A Brief Education on Crafts

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I have always been a crafty person. Actually, the word “artist” or “crafts” probably should have been my middle name. This is because I’ve dabbled in a wide variety of artistic endeavors my entire life.


I started drawing from the time I realized what a pencil and paper were. This evolved into making paper dolls for all my sisters. We not only had paper doll families, but whole wardrobes for each person in the family. These were usually drawn and cut out of lightweight cardboard, most likely cereal boxes, or something like that. I made the clothes on regular paper and used crayons to color everything.

As I advanced in school, art was my favorite subject. Here I had my hands in every media I could find, pen and ink, pastels, watercolor, acrylics and oils.

After I graduated, I became interested in things they didn’t offer in school, such as making glass beads using a torch and Gyotaku (the art of Japanese fish printing). I actually made the rounds of the fish markets and tropical fish aquariums to pick up any dead fish they had that I could use in my art. I collected seaweed from the ocean off San Diego. Most people thought I was so strange, but they were amazed to see my creations.

I still have a dress and skirt I made that has fish swimming on the bottom, and a wall hanging that I exhibited in a gallery in California. In fact, I still have frozen tropical fish and fish heads in my freezer at home. Now don’t say, “Yuck!” When I want to use them, I just thaw them out, and using acrylic paints, I paint them, using them to imprint my fabric. It’s rather fishy, but when finished all you have to do it wash them off and refreeze them for use later. Now, how many of you knew that?

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