Crafting Through Recovery
From worry stones to beach waves, here is what I’ve been making (and learning) lately...
Well, I have been busy, which seems counter-productive, and I’m not gonna lie—I have been struggling to find balance. Crafting is therapeutic for my brain, but it is quite difficult on my back. So I am in the process of trying to find what posture/seating/table arrangements offer the right support so I don’t have to give it up completely. For instance, I haven’t been able to use a sewing machine in 20-ish years, and I never did finish a quilt I was making for my son (though all 3 of my girls got theirs). It’s still cut and separated, just gathering dust…
My sister has been so generous, letting me use her resin molds and supplies and teaching me what she has learned over the years. My favorite thing to do is worry stones! I have been carrying those around with me to church and out and about and it has been so soothing to have something to rub. I often fidget with my fingers, rubbing them together, and when overly anxious, digging my nails into my hands. So, it has been really great to have something so soothing.
I also poured my first (and not last!) set of Dominoes! I used my favorite beachy colors (you’ll see a theme a bit farther down) but for whatever reason, the resin I used didn’t set up well, so they are more malleable than firm. I’ll have to keep at those and try to perfect it because this was SO much fun!!
I made a brain. At one point I was going to try to fill it with flowers and clear resin, but I decided to just try it first to see how it did and I’m pretty happy with it. I am considering finding some flowers to add to it. I will still pour one with flowers in it eventually.
I also poured this starfish or is this a sand dollar? Who knows…well I’m sure some people do…I also keep calling resin vinyl so whatever…I put some little shells in it, but the color I used in the mold made it too dark to see, so you can only see them from the back. This too was too soft…And I can’t find the picture I took of the top of it, but you get the idea…
Here are some jewelry pieces I made with alcohol inks. Some look good and some not so good…and again…they are too malleable. I’m going to try a different kind of resin next time. We were using a 4 hour one and I don’t think it set up right. Well, some of it did. But as it got warmer, it became more difficult and less effective I think.
I made another light switch cover and added some black to the first one I did, because I didn’t consider that with the translucent resin you would be able to see all the wires behind it!
I also played around with just a couple of fidget spinners. The hardware for them is coming tomorrow.
With resin, you only have a certain amount of time to get it into molds before it begins to set itself up. So at the last minute, looking for more molds to use the rest of the resin we had mixed up, and being unable to find my other molds I had used previously for other projects, I went into my shop and found a mold that I got with a Brandon Sanderson Kickstarter. These are called Doom Slugs and they are a great character in his Skyward book series. So I decided to put some color ink into the resin after I poured these and the ink didn’t go all the way down. So they are somewhat translucent at the top, but colorful at the bottom. I will pour these again sometime, but I will likely keep these in my craft room or in our game room with all of our other Brandon Sanderson collectibles.
And last but not least, here are my first attempts at capturing a beach or ocean scene with waves. I will do more of these and work to perfect the technique.
Which one do you like best? I have a lot to learn still in getting the bubbles out. On some pieces, I simply forgot to try to remove the bubbles before curing so they are just stuck in there.
I’ll be adding some of these to my Etsy shop (or I may look into doing this through Buy Me a Coffee alternatively). I know that a hobby like this is hard to make money on and I can’t count on it to replace my income, but I have never not hustled on the side. It is a passion of mine, crafting and creating things that look beautiful and serve a purpose. Granted, most of the above are just beginner, but I do have a habit of perfecting whatever I set my mind to. Though in typing that, I realize that kind of pressure is something that has to be tamped down and balanced, especially right now in this time of resting and recovery.
Jamie
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