painting based my white rabbit magic
I've been painting all my life. I couldn't call it a hobby anymore. It's stressy and all encompassing. I can't just sit down and create something simply out of the sheer joy of it, I start a project and get consumed by it for perhaps six months. When the time comes around for an exhibition I just want the pieces out of my house as soon as possible and to be on with the next project. These photos are from the only series I've kept, I was reading antonia frazers maria antoinette biography and at a very happy time in my life, they were made early on, when I still enjoyed painting and wasn't trying to improve my realism!
painting based on my black rabbit brer
My partner noticed I turned all my hobbies into "work" and suggested I take on something more "fun" when I got chronically ill I turned to Lolita a bit more as a de-stresser. I needed to escape from my own body for a while (if you read my earlier post on books, you can see I couldn't get solace from them) even if I was still lying in bed. As far as hobbies go - It's fairly low energy/maintainance. I buy the clothes, then I wear the clothes (although sometime a lot of layers at the waist can be uncomfortable, its easily dealt with).
It can almost be an art project of itself, coordinating a lolita outfit, and I think the most rewarding part of lolita is when you have gathered together a "full" outfit to wear out that reflects something about your personality, you find particularly striking, or follows a theme that resounds with you. I love rabbits, and although there are a lot of rabbit prints available, there's still many rabbit based items I want to make for myself which is what turned me to the idea of crafting in the first place.
these two pieces made me want to craft to begin with, apologies for lack of links they were saved to my computer a long time ago
Although I am far too lazy to create flat layouts of my own clothes I keep track of what I own in a pretty diary, keep an updated folder of all my stock bought items so I don't end up owning too many similar items, and am forever scouring the internet for interesting coordinates of the items I already have.
My brain isn't linear as I am sure you can tell from my writing style. I can't show you a decisive moment where I thought "I am going to do all the crafts now" but it started with something simple and ended up with my usual habit of going quite far into something. I saw a couple of darling handmade embroidered brooches online that made me fall in love with the idea of needlework. I had also bought one of the otome no sews because I liked the apron on the cover. I was feeling a little less ill, although not quite well enough to be out and about or serious about painting again & decided to take a turn at things where it didn't matter if I was perfect or not. I sewed in school and thought it was dreadfully boring. I think we made bags to hold plastic bags in. Sewing for lolita is much more exciting, I've a folder full of dress idea's, swatches, and am even taking a photoshop course to help me transfer my own designs to print fabric from.
So I've been sewing, mainly handsewing although somehow have ended up owning three machines - my favourite is a duck egg blue singer inherited from my partners grandmother, she is a thing of beauty. I've hmm'd over the Otome no Sew pattern books but then we moved, I had only just got my kit together and there's no specific area for sewing in the new home. I still have to designate an area in my art studio for crafts.
this is now fully embroidered and lives in my kitchen
Right now I am working on a cross stitch of a rabbit in a field after finishing 4 embroidery hoops of canvas printed artwork that I worked embroidery into in various spots to decorate the new place (framed in my bedroom, & the kitchen and very satisfying to say "I made this". I just picked a hoop on a whim and printed off some canvas using my inkjet. Because my health decided that moving house was the point to pretty much give up, resulting in hospitalization. I was quite worried waiting on results, embroidery kept my mind off it. The big C is on both sides of my family, so I am glad to continue avoiding it.
I've made jewellery to match pieces; for example this necklace to match one of my favourite bags (I then promply forgot to wear the matching accessories on the bags next outing!). I am getting into sculpted clay, resin pieces and mold making right now, and painting with enamel paints.
At a fair, I noticed a lady spinning at a wheel giving demonstrations and lit up with happiness. We talked about our hobbies for a spell & she was patient enough to give me a thorough lesson, resulting in my being quite confident and feeling very at ease sitting at the wheel. I was planning on leaving spinning as a hobby for retirement age (I have a list of old lady accomplishments I want to achieve, is that odd?) but I just can't get it out of my head. She had some knitted hats from her own, handspun yarn and I bought a few for myself and the Mr.
doesn't the undyed wool look amazing?
I found some youtube tutorials and an Irish craft guild recommended supplier, then ordered a drop spindle and some carded wool. There are some beautiful models available out there, but I'd rather get an older piece at an auction, than a new build. Particularly as my partner is from Scotland and they have such a tradition of cloth making over there.
Aren't these colours just to die for? carded wool from an Irish etsy woolfinch studio
Spinning is very calming, soothing to the mind, plus you have created something useful from an ancient tool so it's quite practical. So much of modern life is divorced from the realities of what sheer labour goes into what we use to maintain our lives that I think it's a common modern malaise to be depressed because lets face it, most modern jobs are divorced from the land and in the grand scheme of things, pretty irrelevant. I loved working in Archaeology when I was healthy because I felt that as a custodian of history I had a purpose that linked me to both the past and the future, while grounding me firmly in the present day. I felt the same feeling while sitting spinning at the wheel. It's a link to the past and something to pass on to the future. And it's princessy & fairytale-esque to boot! All in all, spinning is the perfect Lolita hobby.
My new drop spindle, I still want to leave the big saxony wheel until I'm older. Part of the plan involves wool from my own angora rabbits (future rabbits!) but I am not good at waiting for things so we'll see. I've also plucked some of my rabbit's shed fur from the end of summer, and am willing to give needle felting a bash!
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