I'm finally getting the backlog of projects cleared...After two years!
Playing Catch-Up...
Well, it's been two years since a small series of minor strokes put the breaks on normality for me. But, I'm very glad to say that since then I have been slowly regaining a lot of my confidence and dexterity to the point where I am carrying out my crafting hobbies again with only a marginal loss of my previous abilities.
If I had to put a number on it, I'd say that I am back to 75% of my old self when it come to my crafting creativity. I just have to accept I have up and down days and things take longer that they used to. This is my new 'normal'!
The Viking Themed Trinket Box...
Having gone through a long rehabilitation I can say that I'm back baby! 😁 And I'm just so happy that I can do my beloved hobbies that it's doesn't phase me that some things aren't as good a standard as they used to be. I'm not even frustrated about it any more...
So, it was great to kinda come full circle in this life adventure and get back to what I was doing before all this started and complete a few of the left over projects that have been gathering dust all this time. First of these is the Viking themed trinket box that I was making for my eldest daughter, Kayleigh.
This project was my first attempt at the craft of pyrography, burning designs into wood using a tool that's rather like a soldering iron (but with special drawing tips).
A common reason that I didn't feel that I could finish these outstanding projects until now was that I was very frightened that I would mess up what were competent crafting attempts that were going so well at the time. So, I put things off, and off, and off until I finally regained my self-confidence!
Top of the list (or first of the shelf) was this trinket box. There was some cosmetic finishing to do - with the installation of the brass fittings - plus the addition of the red felt lining... It sound absurd that there was just such small jobs left to do... BUT, do it I did! 😃
Anyone who does arts or crafts will know about 'fear of completion', the uneasy feeling you get the closer you come to finishing a project in case you screw it up at the last minute!
But, I worked through this and forced myself to carry on and yesterday morning I won through...
'Face Palm' Captain Picard Figure...
To go along with the trinket box I had 3D printed a small bust of Kayleigh's favourite Star Trek character, Captain Picard, doing the now famous face palm meme pose.
I'd done a few 3D printed busts before - the models of which I had downloaded from THINGYVERSE - but these were all historical art busts and were painted plain white, as I remember these sort of statuettes being in my old school art room. My Pickard, however, would be the first figurine that I would be painting in a semirealistic full colour... Gulp!
Once again, I felt so pleased with the job I had done thus far with this model - getting all the way from 3D printing to the painting stage - that it languished on the shelf, near completion because I was so scared of fluffing the final touches!
Once again, I gave myself a good kick up my own ass to get the job done!
In this case, it was a little more tricky as the very last job was one I was already struggling with when I was in full health prior to the minor strokes! I was having a hard time painting the very subtle hair fuzz on Picard's bald head (in case you don't know, we bald men get a 'five o'clock shadow' on our heads with the tiny growth of hairs, it's really annoying and has to be shaved back regularly).
So, how to carry on this painting effect when painting is my one major bug bear now, what with my shaky right hand which intermittently - and at random - refuses to do what I want it to do!
Well, instead of the delicate and subtle painting effect using a paint brush I started this area again from scratch using special model effects pencils. Drawing with pencils presented less of a fiddly prospect for me, the pencils are chunkier - which helps me - and drawing is a kind of technique that's easier to do in stop and start stages (which painting can be a more 'live' and dynamic process which can be harder to pause in mid stroke).
It was a bit of a ham-fisted attempt but I was glad that I found an alternative technique that I could handle (excuse the pun)...
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| Above: OK, it's a bit cartoony looking, but with a bit of blending it should look 'just OK' when I'm finished... At least I can do this! |
Well, it took a while and I was sweating it...But I did it!
This is my new 'normality' (as I previously mentioned), finding new way to do things to replace the old ways that I used to do things. At the end of the day I'm made up to be able to continue dong my hobbies. Things could have been a lot worse.
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