Craft For Health

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

Fabric and Thread --My Therapy in Disguise by Diane

 

It’s taken me a long time to discover that the handwork passions I have pursued all of my life are my therapies in disguise.  I’ve always felt that there was a frustrated artist lurking below my veneer of high school math teacher.  I had complained for years that I was unable to meditate successfully (my mind continually moves around in ridiculous directions), and it took a highly intuitive friend to help me realize that machine quilting is my form of meditation.

  

  

 

 

I enter a different world when I walk into my studio.  The physical aches and pains that accompany six decades of living seem to fade into the background –- I am about to have fun with fabric and thread, and nothing else matters.  It is nearly impossible for my mind to wander too far from the project before me; the left half of my brain, which has guided me through 24 years of teaching mathematics, refuses to give up on solving the problem at hand until the right half has played with all the possibilities. 

  

 

 

I seem to be in my most meditative state when I am guiding the quilt sandwich through the machine, following the lines of the motifs which I have drawn on the fabric, concentrating on the size of the stitches as I strive for uniformity.  Sometimes there is a great dealing of un-sewing, but I know this is necessary, because, in the end, I want to experience that rush of joy at seeing my vision come to life in fabric.

 

 

 

  

  

My name is Diane Evans and I am a retired math teacher, studio quilt artist, and blogger.  I agree with Danny Kaye that “life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint you can on it.”  My designs are available for sale on my website and I am happy to do commissions –- just contact me.

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.

Healing From Illness Made Easier Through Artwork by Gail Green

After the initial shock of my early breast cancer diagnosis, I created an illustration line (Sweet PETatoes®) that was immediately licensed for memory products for pets and is the foundation for my current illustration style that I am known for nationwide.  Prior to that, I had always spent my time creating art according to client needs and specs, instead of exploring and expressing my passions.  Art and crafting had become a business, and, in doing so, had lost much of the pure joy associated with the act of simply playing. 

The unexpected diagnosis, however, was a wake-up call for me.  At that moment I realized I didn’t have unlimited time to create the art I wanted to create—the kind of art that comes straight from the heart.  When I was healing from my surgeries and later, radiation, I began playing, going back to a time when I was an art student drawing and painting for the sake of creating instead for the purpose of pleasing a client. 

Creativity Is So Important When You Suffer From Chronic Pain by Maria Nerius

When I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia 12 years ago, I knew my life was going to change, but I thought I’d have to give up most of the things I enjoyed in life. Chronic pain can eat away at you, taking your energy, your creativity, and much of your joy. However, I was blessed with a supportive family and community. I’ve worked in the art and craft industry for over 25 years now and each day is a new discovery! Creativity became an even more important part of my life. 

With fibromyalgia, I have great days, good days and some not so wonderful days. I’ve found that my “not so good days” aren’t so bad when I concentrate on my art and craft work. I can’t sit at the computer to write, but I can paint, needlepunch, bead, and create all kinds of paper art. The pain melts away as I get involved with color, texture, design, and creating! I am no longer someone with chronic pain, I am an artist, a craftsman, a someone who is learning new things and building my skills.

 

I am not sure what path I would have taken if I didn’t have my crafts. I sense it wouldn’t be the fulfilling, peaceful world I am so happy to enjoy. With creativity we have an outlet to express ourselves, we don’t have to let an illness, disability or handicap limit us. Art and craft opens up our lives and is a fantastic way to be productive. Through creativity we can make a difference and give back to our family and friends. 

Crafting is a healthy; healing activity with so many rewards and benefits. With that apple a day, I make sure I always craft each day for wellness!

Maria Nerius is an author, writer, designer, and consultant in the art and craft industry. Her work has been published in numerous consumer magazine, books, and websites. She lives in Florida with her charming husband and a merry band of dogs. Feel free to Twitter or add Maria as a Facebook friend.

Picking up the Pieces After Breast Cancer by Anne Marie Bennett

If I were writing my autobiography, the chapter detailing my life in 2001-2002 would be titled “Journey: Interrupted.”  I was 45 years old and had been going about my business, living a normal life, working full time, helping my husband raise his teenagers from his first marriage, enjoying our home and, time with friends, and my new hobby of rubber stamping and collage art.

Then came the startling news: Stage II Infiltrating Ductal Breast Cancer. And after that came two lumpectomies, a lymph node dissection, 12 weeks of chemotherapy, and 42 radiation treatments.  Even though I often felt awful during the surgeries and treatments, I found myself sitting at my art table many times, playing with my rubber stamps and collage materials.  During these 7 months, I created several rubber stamped calendars, and six dozen collaged note cards.  These art projects helped to keep me connected to my soul during a time when my body was feeling very ill and disconnected.

At the end of my treatments, I gifted my doctors, nurses, and radiation techs with boxes of my handmade note cards.  It felt good to be able to give something back to these kind and wonderful people who assisted me on my healing journey.

