Do . . . .And you will be shown how. . . .

When I was a girl Shirley Temple curls were popular and I sorely wished for a doll with real hair.  I wanted my doll to have curls.  My mother occasionally bought Honey Crush bread I think it was called and I coveted the orange colored cellophane wrapping it.  I cut one inch strips and wrapped it tightly around a pencil.  I glued them on my doll’s head.  I pretended they were real curls.

It was a substitute and I never fooled my self but I was practical even then and knew with 8 siblings, a doll with real hair was not going to be.  But it is my first memory of using what was on hand to create something I wanted.

Oftentimes to create requires a collection of expensive tools that dampens any desire to begin.  The budding artist seldom has relatives with spare monies to help defray costs.  Whether it is paper or pencils, or paint or fabric or yarns or whatever, it all costs.  But if the desire is strong, begin.  And ways will open.

Fortunately for us scroungers, we live in a throw away society  with second hand or thrift stores.  Older relatives can be lookouts for estate sales.  The boys and I took their red wagon and walked the alleys to scrounge.  After storms we hauled uprooted bushes and trees to bring home and plant.  I picked up a book on sewing with knit fabric at a garage sale and I was off and running when the grandbabies arrived.  I learned to knit when I was 15 and bought a knitting manual for 25 cents.  I watched the guys with power tools and made a side table and learned carpentry.  Do and you will be shown how. . . .

The brother next to me ran our farm because of our family’s needs so the job fell to his shoulders.  But he was an artist.  In what spare time he could muster,  his tools of trade were his farm tools.  He soldered and hammered and bent and polished nails and machine parts and screws and metals.  He is a memory with his goggles and blow torch.   He was a commissioned sculptor and his work still stands.  Other brothers met their creative spirits on the city dumps to make bikes and radios and ham radio receivers.

Times change and new rules apply.  Safety measures must be adhered to and caution taken.  Still, we can work and find satisfaction in creative leanings.

The work of our hands still comfort when spirit struggles.  Do . . . and you will be shown how.

  click on photos to magnify . . .                                                                       (Veronica’s Pink Feather Fleet)