Hand Made Art Is More Important Than Ever
Anyone who isn’t living under a rock is likely acutely aware of the ‘Ai revolution’ or rather, all the tech bros crowbarring the words ‘Ai’ into ANY and all software or tech, even though a lot of this stuff we’ve been using for years already. I don’t know about you, but I am absolutely sick of it.
I was going to make a very long post about fighting Ai, why I think that generative Ai is bad, and the reasons why we should resist it, but instead I’m going to sing the praises of MAKING THINGS.
I have hope that as the Ai nonsense gathers momentum, more and more people are going to completely ignore it and seek out meaning in real, human made artefacts. Whether that is as ‘consumers’ (I hate that word) or as makers themselves.
The Deep Fulfilment of Making Things
As with many other creative people, I don’t JUST do one thing, I have always loved making things, not just paintings! I like that when I am having a rest from painting, I don’t ever really rest from creating, be it in the form of cooking, sewing, sculpting or even gardening.
If you aren’t someone who has a crafty or creative hobby, I can’t overstate enough how great it is for your mental health and that you should have a go. It can help you develop patience, improve your problem solving abilities and the enrichment to your life is a guarantee.
Learn To Sew
Youtube is amazing and anyone with the use of their hands and eyes can learn to make things. I was fortunate to learn how to make my own clothes in college and I have used that skill ever since.
It might seem intimidating but honestly, it is not, it can be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be. Here are some drop crotch pants I made (I have so many pairs of these now, SO comfy! I’ve added the pattern which I made from an old pair I had many years ago in case you want to have a go!). Last year I made a MASSIVE coat from an old 1984 Issey Miyake pattern (that you can see below, it’s actually camel coloured in the pic, not the same colour as my coat which is rusty orange!). Lastly an 18th century inspired skirt I made from wool, SO easy to make, it is just two rectangles!
Online sewing folk I can recommend are:
The Closet Historian - She’s got a great ‘how to sew’ series going on right now. If you like vintage looks, you’ll love her (But even if you don’t, her sewing tips are GREAT).
Arkdefo - Really straight forward info on how to make clothes to fit YOU in a simple way. She’s a great teacher, highly recommend!
V. Birchwood - an amazing channel. Vasi makes ALL her clothing by hand and she wears exclusively historical garments. She also makes meals from historical recipes, fun stuff!
Micarah Tewers - I’ve put Micarah in here as she’s heavy on the fun and ‘just going for it’ way of sewing, rather than being precise. This might be something some of you like the sound of more!
There are SO many more, but these will do for now.
Learn To Cook
Cooking is another thing I love and is also hugely creative (and very useful of course!). Again, SOO much choice out there on Youtube to learn, I’m not a vegan but one of my fave channels is Derek Sarno, he makes delicious recipes. Also check out ‘Tasting History’ with Max Miller, he makes some amazing dishes from history and you get a mini history lesson with his videos too which I love.
I used to have a food blog sharing recipes of mine, might have to start it up again!
Play With Clay
Air Dry clay is brilliant, you don’t need a kiln and while you are making your new object, you can keep it from drying out in a sealed container and keep this project going for days and even weeks. I hadn’t done any sculpting since school (a good 30 years ago now 😬 where does the time go?) and grabbed myself some Padico ‘La Doll’ air dry clay and started making some of my naughty little monsters a couple of years ago! It is SO much fun. They paint up beautifully too (with acrylics) and I am going to be adding more to the little monster sculpture collections later this year…
What would you make if you had some clay to play with?
Try A Course In Something Creative
A lot of people don’t think they are creative, but humans are innately so, and even if it doesn’t feel like it comes naturally, it can absolutely be learned like any skill. You don’t have to be good at something to enjoy it.
None of us start life making master-level art, and most of us will never get to that level, and it doesn’t matter. The most important thing is to play and find out what it is that you enjoy. Maybe it’s jewellery making? Or perhaps knitting or crochet? The sky is the limit, and now there are so many courses online for these things, if you’re not able to travel there’s nothing to stop you!
Or perhaps you’ve always wanted to start learning a musical instrument… go on, give it a go.
Tell Me Your Hobbies!
What is it that you do to fulfil your creative desires? Maybe there’s something you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t started yet. Let me know below your favourite hobbies.
Just Make Loads Of Art!
Don't stop making art. We need to treasure the experience of making things with our hands and not give in to the digital shortcut of typing out a prompt.
If you are a young artist starting out, please don't stop creating. Just make art for yourself if nothing else (the only place to start is to make it for your own entertainment!) Make things with your hands - people will ALWAYS want and enjoy art made by humans. Back when photography was invented it did impact the portrait artists, but we still see portrait painters now, despite photography being accessible to all of us. It might be that we have to do these things along side other jobs, but creating is SO good for us, for our mental health, that we must remember to keep doing so.
Make amazing things.
Invent new worlds.
Write new stories & poems.
Sing beautiful songs.
Support your friends and peers who make wonderful things and keep the passion for art alive.
DO NOT GIVE UP
#createdontscrape
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