Idle Hands

I don't remember growing up and being very artsy.  I made the required projects throughout elementary school and may have even attempted an arts class as late as middle school (age 12-14) but always felt I was terrible at it so I tended towards choir to get my requisite credits.  After David and I married, and while the kids were young, we became involved in a Native American dance group. There, I learned (with lots of help from the group's sponsors) how to sew and bead in order to make our regalia for the events we participated in (I am unable to find any pictures of any of us in our regalia).  Since then, I have turned to arts and crafts as part of my mental health support as well (while inpatient, there is almost always some degree of 'art therapy', even if it's just pages printed out to colour and some crayons).

One of the great things I stumbled on here in Newcastle is an organization called Chilli Studios that is close by (I think I shared the link in my last post), and it does all formats of art, including a choir (I was searching for a community choir when I stumbled upon the website for Chilli's).  Right now, I am mainly participating in the pottery/ceramics days but once I figure my schedule out a little more I will try to get more involved.  I brought home my first piece on Wednesday and am thrilled that I have 4 or 5 more pieces in line for the kiln, so they may come home soon too.  Here are some of what's coming.

This is the piece I brought home.  I hoped it would be a good size for pillar candles and it's perfect.

This was the first piece I made and I used a coil build method for it (this is something David and I studied when we researched the early Southwest Indian Tribes).

This fairly big piece is my most recent effort.  It is a slab built vase that I used a roller tool to make the patterns, cut out the shape for the sides, slightly hardened the clay (we use a hairdryer for this) so it would be able to stand up, and once I had the shape I wanted cut a custom piece of clay to act as the bottom and joined it all together.  I'll work on the glaze this week and then decide if I want to bring it home or put it out for sale.

This is a collection of the pieces that were constructed this past week (mine is in the front left corner) and was posted on the Studio's Instagram page.  I think we did pretty good.

This is a fun set that I made a few weeks ago and is in the line for the kiln.  It will be a tea mug for David and a place to rest either a tea bag or tea spoon.  I can't wait to see what it looks like finished.

(So I'm a little behind on this one, but it will still be our first ornament since moving here.)

These next photos are a set of boxes that I have decorated using repurposed boxes, washi tape, and packing tape to seal it all up.  They are just catch all kind of boxes, and so far I'm okay with the results.  I have set aside a couple of boxes that I'm going to try and make a set of memory boxes from to hold all the little things I've collected from our travels.

  

In our small town in Colorado there was a company that did group facilitated painting nights.  So, using provided materials, stencils, and some gentle guidance, you could come in with a group of friends and walk out with a treasure.  Both of the times I participated were around Halloween so that explains the topics of the paintings.  I enjoy painting but I struggle to let myself just do it and not nitpick and berate myself through the whole process.  I have it outlined on my calendar to try out the watercolour sessions at the studio; I just keep chickening out.

When things get dark I tend to pull out pastels and try and visualise the crap circling my brain.  So I have lots of pictures that are NSFW, but that did help in the short term.

I've always liked taking photos (better to be behind the camera and not in front of it, lol), but never really thought of it as making art.  Now that I'm somewhat obsessed with taking pictures of all the cool stuff we come across and really trying to make them look good, I think it is a new art form for me that I look forward to experimenting with.

So I would not put myself in the category of fine art in any of the forms I've tried, but I'm learning (slowly) that if I enjoy it, and it is helping me work through something, that is all that matters.  I am still my worst critic and I'm sure I always will be, but hopefully I can turn the volume down on the critical side and acknowledge the compliments I'm receiving on the things I'm creating.

Cheers!