If you are reading my blog, you already know about my fear of flying. And you know my husband and I have to fly a lot. Oh, really a lot!
But the fear of flying is only one side of the coin.
The second side is my handmade business, which I am running even while travelling between continents. In airplanes, in airports lounges, in hotel rooms and Airbnb homes. Did you note the word “handmade”? It is the key which make things not easy, believe me! I am not only a business woman – organizing and selling things and writing ideas – I am making things. A big part of my luggage is always dedicated to my boxes with materials and I have my “travel work pack”. (One day I will write an article about it with a lot of funny pictures, I promise.) I also have stored materials and instruments in two continents – Europe and Australia. Which creates a problem with my money saving, because even if I don’t want to, I have to double almost everything – especially instruments.
The well known truth about colouring
Colouring is calming your mind. We all know this already. It is relaxing, a kind of a meditation. It is tickling our creativity no matter our age. Excluding the growing addiction for more and more markers, pencils and watercolour paints, there is nothing bad anyone can say about colouring.
In some moments our brains need some distraction. It is not true that we always have to be focused. Distraction is relaxing. It is “teleporting” us to a very distant place, calming our feelings and bodies. Very often distraction is the nest where the new birds of our ideas hatch and first see the light of a new day…
So, it is not surprising that airport bookstores sell so many colouring books. People really need them. And they are great not only for kids on the long flight or transit hours, they are great for people like me, who are scared of flying. Believe me, they work very well!
2 in 1
Part of my small handmade business is to create unique greeting cards for all kinds of different situations. I love my work! And prove every day that working your hobby makes your work amazing. You are always excited, always “burning” with ideas, always impatient to try something new.
This is the reason that, in my handbag, along with all my travel needs, I have a drawing notebook with good quality thick paper pages and markers and colour pencils. I am trying to mix 2 in 1 – colouring plus relaxing leading to creating an absolutely new “product” to help for my handmade business.
How it works
Before, I was travelling with stamping ink pad, acrylic block and some stamps too, but realised this is too much to carry. It is not very comfortable when the handbag, even the big one, is over-stuffed. Laptop, documents, light makeup (only a small pack of hydrating cream and face powder), small deodorant, small hand disinfectant, sunglasses, reading glasses, a book, a magazine… I can’t resist the craft magazines and books in the airport bookshops. If their managers knew about me, I believe, they would fill the shelves with all the craft magazines and books in the whole world, in all possible languages! And – ha ha ha! – I will always be paying excess luggage!
So even though I am trying to travel light, my handbag is full anyway. An ink pad, acrylic block and some stamps doesn’t help in this situation.
Because of this I started stamping the images I will want before leaving home. The day before the flight I set aside at least two hours to prepare the materials I will take with me and to do my stamping in the drawing notebook. After that the ink pad, acrylic block and stamps are going into my “travel work space” in my checked luggage. Only the notebook with the pencils and markers (plus one water brush) are packed in my travel handbag.
By the way, the person who invented the water brush is absolutely a Genius! Do you know his name? Chihiro Tanaka!
Flight time
And when the flight starts and the seat belt sign is switched off, I am starting to colour the stamped shapes.
Of course, you easily can see the places I’ve made during turbulence. Probably it is my shaking hand which is making these wonky outlines, but they are easily fixable with colour pencils later, in the airport lounge.
In the next picture you see my extra “helpers”…
… and the result in the end – greeting cards and gift tags for special occasions.
As you can see, all the elements are hand coloured and hand cut. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to have scissors on board aircraft, so the cutting comes later. But the is cutting is so wonderful when all these elements are already done.
So, if you have your own business, I am sure you know you can work anywhere. And these work space changes sometimes are also very inspiring. You can write, draw, compose music or create new models… and like me – use elements of your work to overcome the fear of flying.
