| Crafting & mental health: Knitting, clay mask and jewellery projects

World is fast-paced and full of noise. Do you find yourself wanting to escape the noise for a moment? Try crafting something! I’ve found doing things by hand really soothing and wanted to share some recent things I’ve made. Tech can be stressful at times so it’s really nice to wind down with getting visual and physical on my time off.

If your mental health is crumbling and you’re stressed with FOMO -nonsense crafting might be a grounding experience. I know the feeling of “not having time for anything”. And after thinking things through post-burnout I realised I should’ve just taken some time for myself. After looking back the time I’ve spent doing my own projects I don’t think I’ve actually missed anything by not scrolling more. I’ve learned new things and actually done something with my time. I would like to encourage other people to do the same.

Breathe deeply and start enjoying the me-time you’ve always pictured for your retirement today. Make the hobby-time a priority. Your mental will thank you later.

Seeing what you’ve accomplished

Seeing is believing. When you do some nice things for yourself or for other people it’s like self-validation. Personal expression of thought towards something. I wanted to make a smaller scarf to be used under a wool coat with classic cut. Found really lovely petrol coloured cotton yarn and just got the thing finished. Looking into wool blend jackets with the classic cut – already have a pair of black leather cloves to match my outfit idea.

*Bobby pins and paper clips are handy for styling. I made the short scarf specifically for this outfit style – wool trench coat is a timeless classic!*

Clay mask

I usually gravitate towards digital art, pencils, markers and acrylics. Though that clay would be a nice change. So got myself a simple theatre mask, slapped plastic wrap on it and started making a demonic mask. I used white Modelling Clay from brand called DAS. The point of using the plastic mask underneath it as a mold was to prevent the clay from sinking when drying. I originally though it would take only couple of days for the clay to dry but I waited a whole week to be able to paint it!

When mask was dry I painted it with acrylics. Just not sure can I make the mask safe enough to wear on Halloween. Otherwise it ends up as Halloween décor. Or I try to make another one from paper. Got myself a glue gun too recently. Crafting is fun.

New gemstones and jewellery ideas

Bought some decorative spoons from thrift store for crafting and new raw gemstones. I’ll be getting more colour options for wire wrapping. Some hooks and more delicate necklace chain from Amazon. Not sure how aluminium holds the weight of natural stones so I’m going for copper wires that have golden and silvery coating. Copper patinating DIY’s would also be on my to-do list so getting Renaissance wax would be ideal. Wax coating locks the patinated colour in place so that it doesn’t wear off easily.

One reason why it took so long for me to actually get into practising jewellery making was the cost. Now that I have even a little bit of wiggle room I’m going to do it – little by little. The starting costs of getting equipment is certainly something but I try to do what I can for the time being. Wire wrapping takes practice and I think that has been a good way to get started with metals. And eventually when I get there that I’m able to craft in a space where I can solder the skills I’m practising now will add up to my creative kit and and grant me another perspective to jewellery making.