I have a brother. He's really one of the most creative people I've ever met but he started his life of curiosity and creativity by taking apart everything I ever owned until I was about 12. As we grew up, I remember seeing him in the garage taking apart a bicycle to see how it worked. It was interesting until I realized it was MY bike he was taking apart. It took my dad ages to get it put back together again.
My mother tells the story of him taking apart every toy he ever owned for the 3 1/2 years before I came along (the only one that defeated him was his Tonka Truck apparently) but I can assure you that the second I did come along, he never again touched his own toys or belongings until the day he actually figured out how to put the dang things back together.
He was driven by a passion to understand how things worked and that started by seeing how things fitted together.
I'm happy to say that he did eventually learn how to put things back together, at which time he started taking apart his own things again. In High School his car was giving him trouble so he took the entire thing apart and had it filed in his room in big envelopes. He put the whole thing back together and drove it for several years after that.
So, get your creativity moving by deconstructing something. Have a look at a favorite shirt and figure out how each of the pieces was shaped to fit together. What would happen if you pinned it up along any of the seams? Would it change shape? If you've got any clothing patterns laying around or available to you, pull one out and look at the flat pieces and how they differ from the 3D, put together version.
Look at a pair of trousers and figure out how the zipper was put in. Look at the front pieces and see how they differ from the front. Did you know you can figure out which is the front of a pair of sweat pants even if it doesn't have a label? Hold it at the cross seam at the crotch and you'll see that one side will be longer and one side shorter. I wonder why that would be?
Look at a lamp and figure out how the bulb and shade fit onto the base.
Look at a table or a chair and see how the legs are fitted onto the top. Are there multiple pieces to hold the legs into place? Is it fitted with screws or do the pieces slide together. For the chair, how was the seat finished? Is it a woven fabric? How was it attached to the frame?
Put together a flat pack shelf or cabinet. Why do they tell you do each step in a certain sequence?
Look at a ceramic mug and try to imagine how the cup was made. How was the handle made? How was it attached to the cup?
A friendly note: If you're going to take something apart, you might want to use your handy dandy cell phone or digital camera to document each step to make sure you can put it back together.
Get curious. Start seeing things as components put together. What would happen if one thing was changed? Could the parts be put together to make something completely different? Could part of it be used as a base for something different? Go and deconstruct!
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