Image via www.thespruce.com
At home crafting is a wonderful way to wind-down from stress, and to capture your creativity. There are many differing craft practices, whether your interest lies with ceramic, or wool or with more esoteric forms, such as flowers.
Below are 6 time-tested crafting projects you can undertake at home – with all skill levels and confidence levels covered.
Be A Knit-Wit
Whether it’s the hypnotic clicking of knitting needles, or the endless skeins of wool, knitting is a practical, age-old therapeutic craft activity. In contrast to many popular characterisations, knitters come in all ages and genders – and each has their own reason for becoming involved with the craft.
An extra benefit of knitting is that you can produce real, wearable crafts. If your knitting is of a particularly excellent standard, it can become a sellable, marketable way to enjoy your craft-time, while providing you with the extra income to fund your future fashionings.
Flower Power
At home flower arranging is a great way to develop your aesthetic eye, as well as being a useful skill come birthday and holiday season. Fresh and dried flowers can be arranged according to taste, and combined with both botanical and non-botanical elements to form elaborate arrangements.
Part of the challenge is choosing the right glue gun for the job. You’ll need to consider which materials you’re using and how they interact with each other. With enough research and planning, you’ll find the right product for your task, so that you can create wonderful displays of floral beauty.
Painterly Prospects
Here’s another cool crafting kick: give a lick of colour to old furniture and wooden items.
If you have items of furniture or possessions calling out for colour, you can creatively and cost effectively re-fashion them through clever crafting.
Most hardware stores carry small tins of paint (often labelled ‘decorator’ cans), brushes and sandpaper. Once you’ve set aside an afternoon and picked a colour (or colours) that you love, it’s as simple as preparing the surface (a quick sand with some medium-grit sandpaper is often all that’s required) and giving a lick of colour to the object.
Put It In The Book
Scrapbooking is another excellent way to channel your creative potential into crafting. At its simplest, scrapbooking consists of mixed-media objects (clippings, stickers, photos) laid out and adhered into a notebook in a cohesive, creative way.
Scrapbooks can be themed (around a particular person’s life, or around a holiday, for example), or they can be a way to loosely express a narrative through found objects. For whichever reason you choose to undertake scrapbooking as a project, it’s a great way to spend your spare time at home, and it will leave you with an individual artefact like no other.
Hug In A Mug
Ceramics are another old-school-cool craft. Whether you’re a novice or a porcelain pro, ceramic art is fun and filled with possibilities.
Depending on your level of skill, or the amount of time you’re willing to dedicate to the craft, you can buy pre-fired white ceramic objects to paint at home, or you can buy special ceramic clay and paints at art supply shops. There are a multitude of videos and tutorials available for viewing online too, if you’d like to get in the mindset before taking the plunge.
Just Bead It
Beading and jewellery making requires the type of mind-clearing focus that is perfect for crafters looking for some homespun art therapy.
Beading is a particularly lo-fi art; it requires a minimum of supplies (beads, wire or string, and fixings) and offers a wide array of different objects to be made. Beading kits can be purchased at craft stores, and often contain all you need to get started. One of the great things about beading is that it’s suitable for all skill levels, and can be completed in as much or as little time as you’re willing to devote to it.
If you’re wanting to take things a step further, jewellery making is a logical next step. Resin casting and mold-making allows you to create jewellery pieces in an array of shapes and sizes. You can even cast your own beads to use in your beading endeavours. Supplies for jewellery making can be found online, and in specialist art stores.
At-home crafting is an excellent way to express your creative energy, as well as providing a therapeutic outlet for your emotions. Whether your interests are low energy (such as beading) or more high-stakes (ceramics), there’s a craft out there to suit your needs, your skills and your time frame.