If you follow me on social media at all, you've seen lately that I launched a new line of Viking-inspired candles. I've been making them for several months now, but finally decided it was time to take it public.
It's not truly "Viking" if there's not a weapon of some sort somewhere.
The official line title is Shieldmaiden Candleworks, so feel free to check it out. I'll post the links to both stores at the end of this article. What I really want to talk about is why I've decided to go in this direction.
I spend quite a bit of time wrangling wee ones, and when I'm not doing that, I'm generally doing something on the computer (most of the time something creative, sometimes not). I enjoy and love both of those facets of my day, but I think there's an essential part of my process that was missing something.
Freya's Favor
That missing ingredient was creating something with my hands. I enjoy painting and drawing, and other creation of that sort; but doing something with our hands that doesn't require such cerebral contemplation is, I think, a pretty important part of being human that it's increasingly easy to miss out on. So I started making candles, and I'm really loving it.
The more automated our lives get, the harder it is to reconnect with the "maker" facets of our personalities that, until the industrial revolution, were a universal part of the human experience. That need to create and work has stayed dormant within, in my opinion, and I wonder if some of the listlessness many of us feel in the modern age is a result of missing out on that hands-on, physical experience.
Mist on the Fjord
I'm not saying doing things on computers isn't important. I'm not saying that people are living their lives wrong, or admonishing. But again, there's so much clutter and chatter to get lost in during the modern age, I think creating physical objects is something that we may not realize we aren't doing, but we can tell we're missing something.
I certainly know it's true of me. Having a craft that requires me to think, that shows me physical accomplishment, that I can share with others, and that I can replicate....well, it's definitely made a part of me that was dormant feel alive. And I'm happy to have the chance to share that with others.
If you are interested in seeing the fruits of my labor, go to:
www.shieldmaidencreative.com/shop or www.etsy.com/shop/shieldmaidencandles