Hobbies: The satisfaction of doing

Making something from nothing

My mother used to make lampshades. Mostly hand-stitched silk shades with fringe. They're beautiful. She also did a turn with paper shades featuring cutouts as well as vintage florals, butterflies, and birds collaged on parchment papers.

She no longer makes shades but still has the vintage papers. When she and my sister were clearing things, they asked if I might be interested in them.

Yes, please.

While I usually use painted sheet music in my collage work, I'm really enjoying the challenge and change of working with different materials.

I'm not sure if it's a fanciful flower or butterfly floral? Doesn't really matter, I can't stop.

Yesterday I created more. And in the process relished the satisfaction of making.

For well over an hour I sat snipping papers, switching one flower for another, digging deep into the pile of papers, tilting my head from left to right to analyze the layout before settling on the best possible arrangement, then gluing things in place.

It took most of the afternoon before I talked myself into sitting down at my desk to get started, and am so glad I finally got there.

Of course gluing papers in place may not be your idea of fun, but whatever it is, I encourage you to sit down, stand up, or do whatever it takes to get going. I think you'll be glad you did.