I Lost My Creativity - FOUND IT!

 

I am getting the reputation of finding a purpose for old and sometimes broken stuff.  I don't think this thrills my husband as our garage has been full of projects for the majority of fall and winter including a cedar chest, a tree coatrack and 2 very large mirrors that I was gifted from someone on Nextdoor.  It took me a lot of time to decide how I wanted to move forward with the mirrors, over five months from September to January. Travel followed by the holidays kept me busy, but when the calendar eased, my mind still could not think of what to do with the mirrors.

  Nourishing my spirit and my creative side can be daunting at times, but then a fresh wind hits my face and I have been recharged. This is what happened to me when I was wrapped in the warm weather of the western Caribbean on a recent cruise. I had little to know motivation the month of January. I was tired from the holidays and the weaning of my Ocrevus infusion. Then I received my infusion and expected to be brought back to life with my “super juice”. I was surprised, confused and very let down when that didn’t happen. In fact, for the first time in 3 years, I did not bounce back. I was down for 4 days. I was exhausted and unmotivated. It was as if I was recovering from a severe case of the flu for days. I couldn’t even gather myself enough to pack. This was my 12th cruise, I know how to pack. Yet the night before our trip, 6 hours before we left for the airport, I was still checking the weather and packing and unpacking. This is not like me at all. I was worried about my stamina when I was completely spent our first day in New Orleans opted to sleep over a round of darts. I was thankful that after a slow start to our 2nd day, I was feeling my energy level lift.  By the end of the cruise with the help of the warm air and dose of natural vitamin D, I was more energized and my thoughts were less scattered. I even managed to listen to 2 books while on the cruise with little relistening to chapters. That is always a good sign that my brain is back online. Which means the return of my creativity. While I sat at the airport for our returning flight my mind was on rapid fire and I knew what I wanted to do with the mirror.

After my return, I jumped into the project.  The hexagon mirror was a part of a dresser at some point and it still had the wooden frame adorned with decorative swirliness around it's edges. First, I had to figure out how I would hang in on the wall.  I decided on a French cleat which is sometimes called a z bracket.  It is a system of 2  - 3 ft long metal fasteners.  One goes across the back of the mirror and one goes on the wall.  The mirror cleat fits over the top of the wall cleat.  As long as you get the wall cleat into studs and the mirror cleat is securely fastened into a wooden backing on the mirror, it is solid.  It is a heavy mirror and safety is my greatest concern.  With the fastening system I knew I needed a wood backing. I didn't see any reason to recreate the wheel. I tried to carefully remove the swirl designs that were on the bottom of the mirror, they were old a thin and broke into 2 pieces, but still in good enough condition to keep for a future project. I traced the mirror onto the wood frame before removing it.  At that point I used a jigsaw and cut at the markings on the wood, sanded and once it was correct with little to no frame showing, I painted the frame black and used adhesive caulk to attach the mirror to the  frame.  Shout out to my husband who helped me with the lifting of this monster.  He also placed the caulking on the mirror since my back was not agreeing with me at that time sensitive moment in the project. We allowed the caulk to fully dry for 48 hours, though once we attached the frame and the mirror together they were impossible to even adjust.

Now it was my time to try something new.  The mirror was scratched in several places that I wanted to camouflage it in a fun way.  I have seen textured painting in stores and museums and wanted to give it a whirl.  With nothing but my 8th grade art class and a few you tube videos, using drywall mud I made an attempt at 3 D art.  I decided on a cherry blossom tree using the trunk of the tree to follow the arch of the scratch in the damaged part of the mirror.  It took 3 days to complete the texture and the painting and I am very pleased with how the project finished.  

The frame was so large that I could not take a photo of it before
 hanging it on the wall of our guest/sewing room.

Reflection: Slow down!  I wanted to get this project completed for such a long time, yet I didn't really know what I wanted to do.  I became frustrated not having a vision which stopped my creativity all together.  Somethings require extra time to envision and complete.  That is okay.  I just need to set a limit on how much repurposing I commit to for time and especially storage space.  Maybe I need to find smaller repurposing projects.