Ritual. We all follow some ritual or other at some point in our lives. The illustration above is a representation of an ancient Druid rite, but it could just as easily be of a wedding ceremony, a Bar Mitzvah, or a high roller having a pretty woman blow on his dice for luck in a casino.
When it comes to crafting, some of us just pull stuff out and get making things… and others have more or less elaborate rituals. Some have different kinds of rituals for different crafts, others keep to one ritual for whatever they’re doing.
My rituals? Well, they’re pretty much the same for lacing or needle felting, though there’s less set up involved for the felting. In either case, I make sure I’ve got plenty of elbow room while seated on the couch, get all my equipment and materials laid out within easy reach, put a drink nearby but in a spot I’m unlikely to jog with an errant elbow, put something amusing on the television (most often a film or a marathon of a series I like, but never, ever the news because it’s not relaxing for me), take a deep breath, let it out, and get going.
Most of these things I can easily explain in practical terms. Who wants to have to put aside a heavy bobbin lace pillow to run down another ball of thread? I quickly get bored when things are too silent around me, hence the entertainment. If I don’t put a drink nearby, I’ll forget about eating or drinking until I’m in a pretty dire place.
But that breath? No explanation. And yet I do it every time, whether I’m alone or in public. It’s pure ritual. It just seems to ground me and allow me to work.
So what about you? Do you have any rituals you follow? Do they differ depending on what you’re doing or not?