Craft For Health

Creative Every Day Challenge by Leah

Creativity is an essential part of my mental health toolkit. Like many creative people, I'm a sensitive soul who has dealt with depression. One of the ways I've healed and continue to heal myself is through creating. I find when I'm feeling low or anxious, if I can turn to my creativity and pick up the paintbrush, I almost always feel better. 

Creating art is my way of expressing that which can't be expressed in words. I work in an intuitive way, so oftentimes when I start, I don't know what I'm going to create. I simply keep asking myself, "What color or material am I drawn to? What mark do I want to make?" and I go with the flow. When I work in this way, things that are floating around in my subconscious start to come to the surface, my chattering monkey-mind quiets, and I feel more connected to my spirituality. I love creating in this way because what happens is always a bit of a surprise and I feel a sense of relief afterwards.

 

Sometimes, when I'm feeling depressed, it can be hard to get going. I think that's part of why I started the Creative Every Day Challenge. It's a gentle approach with a broad idea of what creativity means, so I can keep involved in different creative projects even when my energy is low. I've also learned to embrace my creative cycles, knowing that there will be times when I'm totally inspired and creating a lot, and other times when I'm more quiet and taking in information. By accepting these cycles, I'm much less stressed when my productivity is slower, and I simply turn my attention to other things. 

I love how the Creative Every Day Challenge keeps creativity in the forefront of my mind each day. I've found that what I focus on expands, and by focusing on how I can live a creative life, I see opportunities and inspiration in everything I do. I also love the community that has built up around the challenge. I'm continually inspired by the work everyone involved is doing and seeing their work encourages me to stretch myself in new ways. 

 

I can't imagine my life without creating. It's an incredibly healing practice and there's always room to grow and learn within it. 

 

My name is Leah Piken Kolidas and I'm a mixed-media artist living near Boston, Massachusetts with my husband and o four fuzzy cats. Leah sells her artwork at BlueTreeArtGallery.com and blogs, teaches workshops, and runs creativity challenges at CreativeEveryDay.com. 

 

Journal Bliss: Creative Prompts to Unleash your Inner Eccentric by Violette

Just over a year ago my nephew Adam was paralyzed in a tragic Rugby accident – he was only 19 years old at the time. You can imagine how something so terrible like that would affect his parents, sister and family not to mention my young nephew.

Waiting in the hospital with my distraught sister while a team of doctors inserted a metal rod in my nephew's back was surreal. Words could never convey the feelings of intense grief that flooded the waiting room for several hours.

My nephew was in the hospital Spinal Chord unit for a while and then was transferred to the Rehabilitation center for a few months.  I was trying to think of doing something for my nephew to buoy his spirits while he was in rehab.  I decided to create a line of cards or mini pieces of art which were laminated and called "Inspiration Nation".

Every time I visited Adam I would bring him an Inspiration card and tape it to the wall. After a few weeks of this the wall was plastered with these little positive messages. I like to think these cards helped buoy Adam's spirits a bit. They did make him smile.

On a completely selfish level I guess creating these cards helped to channel my feelings into something positive and hopeful. Time and time again art has stepped in to “save me” or help morph feelings of helplessness into something concrete and outside of myself.

 

In an odd way I think of feelings as having shape and substance that live in our bodies. If they don't have an outlet, are never spoken about or channeled at all they will sit and fester inside of us. Doing something creative around these feelings whether it be writing a poem, creating a quilt or making a drawing gives these feelings an outlet – a life of their own. Ultimately I feel better and more at peace after creating something when I feel grief, sadness or anger. The next time you encounter strong emotions which have no place to go then try your hand at creation – you get to pick the method as long as you put your heart, soul and emotions into it!

 

 

NOTE: THIS GIVEAWAY IS OVER.  WE WILL BE ANNOUNCING THE WINNER SHORTLY.

BOOK GIVEAWAY:  Post your comments on Violettes entry and we'll draw a winner for her newest book Journal Bliss.  Winner then has the option of sending in their original journal page and story about their own healing journey and we'll post it on Craft For Health.  Good Luck! 

 

About the Book and author:

Journal Bliss: Creative Prompts to Unleash your Inner Eccentric By Violette Clark

“Be inspired by pages and pages of artistic inspiration and prompts designed to embrace your inner eccentric. In Journal Bliss, join author Violette as she shares her illustrations, fonts, doodles, and soul-searching prompts - freeing you to start your own visual-journal journey. Express yourself openly in a style that is uplifting and fun!”

