For me, filling my creative passion is a combination of visual and tactile. The colours and patterns can elicit calmness, and the texture of craft materials and the motion of creating help to increase dopamine, and that makes me happy.
My earliest memory of being creative was my first day of Kindergarten. We were given a 4” red square of construction paper, and a pair of scissors. Our task was to cut corners in single straight cuts until we had formed a circle. At this young age, the colour and texture of the paper, the feel of the snip of the scissors, and the challenging goal to make a circle out of a square resonated with the undiscovered “creative” within me.
A few years later, my yearnings to be creative were satisfied by playing with my favourite toys; Spirograph® and Etch A Sketch®. I found geometry to be a stable base that I could rely on in a somewhat chaotic world.
In Grade 11, I enrolled myself in a Drafting Class for an elective. I had no idea what “Drafting” was, but it sounded like more fun than Home Economics. I was seated at a tilted board, with a parallel rule and some triangles and a compass. Heaven. I went on to become a Drafter/Designer, and my career evolved through pencil & paper, 2D Computer Aided Drafting (CAD), 3D modeling and printing, and now virtual reality (VR).
Although I love digital design, I also engage in the tactile geometry-based craft of crochet. The patterns that the combined stitches create, and the relationship between yarn thickness, hook diameter and tension continue to challenge and fascinate me. Recently, I went “small” and learned how to crochet earrings. As a frequent traveler, it is easier to pack very small hooks and thread in my suitcase. It took a few months for my brain and hands to recalibrate to the tiny size of the earrings, but I got there, and it has been rewarding.
Now, I am learning Needle Tatting, also known as lace-making. I am very thankful that there are still so many wonderful crafts to learn.