Three years later, my body was healing.  I looked good and I felt good.  Yet nothing was able to quiet the overwhelming storms of fear and anxiety.  I was living constantly with the insidious fear that the breast cancer might return, the intimidating fear of another fateful diagnosis.

I meditated and prayed about this. I talked about it with my wonderful therapist and with other breast cancer survivors. I tried guided imagery, journaling, and art journaling. Those all tempered the fear to some extent, but only for a very short while.

Then in 2005 I began practicing SoulCollage® and my inner dynamics began to change. SoulCollage® is an intuitive art process that is simple and goes directly to one’s inner thoughts and feelings. It was created by Seena Frost in the late 90’s.  Using only magazine images, mat boards, scissors and glue, I created this SoulCollage® card about my fears.

After creating a SoulCollage® card, it helps to give the card a voice and let it speak.  Here is the writing exercise I did with this card that made a huge difference in my being able to accept that deep fear and live with it:

This Ain't Your Grandma's Embroidery by Jenny Hart

 

I did not grow up doing needlework or sewing, despite my mother’s encouragement. Crafting was just about the most uncool thing you could be doing when I was a teenager in the 80’s. But it was in my 20’s that I began to appreciate the look of colorful hand-embroidery on vintage linens. But, I didn’t know how to do it, and didn’t really know anyone who could teach me. It looked very tedious and difficult to me, and books and patterns spoke to another generation, certainly, not my own.

I didn’t know anybody who did needlework and it was looked on as an arcane and outdated hobby, only enjoyed by truly die-hard stitchers. It would be years before I finally gave embroidery a try, and it’s therapeutic benefits revealed to me.

My father was very sick for much of my life and constantly in and out of hospitals, where my mother and I would always spend the night with him, taking turns. My life would keep me in hospitals with family members for many consecutive years: my mother-in-law being diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer three months after my marriage, and my own mother’s diagnosis of breast cancer a year later. 

I simply began to lose my ability to cope. Being faced for the first time with the possibility of losing my mother, I was inspired to finally ask her to teach me how to embroider. Thinking needlework would require patience from me, I learned quickly what every addicted needleworker knows: Needlework instills calm and patience in you. 

I felt my blood pressure drop. I was calmed and soothed with my first stitches, a portrait of my mother. I had never seen portraits in embroidery and wanted to adopt embroidery as a medium for my artwork. The effect on me was so great, the quelling of my anxiety, depression and despair led me to embroider for 3-4 hours every day for the next five years when I would produce the majority of my portraits. Embroidering carried me through it all.

 

Sublime Stitching became the only thing in my life that brought me complete joy in the face of dying parents, loss of my job and a marriage that began falling apart under the weight of it all. Embroidering and sharing my newfound love of stitching with others and carried me through a very difficult time in my life that would last for several years. Getting emails from complete strangers excitedly telling me about their projects and learning to embroider for the first time was an emotional source that I thrived and survived on. And, while things have come a long way since then, I can honestly stay it is still these things: embroidering and the kindness of strangers that carry me through all the challenges life brings.

Jenny Hart is the founder of Sublime Stitching, the first embroidery design company to bring tattoos, robots, and pinups to needlework patterns. She is also the author of several titles on embroidery for Chronicle Books and an internationally exhibited fine artist. Jenny lives and works in Austin, Texas, where she is a founding member of the infamous Austin Craft Mafia.

Jenny’s newest book Sublime Stitching: Embroidered Effects (Chronicle Books) will be out this fall 2009.

Sometimes The Spirit Is Willing . . .by Diane Evans

 . . . And the body is really tired.  There are many days when the muse pays a visit, and I want so badly to move myself into the studio and play.  However, the fatigue of fibromyalgia seems to rear its ugly head at whim.  I consider myself extremely fortunate that I haven’t yet experienced the extreme pain that afflicts many people with this condition, so I’m trying to find ways to deal with the exhaustion that seems to propel me to the nearest couch.

 

One thing I’ve learned is that there is nothing wrong with spending just a few minutes in the studio.  I’m now learning to push myself, just a little, to go into the room and do something, even if it’s just handling the fabric, for five minutes.  It’s amazing how five minutes moves easily into fifteen, and, before I’m aware of it, I’ve spent an hour planning a design or appliquéing fabric shapes and it hasn’t been an effort at all. 

 

It’s been said that energy creates movement, but movement also creates energy.  I must remind myself of the truth of this little maxim each time I’m about to surrender to the sleepiness, and create my own energy instead.  There can be no greater medicine.

 

My name is Diane Evans, and I am a retired math teacher, studio quilt artist, and blogger.  I agree with Danny Kaye that “life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint you can on it.”  My designs are available for sale on my website and I am happy to do commissions –- just contact me.

