The man who never in his mind and thoughts travel’d to heaven is no artist.

Making something worth having asks the mind to travel beyond what already exists, towards what is highest and most luminous. For some that is heaven itself; for others it is the furthest vision of goodness or beauty they can reach. A maker whose thoughts never go in that direction tends to produce competent copies of what is already familiar. Craft carries the work, but the reaching is what gives it somewhere to go.

When you sit down to make something, give yourself a few minutes first to imagine the most extraordinary version you can, without judging whether it is achievable. Then begin, and let the vision pull at the work.