Nora was a lady who had experienced a spell of serious
depression. She was 68 years old and lived with her husband.
She was a retired teacher and had taken on responsibility
all her life. She chaired several committees and continued
to do this when she retired as well as taking on more things
to fill her days.
Nora began finding it difficult to cope. She started having
difficulty sleeping; she could not concentrate and started
experiencing strange beliefs which she found frightening.
Her GP prescribed anti- depressants which made things worse
and she eventually spent eight months in hospital. She was
discharged back home and was visited by a community psychiatric
nurse. She was also referred to STAA as she mentioned that
she enjoyed taking part in craft groups when she was in the
hospital.
Aims of the sessions: To improve Nora’s confidence and self esteem, to assist Nora in developing a new hobby, to engage Nora in as pleasurable activity
What happened in the sessions?
Nora was really interested and willing to learn new skills.
She was very much focused on learning a ‘new hobby’
which she wanted to feel confident enough to carry on when
the artist was not there to support her. Nora remembered trying
the technique of batik in hospital- a process where hot wax
was poured onto fabric to form a ‘resist’ and
then paint was added. Nora wanted to try this at home as well
as trying silk painting. Nora worked with textile artist Susan.
She enjoyed the experimentation with batik but it meant a
lot of preparation and clearing up afterwards.
After five sessions Nora decided she would like to try some
less messy techniques. She tried silk painting, tie dye and
also card making and enamelling where she could work in her
other room and leave work in progress out to come back to
at other times. A comment from Nora after session 6: “I
am learning more every week and feel I am making progress”.
Nora enjoyed learning the basics and did a number of test
pieces before choosing to work on a larger piece using the
silk painting techniques she had learnt. Nora painted a delicately
coloured silk scarf incorporating a Celtic design. She was
very proud of the scarf and thrilled that she had accomplished
a piece of a high standard. She was able to work on the silk
painting with confidence between the artist’s visits.
To further ground Nora in silk painting techniques a second
block of 10 sessions were provided once a fortnight so that
she could still get the reassurance of an expert’s input
as well as experiment on her own.
Susan provided Nora with mail order catalogues where she
could order materials and Nora began using her silk painted
pieces combining them with card making to make silk painted
cards.
Nora increased her skills and competence and her confidence
in her abilities grew. Her creativity flourished in the silk
painting media which she happily declared was a very enjoyable
creative outlet for her. She was thrilled to have the sessions
and really appreciated them. She enjoyed Susan’s company
and talking to her about art related things.
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