The Handcrafted Life- crafting the soul-filled life

“Weaver’s Daughter” Watercolor on Arches, Alisha K. Duckett

I recently, was introduced to the concept of the “handcrafted life,” and was intrigued with the idea of it. It goes something like this, a handcrafted life is based on how you envision your life unfolding. It takes a lifetime to accomplish because itis where you focus your creative energies every day.  It is a practice of  bringing the inner life into the outer life in your own unique way.

For me, art has been the bridge from the inner to the outer. The practice of painting, writing or crafting is where a piece of the inner is shone brilliantly for all to see. But, most importantly from my vantage point as the artist. Because as the artist, you work with what you’ve got. As is in the handcrafted life, you gather that which is available and ready to you. You pick up what works, and turn it into something that has relevance and meaning. Similar to stringing a necklace, gathering those odds and end pieces only to string together some type of beauty. It may not be the type that the outside world sees as beauty, but  it is beauty non-the less. Because it is yours to behold, working patiently, stringing piece by piece, the parts of yourself that you want to put out into the world. What is your gifts, or way of expressing yourself that will have relevance to the outside world? How do you want to make your mark in such a way that is not necessarily earth-shattering but rather quiet, thoughtful and on purpose with who you are?

I suggest taking up a craft. Because, every time you create you infuse a little bit of you and what is going on in your life into your work.  And if you have the discipline to tinker away at your work whatever it may be. What is important or beautiful to you is suddenly there not by accident but on purpose.  Because it was there all along, just waiting for you to take the time to become aware. It is just now that you were able to see it for what it is. You will then have that well-stained shirt that says you have attempted to make something from nothing and that IT matters!

The creative life is not pre-programmed and neither should our life feel that way. when a life is hand crafted you are able take that spontaneity from your heart  and art only to put it right back into your creative efforts  in life. A cycle of turning within , creating, holding it up, taking it in, only to start the process all over again.

When I painted “weaver’s daughter,” pictured above. I was inspired by the cliff dwellings of  the native tribes of the southwest and my time there. I learned that the people that lived there were weavers. The thought of weaving, one’s life from the inside out suddenly had great meaning.  So, I painted the “weaver’s daughter,” the one that takes thread from that land, dyes it from pigments from the earth and weaves a beautiful image or story. A story that had meaning for the craftswoman, and one that she wanted to pass down to her children and her children’s children. I love the idea that there is legacy or ancient wisdom that the weaver’s wanted to pass along to help their loved ones on their journey in life. Maybe, a story that steers them to look for the answers to life’s pressing questions from some deep resounding space within.  Only to weave the answers into a complete pattern that is a vision for the weaver and her crafting of the soul filled life.