Craft For Health

Unplugging from video games

Unlike 20 years ago, these days, kids are more often than not, staring into a screen, tweens and teens are texting short and incredibly earth shattering messages or furiously tapping and manipulating a joy stick that’s connected to a animated character that’s running, jumping, problem solving and maybe even saving the universe.

And while many of us think that these are harmless pastimes that help entertain your child during their idle moments and maybe helps with their eye-hand coordination and reaction times, too much screen time also carries with it certain risks. 

To be sure, most adults today remember their favorite TV shows and certainly spent lots of time inside, yet today with the sheer number of available screen choices, more kids of all ages are spending less time outside and more time inside watching other people or characters engaged in life or make-believe.  Fewer and fewer kids are outside playing, using their imaginations to take them to fantastical lands as they play with friends.

Parents have their own issues with screen time

But these days, it’s more difficult for parents to set limits on screen time. When parents are overwhelmed with their own overloaded schedules, it gets harder to stop looking at our own emails, and re-focus on other activities with our kids. We’re tired, and it’s easier to go with the flow, find a comfortable chair and sit down in front of a monitor or TV screen. How many times have you looked up from your own computer and discovered that your family is all-together in the house, each looking at their own screen?

Creating Artisan Jewelry has Taught Me Many Life Lessons by Sally

I started designing and creating jewelry in 2006, shortly after my business partner and I sold our video production company to equity investors. 

For 26 years, I managed up to 65 employees in 5 offices around the country.  I spent my days on the phone and in meetings; analyzing spreadsheets, listening to employees and clients complain and losing sleep over debt obligations and overhead.  Although I loved the company and the people who worked there, I sold it, in part, because the stress of balancing all the spinning pie plates eventually became more of a headache than a joy. Around this time, I even had shoulder surgery from a lifetime of perching that darn phone between my ear and shoulder!  Enough!

After a career of offering a service rather than a product, I wanted to simplify my life and create something tangible; a product that would be beautiful and help people appreciate the splendor and wonder of our planet.  I wanted to work with my hands; relying only upon myself to conceive, design, execute and sell.  I found that outlet in artisan jewelry.   For me, it is a privilege to use the precious metals and stones of the earth to create personal adornments that bring people happiness.

 

Becoming knowledgeable about something entirely new is hard and humbling!  Learning to manipulate metal using fire and sharp tools has been frightening, intense and exhilarating. After nearly three decades of being an expert in my field, it's been quite an interesting experience to be once again a novice!  There have been days when I have thought, "what am I doing and who am I kidding!" I've also stumbled through many failures but I have found that the failures just make the successes  that much more satisfying!

My bucolic studio is perched atop a hill in our backyard.  From there I watch squirrels, hummingbirds and spiders go about their business. I can hear the next door neighbor's baby burble and coo.  And, as I pass by our vegetable garden, I am able to watch the plants grow almost imperceptibly day by day.

I am still struggling to make my new business successful financially, but my mind is stretched learning increasingly complicated techniques, touching the periphery of the serious jewelry trade while also gaining knowledge of social media marketing including blogs, twitter, facebook and more.

Making jewelry has taught me the importance of stretching and learning, even as I creep toward 60.  I have to say though...manual labor has its pitfalls.  Now I have "tennis elbow" from all the hammering I do and I given up entirely on manicures!

My name is Sally Jewett-Brocato and I develop artisan jewelry called Naked-Jewelry.  I'm also a public speaker for business/entrepreneurial topics.

Rheumatoid Arthritis Can't Stop Me--I'm all on the Canvas by Cyndi

Several years ago I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. As an artist who uses her hands to draw, paint and craft I was devastated. All I could think of was my great aunts crippled hands that were barely usable. Over the next few years I learned a great deal about RA, the medications that I could take, how stress and activity affect me, and how to deal with the pain.

 

I have learned to deal with RA through my art. I am a type A personality all the way. I’m either going 150 mph or 0, and the 0 usually happens when I finally go to sleep! My friends and family are always telling me to relax. What they don’t realize is that when I work on my art, I am relaxing. Recently I found a way to combine two of my passions, painting and pets, by putting them on canvas. I feel so blessed that I am able to do what I love, work at home, and make money too.

 

 

My name is Cyndi and I paint Pet Portraits and I'm a graphic designer. Designs can be purchased in my store or you can order a custom design of your own pet.