December 6 – Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it? (Author: Gretchen Rubin)
This is a weird one for me.
In a way I make a lot of things, I bake and I cook, but those things aren’t lasting. I don’t even make fancy cookies or cakes that someone would want to take a picture of. They taste good, and they look good to eat, but they aren’t something you’d want to record for posterity.
Last week I made Christmas cards with my kids, but that’s kind of misleading because I didn’t actually do any myself, I let them make a glorious mess while I organized the materials.
I write. All sorts of different things. But while that is creative it is not something I would consider myself to have made.
I made a movie with my kids’ friends in October (I still have to edit it), but that was like making a play or writing a story. Still not a THING I made.
The truth is, I don’t make very much. The details required for crafts and craft hobby confound and frustrate me and I lose any pleasure of creation to the notion that this thing has to go there. For Christmas, my friends have decided that we will exchange 10 dollar gifts in an elaborate sort of game. So we don’t know who will end up with the gift we bring. Everyone else is making things, I may end up baking. I can’t really think of what I can make that would end up as something I would want to give as a gift.
I still have a while to figure that out though.
And since I haven’t really made anything lately, I’ll have to go with what I would like to do.
I’d love to be able to draw. I’d love to be able to create with charcoal and pastels and put feelings into sketches instead of words.*
And on the one hand, I don’t need very much in order to be able to ‘make’ that. I just need some paper and a pencil I guess. But what I want? Delicious cream coloured thick art paper, and the kind of pencils REAL artists use – the kind that you have to use a knife instead of a sharpener to make a point on.
I don’t know if I’ll do it though.
*My usual joke is that I don’t draw and I don’t take good photos, so I have to be really good with my thousand words. 🙂
I joined you in the “I did not make much of anything” today camp, and I am all the happier for it. I am so glad I stumbled into your post. I am sure you will be drawing in no time, and cannot wait to see what you make then.
wow. your post actually brought tears to my eyes. it may not have been your intention, but it seems to me that you’re brutally hard on yourself. you wrote paragraph after paragraph of all the things you make, in addition to clearly creating a safe environment for your kids to make things as well, but you dismissed each one. Kudos.
I would argue that you are overflowing with creativity. since when does “make” have to be something permanent that Christie’s would want to auction off at some point?
Anyway, I just wanted to cheer you on. And say how happy I am to have found you in the #reverb10 clan.
oops. realized the “kudos” might be misinterpretted. I meant it as kudos for doing all those things!!
@Roxanne – Thanks for your comment! I hope I will be drawing soon, if I am, I’ll let you know.
@Emma – Interesting. I didn’t feel I was being hard on myself, I guess I was caught up in the idea of making something tangible instead of equating “make” with “create.”
I think of myself as creating all the time, but rarely as “making” things. Thank you for putting the two back together for me.
I love this post … I feel the same way! You could do a poem + collage on hard board paper. I do things like that as I am also anti-craft. However, I can handle glue, scissors and cutting things out of magazines. Email and I’ll give further suggestions if you are interested.
Peace out.
@Elizabeth – Thanks for the comment. When I feel moved to make something tangible, I’ll drop you a line. 🙂