What's that? New tying material??
As a dedicated fly angler and tyer, I’m constantly seeking ways to infuse fresh perspectives and innovative ideas. Recently, I’ve been inspired by the concept of the Medici Effect – the idea that groundbreaking innovation often occurs at the intersection of diverse disciplines, cultures, and ideas. It’s something that I like to consider with fly tying, bringing two or more seemingly unrelated ideas or materials to create something entirely new and unexpected.
The Medici family in the 14th century Italy brought together artists, scientists, philosophers, and craftsmen from across Europe to live, work and learn from each other. Together in this environment they saw and heard things, that they may have not otherwise encountered. The resulting art, science and philosophy set the ground work for the coming scientific revolution.
Channeling this creative energy of connecting disparate ideas, I’ll often walk around craft and hobby stores without anything specific in mind to buy, but just allow the different materials and items to inspire me.
I recently met Dave Kruss at the Fly Fishing Show in California who does a similar thing. On one of his trips he found skeleton leaves and thought that they might make an interesting wing material. Leaves as wings? Who would have thought! His resulting stoneflies were beautiful and one now proudly sits on my fly board to remind me of his creative spark.
Whether you are attending a fly tying event or at the craft store, never say no to new ideas when they come to you until you have at least given them a try.
Dave's Stonefly
Materials list: (links to Amazon)
Frans Johansson’s The Medici Effect shows how breakthrough ideas most often occur when we bring concepts from one field into a new, unfamiliar territory and offers examples of how we can turn the ideas we discover into path-breaking innovations.
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