I embarked on this Art Therapy journey from hearing other vets talking about using Art for therapy and how much it has impacted them on so many levels. Emotional, mental, invisible and visible wounds... I didn't understand it until I actually gave it a try for myself. I did painting, I love it and I'm ok at it but it wasn't my calling. Sketching, meh... I'm ok at it but there's no passion or inspi
ration in it for me. Photography, same as everything else. It was frustrating and discouraging. Then I remembered, back when I was a kid I used to save my money for the bead store and make all sorts of jewelry. And I actually sold some of it! Which I'm sure it was adults way of saying "oh bless your heart, that's adorable". LOL! 🤷♀️ Well, I decided to give it a try. Nothing else worked, out of allllll the different therapy methods, doctors, and medicine from the good Ole VA. So it DEFINITELY couldn't hurt to try. At first it was simple braids and stretchy bracelets. Then I decided that I needed to grow. Can't just be simple, that's not who I am. As I made these pieces I found myself able to focus like I haven't been able to do since... God only knows when. I was able to immerse myself in something that I was not only good at, but I was passionate about. Then I started to see the patterns. Not necessarily patterns in the jewelry but patterns in their style and colors in the different mind sets that I was in when I designed them and put them together. Now I've found that I can focus on one internal battle( or multiple depending on the situation) when I put them together and be free from worrying about outside and especially inside distractions. Also what someone else would like rather than making them to sell. I make them as an outlet and then I let them go. I can't keep it all. That is really hard because I've realized that I make so many things like physical objects as well as mental feelings sentimental. I worry about running out of materials... but that's really all I worry about through all this. I do custom pieces for people but they also have ALOT of heart and soul in them from inspirations. They give me a preference in color, style, topic of inspiration but I also ensure that I'm allowed "creative freedom" or else I'm not going to do it. I have no problem saying no. This will never be something that I necessarily do for profit. I have to charge because I use really nice materials. I'd love to donate one day but financially, as I'm sure yall understand, it is hard to keep up. It's hard... No, next to impossible for me to put a price on this stuff! Anyway. Thanks for taking the time. It's hard to explain the processes of an artist. Which I'm happy to be able to consider myself as now. 🇺🇸 God bless! ❤️
