The Healing Power of Hand-Crocheted Blankets

I don't like making art unless I know to whom I will gift it to. I like to customize my art pieces to have the colors that the recipient loves. And then I use my creativity to make various textures and added elements.

In high school I made an award-winning ring for Dell Walden, the Dean of the boy's school Cranbrook (the girl's school was called Kingswood for middle school and high school until the administration merged the names to call it Cranbrook-Kingswood, and then later made the change to call the middle and high school for the boy's and girl's campus to be Cranbrook Schools). I measured his finger, sized 13.

I made a delicate ring that won 3rd place at the Pontiac, MI competition. I carved two pieces of Ebony, a very difficult wood to cut and sand, into a curve. I cut sterling silver pieces, two that mirrored each other, and made a tension setting. On top was a rectangle of sterling silver where I used a cabochon setting for an oval Onyx stone. After unexpectedly winning an award for the ring, I begged Dell to please give it back, and he complied.

The other two pieces were bracelets. One was a silver and bronze piece that were woven together and I stamped a neat and flat pattern on top. The other one was called "Chicken Bone Bracelet," that was made with sterling silver. I soldered clasps for the three chicken bones I used after eating the chicken from Kentucky Fried Chicken. I boiled the bones and painted them with clear nail polish to preserve them. Then, I cabochon set four garnets to symbolize the blood of the chicken. Michael Kaplan, CK 1992 with me, whom I bumped into at the Detroit airport, and who read books to me in French at the Cranbrook library because I absolutely loved his accent, made a funny comment about my chicken bone bracelet. It was something about how could such a nice person make such a grusome piece?

Unfortunately, I sold that ring along with the two bracelets at an auction house in Virginia Beach, VA when I was utterly desperate for money. I filled out the paperwork to sell them separately, but the auction house chose to sell the three pieces as set, and, sadly, I only received $10 from my amazing award winning fine arts jewelry which I used to purchase groceries.

Back to the blankets. I make them because crocheting them has a positive impact on my deep sleep score, so now I do the reverse. Now I make them to help my mental health and then later figure out to whom I gift them to. For example, I was thinking of donating one to a crisis center, but then my husband got invited to a birthday party from one of his soccer teammates. I decided to gift her the blanket and she loved it! She texted me a picture of her cat enjoying the blanket and I got a huge smile on my face.

What do you do that makes you relaxed?

Tell me in the comments 👇