Create Your Happiness

Rock! Paper! Scissors! As an art student, single mother and lifelong craft enthusiast, the true empowerment that high quality tools brings is unequivocal. All my life I have been a crafter. I learned how to crochet and cross stitch around the age of 4 or 5 and have never stopped since. I have dabbled in all areas of arts and crafts, from fibre arts like quilting, latch hook, knitting and crochet, cross stitch, and embroidery, sewing and macrame, paper crafts like collage, origami, scrapbooking and quilling, as well as classics like painting, drawing, sculpture – metal and clay and jewellery making. While I did not start with the best supplies, and honestly am not at “best” level even still, the more in invest into quality tools for my copious crafting endeavors, the more amazed I am at how long I spent struggling with the more “sub-par” tools. The quality of my work goes up while the time necessary to do the work goes down. The ease that quality tools bring to a crafters’ life, even just proper, sharp scissors, is astonishing.

Reading the requirements for the challenge, I almost did not apply. Scissors are such a huge part in everything I do I almost overlooked them! I do not even think about using them, but honestly, nothing is better than an excellent pair of scissors. Embroidery scissors and their need to be sharp and pointy, paper cutters and their need for the blade to be sharp and precise, needle nose scissors for origami, regular household scissors for all yarn projects, fabric and pinking shears for quilting and sewing, the list goes on and on. Even scissors that are not really scissors like snips and blades for cutting metal, or wire and plastic tools for cutting clay have levels of quality. I am extremely passionate in regard to every art and craft I make. From my drawing and painting assignments in school that do not require a ton of cutting, to my personal passion projects with origami, embroidery and macrame that require super sharp scissors for clean cuts with no fraying or ripping. Every single piece I create has a piece of my soul in it when I am finished. I am always creating, and when I am not creating, I am working with my littles on things they like creating. My son, 5, loves just cutting paper - following lines, making “confetti”, making snowflakes and my daughter, 12, is a miniature version of myself, with all her own (hand-me-down) art and craft supplies.

I am currently just collecting supplies for my summer projects, spring semester of university has me super stressed and busy right now, but only a week left! I have yarn for a cotton crochet backpack for taking my drawing and plein-air painting supplies to the park or river with me and the kids, a cotton yarn crochet beach coverup for the river, clay and metal (and wire and toilet paper rolls for the paper mâché base for the forms) for a huge zodiac sculpture series I would like to showcase in the fall that is currently just a pile of research in a sketchbook, as well as a pet project I’ve been working on for a few years now with wanting to grow my paper skills with quilling, origami and drawing of big voluptuous florals! Scissors might not be the predominant tool in each piece, but without them, everything I do would be left unfinished. And let’s be honest, the amount of unfinished projects in any artist or crafters studio is already large enough!

I have always been intrigued by the astrological zodiacs and have decided that I am going to start my sculpture major off with a bang. I have taken inspiration pictures from across several different platforms and am working on combining each photo of them into one cumulative sculpture, using wire forms with paper mache under to support the clay and metal on top. My research process is going to be a lot of work. The designing and template making will be tedious, but I am fully excited to the brim about the project! I wish I had more to show you but winning any prize amount would help so immensely I do not even know how to describe. Being a single mom and an artist, supplies often get pushed off as unimportant, the kids come first! So, while I realize this last-minute entry might not be overly glamorous in comparison to others, winning any amount would just help boost my art and craft practice to the next level, I could upgrade so many tools and stock up on base supplies like copper and brass and air-dry clay and paper, ALL THE PAPER! I can promise that for the lack of eloquence in this application, I would more than make up for in putting any winnings to extremely good use. My Fiskars paper cutter from 10 years ago would be one of the first things to be upgraded! Thank you for your attention and consideration!! Have a fantastic summer!!