Violette a Canadian Artist born in Casablanca, Morocco to Spanish parents, Violette is a compulsive painter, who paints with the color and warmth of Mediterranean Sunshine

Giving Birth To a StillBorn Child by Kara L.C. Jones

Giving birth to death. 

Desire to voice my experience.

Trying to rediscover my heART in the aftermath of grief. 

Attempting to be patient with myself in an impatient world. 

 

All of these things and more were happening simultaneously after my son Dakota died at birth.  He had been a full-term, perfectly healthy pregnancy.  At his birth, he was perfect.  Except that he wasn't breathing.  "This baby has no heartbeat."  That line rings through time and space. 

 

It seemed impossible to make sense of it all.  We'd read and had lots of educational sessions about miscarriage.  We'd read and had lots of educational sessions about SIDS.  But stillbirth?  That was something that happened in olden times to our great-great-grandmothers back in the old country before decent hospitals and healthcare.  Yet here we were.

 

After his death, I learned that my husband's sister's first child was stillborn.  My great-grandmother had two children who died.  In my own family, there was a history of stillbirth.  But none of those children were on the family tree graphics.  No one had ever mentioned them on their birth/death days.  No one had ever uttered their names.  Besides just being a sad commentary on how we deal with death, these silences cheated me out of my full medical history.  My caregivers had no idea to look for markers like PCOS that might need special care to avoid stillbirth outcomes.  They didn't know because I didn't know.  It reminded me of my youth when people would whisper, "Cancer." 

 

I came to discover there are whole organizations formed around the support of stillbirth families.  Research institutions.  Entire books of study written.  And yet stillbirth is ignored.  In some places, death certificates are issued and families are required to arrange for burial or cremation, but no birth certificate is given.  The stillBIRTH is ignored.  Not counted.  Estimates on U.S. stillbirths vary because there is no standard for counting us.  Lowest rates say 29,000 stillbirths per year in the U.S.  Divide that by 365 days.  Divide that by 24 hours.  You get almost 7 babies dead every two hours of every day of every year.

 

So a couple of years after Kota died, I was invited to make art for a show titled "Women's Bodies: Violence & Healing" to be hosted at the Vashon Allied Arts gallery.  The opening night party was scheduled to be two hours long.  I decided to make a series of 7 Womb Books to represent the 7 babies who would die while we were all looking at art for that two hours.  The 7 mothers who would be told they didn't give birth by refusing them a stillbirth certificate, but who would be handed death certificates, confirming for each of them that they had become vessels of death.  Talk about violence against the body of mother and child.

Hear My Artistic Voice by Manon Doyle

 

For many years I didn't know who I was or what I wanted out of life. I was creating art everyday but it was work that I thought would make others happy. I believe that I was lost with my work and lost in my life.

 

In my late thirties things slowly started to shift. I started to paint women in my journal. These women were strong, sensitive, happy, sad and most had a message of hope. They spoke to my heart and showed me the way. Somehow through the women, I discovered my artistic voice but most importantly I found me.

Art journaling is so easy and can be life changing. No skills required. You can use paint, crayons, pencil, collage.... whatever your heart desires. Squish your fingers in the paint, write words and scribble. Set yourself free.... dig in!  And fill your heart with art!

 

 

 

My name is Manon Doyle and I'm a mixed media and mosaic artist. You can visit me at my blog, http://manondoyle.blogspot.com  or website  http://hoochiepoochiestudios.com

 

GIVEAWAY:  Manon has graciously offered to giveaway one of her mixed media pieces.  TO ENTER simply post your comment on her entry and we'll pull the winner out of a hat!  Good Luck!

Post-Partum Hope on Paper by Kellie Ideson

 

 

After the birth of my first daughter Emma, I struggled with post-partum depression. For nine months, I kept this secret. Trying to find my own way out of the darkness. My days were full of negative thoughts and hopeless energy. Finally, the fear took over and I sought help. While medical support and love from my family were very instrumental in my healing, the discovery of scrapbooking was an unanticipated anecdote.

  

  By putting my daily events down on paper, creating beauty instead of negativity, through my thoughts, I regained positive focus. Call it, the healing power of creativity. The artistic person I had always been was no longer squandered under those clouds of doom. And, it absolutely regenerated my world through a fresh network of other Moms and fellow scrappers. The sun began to shine in my life again!

