Doing by inventing the way of doing: Formativeness as the linkage of meaning and matter.

The chapter proposes the concept of formativeness in order to interpret how materiality comes to matter within creative practices in craftsmanship. The concept of formativeness comes from aesthetic philosophy and it denotes the process by which phenomena (for instance an object, or a work of art) acquire form within working practices. Formativeness is a process realized through a doing that while it does invents ‘the way of doing’. This concept should be added to the lexicon of practice to denote not only the process whereby the form emerges from the encounter with materials, but also a specific type of knowing process situated within practical creativity. A practice-based approach to creative practices within artisan firms informed the empirical research on which the theoretical reflection is based. A contribution to the literature on organizational creativity is thus made by complementing it with a non-linear vision of the creative process, where the following aspects of the formative process – sensible knowing, co-formation of ideas and materiality, experimenting with playfulness, translating and hybridizing materials, realization and repetition – may explain how meaning and matter are intrinsically entangled in forming.