Craft For Health

Heartfelt Creativity Healed Me Through Joblessness and Infertility by Fiona

I have been creative from a very early age, growing up with a Grandfather and Uncle who were painters, and a very artistic Mum. I started sewing at Primary School, making my first needle case when I was about 6 years old!

  

Lately as well, my creating has been an even bigger help to my sanity. We found out recently that we are unable to have children, something which is devastating to us. But again, losing myself in my work has been hugely beneficial in helping me to come to terms with the pain this has caused. They say that time is a great healer, but for me, creativity too is an even greater one.

 

Last year I was made redundant due to the current economic situation so I decided to turn my creating into a full time occupation. Working in my studio, radio on, creating my pretty things has been a huge help in combating the stress of being jobless and hopefully in time.

 

My name is Fiona and I live in Oxfordshire, Uk with my Husband. I'm a blogger and  trained as an Interior Designer but I'm now working as a designer/maker of individual accessories and gifts for the home. I am inspired by vintage textiles and create my items using a mixture of machine and hand sewing as well as embroidery.

 

Healing Loss & Grief through Collage Art by Corey and Lynn

(Corey) Carly was a twenty four-year-old wife and mother of two girls, a six-year-old and a two-year-old girl. She and her husband, Mark, had endured the devastating preterm stillbirth of a son – a pregnancy that had occurred after two early-term miscarriages, in between the births of their daughters. Although she had sought short-term psychological support just after her son’s death, Carly came in to see me because of lingering feelings of depression and anxiety. She and Mark were also hoping to conceive again soon, although they hadn’t had any “luck.”

Early on, it became apparent that Carly hadn’t had the opportunity to say “goodbye” to the babies she had lost (although, at the time of each Carly and Mark had been urged by their families to do some kind of grief work). She and Mark felt that the best way to heal would be to look forward, rather than back, and while this seemed to help in the short term, she wondered if avoiding her grief meant that it could never truly leave her.

Carly began to create collage images (using torn pieces of magazine pages, glued to large sheets of paper). Through this relatively “safe” media, she brought to the surface the deep and complicated feelings surrounding her multiple losses. As she created she talked. “Oh,” she said, one day. “I see that I’m drawn to all these pictures of dry and barren deserts. I think this must be because I am afraid I won’t be able to have another child. I’m worried that my body can’t nurture another life.”

Three weeks later, Carly announced that she was pregnant and nine months later she delivered a healthy baby girl. She later told me that she needed a “healthy goodbye to make room for new life” and felt that her collage work was a crucial element to this healing process.