If you have followed my blog from the early years, you know that in my past life, I was a working artist. I produced a line of wildlife sculptures that I sold at art shows, in a San Francisco gallery, and on my own web site. But now that I have retired, I no longer want to be constrained by one product line, nor by having to please buyers.
In the last couple of years I have painted many pictures and created many sculptures in my mind using only my imagination. They cost nothing, and take up no space. Imaginary art is for my mind's eye only.
But, my fingers have not been as happy as they could be. I did a lot of gross needlepoint on plastic matrices with yarn, and found it somewhat pleasurable, but I have nothing left in our Alfa to cover. Well actually, I do have a dashboard cover over half-finished that I will complete soon, but after that I have no inspiration.
When making her Christmas wish list, my 47 year old scientist daughter mentioned wanting an adult coloring book. I first saw them many years ago at a high end hobby shop, but recently they had appeared by the rackfull at all of the craft and fabric stores. So buying one was easy.
When I went to pick one up for her, I was fascinated. Would this be fun to do? Should I get one for me too?
I did, and it has been the best new hobby I have ever tried!
I bought the same book for both myself and my daughter so that when I go back for another visit we can compare what we did with the same pages.
The book I chose contains "mandala" designs. There are over 60 printed on good quality heavyweight paper. Each design is almost eight inches in diameter. Some are light and airy, and some have much heavier outlines.
I also bought us each a set of fine point Sharpie pens, and have supplemented mine with some colored pencils.
These are a few I have colored:
Why is this the perfect hobby for an RVer? Because it takes up almost no room, besides the set of pens and the book. It takes hours to complete each design. Once finished, you can simply turn the page. No stuff to store, sell or give away! Well, I guess you could put your work on the refrigerator.
But really, the fun is in the doing!
I think coloring satisfies some of the same needs as knitting and quilting, but you don't have to buy and store yarns and fabric, nor do you have to find people who need blankets, scarves or sweaters.
So if you want to try something new, consider adult coloring books. The mandalas book costs about $10 at Michael's, and my first set of Sharpies was on sale at Staples for less than $15.
Anybody can do it!
