...quilling and crafting, ravens and bats...

Decades ago when I briefly lived in New England, I got together with a friend and we did crafts. We called ourselves “craftists” because we were not strictly making art nor were we strictly making craft projects. We liked to think that we hovered somewhere between the two. 

I remember reading somewhere that the difference between crafting and being an artist was being original. I cannot say that I really am that original. Most of what I do is because I have looked at something and thought, "That would be perfect IF...." and immediately I am deconstructing it to make it my own. Is that art? *shrug* Probably not. It just means that I know what I like.

Recently I have been making an assortment of crafts from Christmas spiders, which I previously blogged about, to my first attempt attempting quilling, and even making Shrinky Dinks. 

That’s right! Remember when you were a kid and you got to trace and color pictures, stick your entire project in the oven (with adult supervision, of course), and then watch as your work shrunk into tiny pieces of amazingness?!? 

Well, over the holiday, I cleaned up my office, which is used as an office/ crafting space/ library/ reading nook and I found a pack of my Shrinky Dinks plastic pages from circa 1999. They were tucked away with a book on making paper flowers. Oh, yes, I feel that urge coming. Just you wait.

 

Anyhow, since the academic semester begins next week both for me as an instructor and also for me as a student in my final semester of the Public History program, I have a ton of items to check off on my to-do list. So, what am I doing this evening? Why, I am crafting!

First, here is my first attempt at quilling. I picked up a small introduction kit years ago and prompting shoved it in a drawer. Last year when my mother was cleaning up some of her stash of crafts, she handed over some of her own quilling supplies because while she thought she would try it, she never did.

I followed a basic bat pattern and then created the full moon and overgrown cemetery freestyle. The second one was all freehand without a pattern. I think if given excessive time, I might have a knack for quilling.

Shrinking Dinks can be much less creative. Since I do not have the natural ability to draw freehand, and the world just does not provide me with the visual images that I life, I tend to merge visuals with my own ideas. Case in point, I saw a heart shape mouth and decided it would look much better with fangs. The little vampire boy was freehand and he does look a bit wonky but that’s alright because I like wonky.

The entire Shrinky Dinks crafting project stemmed from Edgar Allan Poe’s 209th birthday party next week. I realized that I needed a brooch to wear to the Poe Museum birthday event. Because I’m planning to wear black velvet and the only raven brooch I have is, err, black, I decided that I needed to come up with another option. With so little time to order a custom brooch on Etsy, I decided that Shrinky Dinks was my answer. 

Voila! Crafting magic in the house!

...spiders, flowers, and crafting...

I did not plan to take a blog-sabbatical for the last two months nor did I plan to return to blogging today. I suppose I am following my muse; and, today, my muse is Bane over at GIY: Goth It Yourself. I am terribly behind but her December theme is Anything Goes; and, well, I have been crafting. 

If you have followed my blog, you will know that I LOVE Christmas! I also have a tradition of making Christmas spiders since my last name derives from the Polish word “spider.” Plus, it just seems to goth up Christmas a bit. 

Here are some older posts if you’re interested in reading about the legend, a how-to guide, and my beaded-spider-making habits: 

... the legend of the Christmas spider and why I embrace it...

EEEK! gothidays!!! ...Once upon a Christmas spider...

It was an awful semester following a complicated and challenging year. I needed to craft this December and wow did I craft. I have made nearly 40 Christmas spiders, and I do not plan to stop anytime soon. Also, I continue celebrate Christmas until Candlemas so while the rest of the world has moved on and taken down their decorations, I do not until February 2^nd. Without further ado, here are my spiders!

During my Christmas spider crafting, I made some beaded flowers.

I also made a Christmas top hat with Christmas spider in an Instagram friend Christmas exchange.

And, today, I swapped out a plan light switch cover for a more interesting one. It only required a picture and some sticky tape.

While this was a quick post, it’s still nice to be back.

... more subdued celebration of death on All Souls' Day...

Today is All Souls’ Day, a holiday that is celebrated quite differently depending on one’s religious background and upbringing. Some say prayers for all deceased souls and visit loved ones who have passed.

While I’m frequently in the cemetery, I often visit other people’s families. Today I have a long to-do list and an evening class. I need to make appointments, grade papers, and prepare course lectures and activities. But, this is not what I need to do today.

Elementary School- we're in the middle with our brothers on top of the eagle

I want to go see Susan since she has been on my mind lately. She was my self-determined sister. We were childhood best friends forever with necklaces to prove it; then, before our thirtieth birthdays, birthdays that because they were only two weeks apart were celebrated together throughout grade school, she abandoned me to grow old alone. She drowned in a boating accident with her new husband. The captain of the ship lived to tell the tale of how her husband lied to her when she asked if they were going to be okay, and how she sang before hypothermia took over. 

child's grave at Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, VA

I try to remember such things when I'm walking through any cemetery. These people were loved fiercely by others.  The best inscription that I have ever read in a cemetery was for a little child in Hollywood Cemetery. Like family plots of the time, she is buried in a small cradle grave behind the other family members. With the elaborate fencing and the large grave markers before hers, it took me years to even notice she was there. If you look carefully on the foot-stone below the curled up animal statue you will see the epitaph which reads:

How many hopes lie expired here

Susan's church

Susan and I had had talks about being two old ladies sitting in rocking chairs together discussing life.  We were the first ones of our friends to get married; we were the first of our friends to divorce. We were often grouped together for Girl Scouts, Oratory, and Drama. When my first husband cheated on me right after my employer went bankrupt, she was the first to call me. She made me feel better when her first husband turned out to be a common robber. None of it seems real.

Now, she’s dead buried in a small graveyard at a church where she attended as a child. I would go to that church with her sometimes. I saw her get married there. I watched her funeral, and her father’s funeral there just a few years later. I sat in the very same pew.

6th grade

October was frazzled. It was too busy. I have made promises to myself about not over-committing myself next year. Fall is supposed to be a time of contemplation. Perhaps it was our summer-like temperatures or perhaps it was just all the Halloween activity but I did not think about the season changing. I was not reminded of death or transition. November changes everything.

This week I mourn the end of Hallowmas and I re-mourn my friends who were lost to this world. But, I’m also reflecting on my own soul. What does my spirit need? How should I nurture my spirit? What do I need at this moment? What would bring me peace and joy?

Thomas Moore writes, “Let us imagine care of the soul, then, as an application of poetics to everyday life.” 

How will I be more authentic today? 

How will you?