My Crafty Spark - Amy at Badskirt

One year minus two days ago, I started my blog. But that's not where my craft adventure started. It started a few months before that. My friend Cindy lives in the US. Cindy and I went to grad school together to study visual effects. Then we worked together at film studios in California. I'm not sure that I'd call that crafty, but there a big art component to it. We made digital images pretty. We made movies you loved and more likely movies you didn't see. We looked at light, colour and composition. We made pixels, but nothing tangible. It was a craft, but in a different sense of the word. Cindy has always been creative and a maker of things, but I always came up short on the tangible side of things. I studied business. I programmed computers. I lost my creative edge. In February 2008, Cindy participated in A Thing A Day. I watched with envy as Cindy made 29 pieces for February and then some. I looked at my husband and said, "I want to do that. I want to make things." Fuelled with an energy to create, I headed to the local jewellry supply shop. I bought beads. I bought wire. I bought jump rings, and then I brought it all home. I sat on my couch and started to make. After a few hours, I failed to cobble anything together. My husband sat next to me and asked if he could try. He promised to take apart his disaster to recycle the beads. Craig's creations left me a little stunned. In 15 mintues, he had created a gorgeous necklace. This left me dumbfounded as I was still struggling to pair the bits. Feeling a bit defeated and deflated, I put the beads aside for another 8 months. Hot on the heels of my beading disaster, I launched into the idea of buying a sewing machine. That was March of 2008. Now I sew all of the time. I wasn't very good in the beginning, but I had moxie to carry me through. I launched my online store in October and poor Pip bought my very first softie for sale. I feel sad sometimes when I think about that first softie and how bad it was. Pip is inspiring, she's a crafty spark in herself and I want her to have the very best softie in the world. I don't make them good enough for Pip yet, so I keep sewing and smiling and enjoying craft. That's where my spark started. The photos are from my first month of sewing. Whatever your style or materials, I hope you like to make too. Amy Amy is a 35 year old American who has lived in Australia for 5 1/2 years. Her house has a loving husband, big sofa and a lot of soft toys. Amy now blogs at badskirt.