I just posted this on rec.crafts.beads in response to a question "Why do you bead?"
I've been on a quest for about five years to find arts/crafts I enjoy doing.
- Writing fiction. I like it, but it's emotionally draining, and I can only do it in small amounts, not enough to satisfy my creative urges.
- Collage. I like it because it's cheap (the way I do it) and I like putting incongruous images together. But the gluing/finishing part is messy, and there are only so many decoupaged AOL CDs that I can give away. ;-)
- Crochet. I like it because I can carry it around and the finished product is practical. I have a huge project right now, and I'm doing finishing stuff that isn't challenging at this point, so I do it when I am watching TV or doing something else that doesn't take my full attention. I don't like that the finished product (unless I'm doing thread crochet) tends to be big and warm - my house is already too full of stuff, and I live in a warm climate already. I will probably do some more thread crochet at some point.
- Lampworking. I've always liked the way hot glass flows, and I wanted to work with it, but I thought glass blowing would be too strenuous for me. I took one class in lampworking and I loved it - it was addictive the way video games are addictive, and I even had pretty beads to show for it! I haven't done more because the classes are expensive and the equipment setup / fireproofing for doing it at home is expensive. At some point I'll probably do more.
- Beading. This is my current favorite craft because it's challenging - so many new techniques to learn; it can be done without spending a lot of money; beads are so much fun to collect and handle; the finished product is small and everybody loves it as a gift; I've been able to make stuff I've always wanted but been too cheap to buy.
What are your favorites and why?
Page Summary
Designed by 
chasethestars
chasethestars
Comments
Metal-bending and working with beads is my most favorite thing. These days, and for the past five years, it's been not only my craft but my employment (though there's small recompense in it -- I make less than a dollar an hour, when all's figured out). Why? Um. That is hard to answer, because all I want to say is, "How not?" I love it. I do it; I can't not do it. It has me. I have enough ideas now to fill ten lifetimes, and will probably add to that store tomorrow.
I wish I could explain the why, but it doesn't go into words easily these days, I guess. Um, I could wave pieces of art and point to them and say, "That's why," but that's all I can think of.
Other stuff: I like rubber stamping, but that is limited to the hand-made price tags I make nowadays. Which is a nice little taste, and seems to be enough. (That's how come I'm letting go of those fifty rubber stamps. Things should be used, people and they should have fun together, I believe.)
I like spinning and weaving and dyeing, but it's been an age since I did any of it, and I probably won't get back to it this lifetime. I do use many textile techniques in metal, though.
Um, I can't think of any others, though there must be some. The metal-bending, the sculpture/jewelry making, has all of me, in terms of craft, these days. It's my craft in all senses of the word.
Silk painting is my very favorite. You never know what is going to happen exactly when the tip of the brush touches the fabric -- but the results are always vibrant and exciting, and the process is a sensual delight. Although I enjoy doing precision work, outlining pictures in thin resist on the silk and "coloring in the spaces", I particularly love working on a large scale with fiber-reactive dyes and a wax-like resist that can be painted on with a brush, producing results more like batik than traditional silkpainting.
I also like cross-stitch and needlepoint for the portability factor. And beading, because, well, I just love beads.