Tuesday 29 November 2011

The Start of The Christmas Fairy Sugarcraft Project

I'm back from my sugarcraft class.  I was really fired up to start my Christmas Fairy, but have fell foul with Lack of Inspiration.  I am keen to be able to do all sorts of fairies.  First of all I added too much dye to the paste for the skin/body etc, so the poor fairy was orange.  No such thing as a Chav Fairy.  I added lots more white and it got a bit better, but not much.  So I bagged that up, with a thought of adding some brown to it to make it into the log the fairy can sit on.  I made the head, body, arms and legs.  What do I do next?  Let the pieces dry and work on the rest of the display.  This is where I got proper stumped.  I didn't have the board to put it on, so couldn't prepare the base or do the log.  The teacher suggested doing other things and to look at other peoples for inspiration.  I started doing a snow man, that got squished.  I thought I could do a lamp.  I began that, but didn't have the correct thickness of wire to support that.  I decided to do a small lamp that could sit on the log.

Inspiration!  I thought.  That thought was short lived as I just couldn't get my lamp to look right.  By that point I knew I really wasn't in the mood for this and what ever I did wouldn't work out.  I know what I'm like when I get like this.  Trying to do anything remotely creative is well off the cards.  Such a shame!  But best in the long run for me to walk away and try again another time.  I have learned this lesson many times, and try to heed to it when it calls!  The only trouble is that sometimes I just want to do something creative but the creative juices just don't flow, so I spend ages trying to find something to do and end up getting quite frustrated with myself.  *

I had a look on another blog and saw some hand rolled beeswax sheet candles.  Easy!  I thought, I could make them and they will look sooooo pretty.  I found somewhere online where I could buy some beeswax sheets from at a reasonable price.  Actually the site looked pretty useful - full of tips and how to roll the candles and how much beeswax you needed for what candle size etc.  I was starting to take a serious look at the colours to order some.

I then thought STOP!  Think about what you are doing!  Transferring your need to do something and have a result.  All I would achieve tonight would be to order some sheets.  It would be a whim to compensate for not being creative and achieving tonight.  I have bookmarked the page and will look at it when I am feeling more creative.

What I really need to do for my Christmas Fairy project is to do the base and log and PLAN other things I may want to include, like a fir tree.  I need an overall idea and go with that,  And not beat myself up that I didn't do much or couldn't think of much tonight.  Now that would be an achievement!

* When I used to get like this with my knitting and really couldn't decide what to do (because of the type of mood I was in), or when I was at odds with myself, I'm sure most people can relate to this, I used to have pre-prepared projects for such occasions.  I would put together a simple project that would need little concentration and was straightforward to do.  It would be a pretty thing and I knew I would like it when I was finished, so I knew I wasn't knitting for the sake of it.  I would find a pattern - usually for a cloth, and put some lush ball of cotton/yarn with it.  A ball that would cheer me up as I looked at it.  Sometimes I'd even put the needles with it, so I would be ready to go and need to locate nothing.  These little project bags worked absolute wonders for me.  I have told a few friends about the idea, they have tried it and they found great success with it.  It's also good when you're down in the dumps and need a quick boost of 'look what I've made!'  Try it!

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