 

This hobby has been an enrichment in my life ever since. For as long as I can recollect, I have yearned to be an author. My ideas are plentiful. And while the subject matter has changed over the years, my desire to write has never waned. Alas, reality has set in. With the advent of two babies, a house and a small business, I realize this ideal is on hold. Or perhaps… has just taken a different path. In launching my own custom album business I have the opportunity to be the “author” of many wonderful, fulfilling stories. My own life has been so blessed by the stories my clients have allowed me to “write” using their photographs and memorabilia. Through their generosity, I can weave a tale that will be embraced for generations; a treasured book among the other novels and literature on their family bookshelves.

 

 In this joy of building legacies, there lies a silver lining. Whenever I feel a disconnect with all that is true in my own world, or the bigger picture we know as the universe, I can sit down and get lost in a wonderful tale or journey that I may never experience myself. I am so privileged, ten years later to still be doing what I love and…finding the therapy I need from the beautiful life stories that envelop me.

 

Thank you Kathy for the gracious invitation to your blog. Crafting can be the finest therapy, I am grateful you found me through the words that I used to hesitate to share…

  

Kellie is a scrapbooker who creates custom keepsake memory albums.

 

Compulsive Knitting is Her Safety Net by Daniela Edburg

 

I had an idea for a photograph in which a girl stood on a knit patch of garden in the midst of a desolate landscape, for this photo I took up knitting, in the photo I used the knitting to represent a safe place, but while knitting for the photograph I realized the activity itself was a very effective form of occupational therapy. I developed several characters, compulsive knitters, and ended up becoming one myself.

This whole series of photographs and knit objects was made during a deep depression, when the one thing I could do was knit. One day, looking down at the long pink strips I had been knitting all week, I realized I was making me a new brain. A soft pink cushy brain, much better than the one i was using at the moment.

Now that the depression is over and I can see beyond my own brain, knitting and crocheting have become a medium where a single strand of yarn can be turned into anything, the absurd can be palpable, portable and extremely real.    www.danielaedburg.net

Journaling For Healing by Judie

A year ago I lost one of my twin daughters in a tragic ATV accident.  People say - and I know it is true - there is no greater pain than the loss of a child.  I've struggled with this soul-wrenching agony for a year now, and one of the things that uplifts me when I desperately need it is artful journaling. 

 

For so long I felt void of color and creativity, and after six months of "hiding" in my bedroom watching tv, reading, and crying, I decided to journal to my child.  I started a journal called "The Book of Hearts".  Each page is a poem, a letter, a drawing, a collage, all dedicated to my daughter.  Although I don't journal every day, it's there when I break down and need that communication. 

 

I'm sharing just a few of those very personal pages with your readers here because I want to let anyone who has lost a precious person in their life know that it does help to journal about it.  Your spirit is released, your tears cleanse, and your soul finds a few hours of peace while you write and craft in your dedicated journal.  And if in fact there truly are angels and they see what you are going through, then they will know how much you still love your lost one. I urge you to try it.  Each page will bring you a step closer to peace within your soul, I promise.

 

My name is Judie and I am a mixed media artist/muralist who "gave it all up" a year ago.  I'm hoping to find my artful spirit again, as well as get back to blogging sometime soon.  A tribute to my daughter can be seen here  .

Creating Decorative Bread Helped Me Overcome Post Partum Depression by Stephanie Petersen

 
 


Most of my life I've been nicknamed "Sunshine".  I'm naturally a happy, encouraging and energetic soul.  I am a pastry chef.  I'm creative by nature but also mathematical.  Baking became my life's work early on. I graduated from Culinary School in Scottsdale, Arizona just after my twenty-first birthday and continued to pursue pastry.  It was my heart.  However, I had a life long dream to be a mother as well.  Magically, I found myself married to a sweet husband and we desired children.  None came.  It took several years.  Finally, when the opportunity arrived to be a full time mom, I jumped at it.  Little did I know that after my second pregnancy I would face the awful and dark reality of post partum depression.  My normally bright disposition was shaded.   

As a young mother it was very hard for me to find time for myself, yet I knew that in order to give my children all the emotional strength they needed, I would have to take care of my soul.  In that pit of depression and despair, it became ever so difficult to face even the basic needs of myself and children.  Often the only light of joy I saw in a day was the brief time that my children napped and I could pull out my bread books and make a new creation.  Over time, I discovered a renewed  passion for decorative bread.   That feeling I had missed for so long was returning.  I had something of my old baking life back and it felt good to remember how much I loved to create.  As my children grew, I included them in my baking experiences.  Often we'd mold homemade play dough for hours on end in our humble kitchen.  More times than I can remember, I was sculpting life-like flowers next to my son's "dough-cars" and squiggle-haired silly-faced characters.  I found myself encouraging his heart creatively and in so doing, found a common interest that has continued.  Creating bread pulled me out of the darkness, along with the loving support of dear friends and family who finally saw a glimpse of "Sunshine" coming back. 

