Crafting & Depression

With the change in seasons for most people brings along Halloween costumes, cozy sweaters, hot chocolate and thoughts of Thanksgiving and Christmas. For others, there's a lack of bright sunshine, bringing on a different feeling - seasonal depression.

I find it difficult to work in the summer because I don't have air conditioning, but I have no small amount of creativity. My brain is moving a million miles a second and the real world just can't keep up. I'm out at the beach with my husband and daughter, thinking up new things to create miniature versions of.

I've got a love-hate relationship with the seasons. I'm uncomfortable, drained but creative in the summer months and in the colder months I'm comfy and able to actually work, but I'm depressed and find it harder to accomplish anything.

My advice is thus: switch your game. If you normally work on making fantasy things, switch to horror this month. If you normally work on 1:12 scale, switch to 1:24 this month. If you normally work with your hands, make something digital. Switch your focus.

I've been making digital collage sheets lately and taking a break from making physical miniatures and it's been helping. Teaching myself to use the free program Gimp so there's no cost to me in buying Photoshop (yes, I know I could just download it, but I'm not advocating that - give Gimp a try if you're new to image editing).

I've been making things I know I can use in my own room boxes and scenes and putting them in  my Etsy shops, in hopes that other people can get some use out of them as well. It's definitely a nice change and I still get that sense of accomplishment of finishing a "craft", even though it's digital.

So change your view if you're feeling out of sorts, if it's weather related or not. See if it helps. Do something a little different and try out something new, teach yourself something different.