Crafting My Way through Brain Surgery and Epilepsy by Angela

 I was different than most of the other children. At the age of 11yrs I was diagnosed with epilepsy. The way that I have always coped with it is through some form of art. At first it was theatre I was not on-stage, I worked back-stage. I helped but later I gained the confidence to try on-stage. I could only do chorus roles of course.I remember once being back-stage watching my father on-stage. He was one of the leads in the musical The Secret Garden that they did here in a community theatre production. The Secret Garden is a musical about a little boy and how a Secret Garden helps cure him. The role of his father was played by my father. I remember standing and watching him sing about a wizard who’s art would soon pierce through the heart of the dragon that was keeping his son ill. I felt like he was singing about me, his daughter who was ill. Music was and is very therapeutic to me.

I had brain surgery for my epilepsy, when I woke up my left side was temporarily paralyzed. I went around singing in my wheelchair to cheer the others up. I had been told that I would learn how to paint and now that my left side didn’t work I questioned that. I painted a flower on a tile there that they gave me from that moment on I was painting like mad. Painting helped me cope with the many memories that I had from having seizures. I would often play music and paint. Sing and paint, even when music wasn’t playing it’d be playing in my head. It often came out on the canvas. I’ve tried many different techniques while painting. I’ve made a heart series, showing different meanings of the heart. I’ve made a mixed media series. Mainly fabric added onto the canvas with a clear medium. I have a dots series, when I’m making the dots in my painting that’s the only thing that I have to concentrate on and that’s why it helps me, I don’t have to think about anything else. I just think about the painting.

 

Images of Angela through her brain surgery.

I also make my own jewelry because I have to keep busy all the time, if not I can’t handle the memories that I have. Plus, it brings me joy to see others when they like my work. No matter what it is…. Jewelry, poems or painting. Right now, I’m working on a book with a collection of my poems and art. I am a member of many organizations that have to do with health.  I have three volunteer jobs… one at aceo magazine , one at the Savannah Children’s Theatre and one at the Savannah Market Bazaar. All of them don’t really have deadlines that are that strict. I plan on donating my paintings to different causes and nonprofits because they helped me. I would like to help them. I’ve donated to many health organizations over the years. Interfaith Hospitality Network, Goodwill, United Way and American Diabetes Association just to name a few…but the list goes on! Right now I am working on some paintings to donate to the Savannah Children’s Theatre. One of the paintings is based on the Secret Garden. It’s very helpful to let out those memories. Yet know that the painting that I’m working on will make someone smile.

My name is Angela and I found art to be so therapeutic in so many ways.  You can see more of my work at www.new.facebook.com/pages/Angelas-Art-Area/32152412811?ref=s
http://www.youtube.com/user/PassionPainting and  PaintingWPassion.etsy.com

Crafting to Prevent Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) by Phyllis

Throughout my life, I’ve had periodic times of not being able to sleep.  I would sleep fine for a few months, and then have a couple of weeks when I couldn’t sleep.  During these sleepless periods, I would roam the house to find a place to lie down and be able to sleep.  While I was growing up, my mother knew she would find me on the living room sofa if I was not in my bed.

 

Ten years ago, the sleeplessness hit and didn’t go away.  I struggled for months of not being able to sleep, most often not falling asleep until 4 or 5 a.m.  I took over-the-counter sleep aids, but they were no help.  I then read about Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) and all the symptoms fit, including the extreme creepy, restless feelings in my legs.  I also read that there is no cure, but that certain medications can help and that the over-the-counter sleep aids contained ingredients that actually made the symptoms of RLS worse. My doctor was very knowledgeable about RLS and gave me a prescription for the right medicine for me. 

 

However, RLS is not a case of taking a pill then going to sleep.  Some nights I sleep like a drum but many, many other nights – more often than not, I either can’t go to sleep or wake up in the wee hours unable to sleep.  The only solution is to get up because no matter how long I lay there, I will not be able to go to sleep and the RLS symptoms will not go away.

 

I’ve always loved crafts and turned this love into my profession as a designer and artist, designing fabrics, needlework, quilts and product lines.  I’ve always found that creating and using my hands relieves stress.  It came natural to pick up a paint brush or a needlework project during the periods that I was unable to sleep.  As I start crafting, I can feel the RLS symptoms go away – my legs start to feel calm almost immediately. Within 30 minutes to an hour after I start the crafting, I become very sleepy.  At this time, I can go to bed and into a sound sleep.

Additionally, RLS frequently starts up during the evening prior to bedtime, while watching TV.  But as long as I’m painting, sewing, or stitching needlework, I can craft away as long as I want without any of the RLS symptoms.  It’s great that doing something that I enjoy and love helps prevent something I hate!

 

My Name is Phyllis Dobbs and I’m an artist and designer with a focus on whimsy and vibrant color.  My latest fabric line is “It’s a Dog’s Life” from Quilting Treasures by Cranston Print Works.  Several gift product lines using Phyllis’ art will be available this summer and early 2010.