman business owner is an incredible inspiration, oozing friendly vibes and opening her heart in conversation to a depth that instantly makes you feel you’ve been friends for many lifetimes. She has a spirit of compassion and creativity that resonated immediately with me (and my mother). The size of her heart was evident as she showed us the stray kitten in a box she had just rescued from the streets.

Her newly opened Frankfort shop is a smorgasbord of spiritually positive products and experiences ranging from native American Indian photography, to metaphysical philosophy books, crystals, tarot cards, pagan, Buddhist and holistic nature-revering practices, to self-care offerings of massage and Reiki treatments, and even Tea Leaf and Tarot readings, ‘Make and Take Earring’ workshops, and guided shamanic journey adventures.

There’s also Alchemy of England jewelry, ‘alternative,’ handcrafted designs from Leicestershire, England, and sterling silver gemstone jewelry. For the Bohemian flair, there are handbags, dreamcatchers, musical percussion instruments (hand drums, thunder makers, rainsticks, egg shakers, and African thumb pianos) and windchimes.

Her shop is a haven for self-care products, including essential oils, handcrafted candles, incense, soaps, uplifting books, notecards, banners, window stickers and a range of calendars.

What I especially love is that local artists’ works, including painting and photography (and my new 2020 calendars) are uniquely featured, infusing the store with an air of vibrant inspiration. The owner’s creative energy enlivened our visit as she shared like a flowing fountain, her ideas to expand the shop’s back section into an area for community workshops, and a way to feature a local artist with a commissioned ceiling mural.

Downtown Frankfort renovations are underway to draw more local artists and business owners to provide a boon of attraction for locals and tourists. Davis-Lesniak’s new, colorful store is a perfect addition to fit this downtown vision.

get inspired here!