How is a work of art created? The stress in this question is on the way in which, in the creative process of a work of art, an object or image, a certain order is distilled from chaos. Could there possibly be, preceding this chaos, an underlying plan (a form of order) that unfolds in the work of art? In order to answer this question, I consult, among others, myths of creation from China and Western Europe that wield precisely such concepts in order to explain the origin of the cosmos. Clay, which also plays a role in several creation myths, is the main research material.