I do not consider myself a crafty person. For relaxation you would not find me ‘creating’ something using paper, scissors, glue. Ugh!!! I shudder at the thought. I have some ‘geeky scrapbooking friends’. I tried scrapbooking once and found myself overwhelmed and frustrated. They tell me I am a scrapbooker, I just do it on my computer (I create a calendar each year for family with pictures and captions). Ahh…but the computer is much different. I’m not using scissors, glue – the computer cuts and pastes things very precisely and if I don’t like it one way, all I have to do is delete-copy-paste again. No tearing out pictures that have already been glued and making a BIG MESS.
I was thinking about all this yesterday as I was making a knight’s helmut for my 7 year old son. He received a book for his birthday about knights and medieval times and it also has a TON of CRAFTS in it to create medieval stuff. Well, he’s been wanting to make the helmut since he got the book and since he’s not able to do it himself (and because I love my son) I told him I would make it for him. So here I was yesterday using scissors (no glue was involved) and cutting and drawing and trying to put this helmut together. It turned out all right, I guess. My son really loves it. But it didn’t turn out exactly how it does in the pictures in the book. It took longer to make than I hoped it would. The cutting wasn’t perfectly straight.
I realized I don’t like crafts because when it comes to creating things I am a perfectionist. I want to be able to do something well the first time. I am very much a details person when I do something; it’s harder for me to see the ‘big picture’. So if I’m creating something, I’m lamenting about how the lines aren’t perfectly straight rather than seeing the beauty in the whole. I go over and over the same little detail trying to make it perfect and getting more and more frustrated and stressed. This was actually a good realization for me to come to. It makes sense to me now why crafts usually stress me out. And I’m ok with that. On the one hand, I don’t have to be like the ‘crafty’ people. I can use my creativity elsewhere. On the other hand, being conscious of my creative perfectionism, when I try something ‘crafty’ or ‘artistic’ I can let myself relax and enjoy the process rather than aiming for perfection.
UPDATE: Today, my son wants me to make the sword (and glue is involved!). Argh!