 

 
I never imagined that I would ever see my children grow up. Yet they have passed those toddler years and are now in school during the day.  The depression is all but gone and I have that passion for life and creating that I knew before.  I've taken that love of creating to many others through teaching as a private instructor.  A few years back a dear friend who I had attended culinary school with, encouraged me to write a food and baking blog to share my bread and cooking skills with the world.  Needless to say, yet another creative outlet has been discovered. I love to create amazing artistic breads, foods, and share those creations with the my blog friends.  The bread painting I do has been featured in Australian Baking Business Magazine, as well as Food Network's blog.  A local TV station producer saw my bread and asked me to come visit the station.  That has grown into a part time passion as a regular featured chef on the NBC and Fox  local TV stations here in Phoenix.    In so doing, I have seen countless souls discover their own baking creative-genius.  It has been so fulfilling and exciting to play even a small role in helping others face any challenge in life.  It is my passion to help others find their creative spirit.  In that spirit of love, I have found light and peace.  I thank God everyday that I was able to come out of that darkness and I know that anyone facing those challenges in life, need only begin to hope that there may be a spark of light left in their soul.  Let that hope grow.  Create something. It may seem small, but it may be just what your heart needs to see the sunshine of day once again. 
 
 

 http://cheftessbakeresse.blogspot.com/search/label/Decorative%20loaves

 http://cheftessbakeresse.blogspot.com/search/label/Decorative%20loaves

http://cheftessbakeresse.blogspot.com/search?q=sculpted+flowers

 

Healing began through Crafts by Candace Jedrowicz

I began studying art and spirituality in the same year, about fifteen years ago.  I'd been decorating cakes for several years when both my kids were diagnosed with depression. They simply stopped functioning, one right after the other.  I stopped everything and gave my chikdren 100% of my attention..  It wasn't long before I went down that very same rabbit hole.  A beloved client suggested I go back to college and study art while the kids were in school (when they were able to go), and another recommended a spiritual bookstore.  That's when the healing began.  

 

 

I took a couple of classes and, when an instructor asked if I'd considered ceramics.   I did and I fell in love with clay.  I audited the ceramics program for eight years.  [the first photo is a tile family portrait that sprang from those years]  Along the same lines, I took a couple of spiritual courses at the book store and was invited to join a four year class with two inter faith ministers.  After the four years were up, I went on to study under another inter faith minister for two more years and teaching was a natural and exciting progression.  I loved sharing my art studio with fellow spiritual students and was soon asked to hold art classes. 

 

We are so much like the clay - fresh from the earth we are easily molded.  Along the path we try to force ourselves socially acceptable shapes.  As a result, we become overworked and increasingly fragile.  It can take a single harsh thought to create cracks and weaknesses that will lead to eventual collapse.  By simply opening our minds and hearts to our true nature we can become refreshed and whole.

 

For several years I made colorful, organic clay boxes that expressed my spiritual nature and my sense of humor.  Most recently I've had my hand in many art media, learning and growing.  I now play the part of the Creative Play Muse for Cool2Craft Live on web TV where I challenge the viewers with a creative theme each month that they can interpret and share on our blog.  It's an amazingly fun and nurturing atmosphere and I so enjoy being part of it!

For nearly fifteen years I've combined spirituality and art to teach folks who are just beginning their spiritual journey how to create with intention.

 

Link to Cool2Craft Live

http://linqto.com/rooms/cool2craft

 

Link to the Creative Play blog on the Hive

http://creatingthehive.com/group/cool2craftcreativeplay

 

Link to my Spirit Clay Blog

http://spiritclay.blogspot.com/

Sadness and Depression Overcome with Craft Therapy by Sandy Mastroni

I grew up with loving parents but ours was a house of sadness and depression .

My brother suffered with a mental illness and each day we walked on eggshells wondering what would happen next .

 

Colored pencils , ink, fabric , paper and clay were my salvation . Later in life Jesus became my salvation . He gave me art to get through the hard times and then when I was older I understood His loving kindness toward me I still create something everyday .  

Dolls , paintings , illustrations or pillows .  I don't feel alone and scared now . Now , because of His promises to me I can create something each day with joy .  [ My first name is actually Sandra Joy ]

You can see my work on my blog and there you will find links to my etsy shop , Flickr pages and the galleries that carry my work .

http://smastroni.blogspot.com

http://sandymastroni.etsy.com