A New Year's resolution: Art therapy as a hobby

Art therapy is a specific direction of psychotherapy, which is based on the creative activity of a person. It is based on the use of fine art to help a person who has found himself in an anxious or problematic situation for a long or short time.

In order for the therapy to work it's not important to have certain skills or talents. All you need is to be patient with yourself. In this article, we will list 6 ideas, which can bring you joy and long-lasting therapeutic effect.

1. Calligraphy

Calligraphy is the art of beautiful writing. If you think that calligraphy is just hieroglyphs, you are wrong. Letter signs can be elevated to the rank of art in Cyrillic, Arabic script, and Hebrew. And it's always more than drawing. Calligraphy is pure creation and zen.

Inspiration?

calligraffiti.nl is the site of one of the most popular calligraphers and street artists, Niels Möhlmann, known as Shoe. He is considered the inventor of the calligraffiti style.

2. Kanzashi

Kanzashi is a traditional Japanese hairpin ornament for women. Here this term has acquired a new meaning - kanzashi - and a new meaning. Kanzashi is a handicraft technique that creates beautiful hairpins, brooches, and other jewelry. In case you want to try and make something in this direction, you need a few satin ribbons, a candle or lighter, and a needle and thread.

3. Doodling and Zentangle

This activity will be a perfect fit for those who start scribbling as soon as they pick up a writing instrument. This is an irrational style of drawing that develops memory and creativity, as well as an independent form of contemporary art.

Get your Zentagle inspiration from Pinterest here.

Find many more pattern ideas here.

4. Drawing on the water with the Marbling technique.

Have you ever explored bizarre shapes from the clouds in the sky and thought what do they look like? Then the Marbling hobby is a good idea for you: a pattern is created on the water surface with insoluble paints, and then transferred to paper, fabric, or any surface. It turns out very unusual and beautiful, and the process is truly mesmerizing.

There are two main techniques for marbling: Persian ebru and Japanese suminagashi. The first is dominated by abstract patterns, while the second is dominated by circular patterns.

5. Handmade decorating your clothes

Despite all the technological breakthroughs, the appearance of incredible opportunities that a computer can provide us with, the old good "hand-made" is still an option. It just became even more popular and more accessible. Now you can buy almost everything you need to create a cool print with your own hands and make your clothes unique. The how-to video guides are also available now all over the Internet.

For example, explore 20 clothes decor ideas here.

6. Gingerbread house decor

This hobby will do best for those, who love to cook and paint. These two things can be combined while painting gingerbread with icing (special sugar icing).

Build and decorate a different gingerbread project every year. All you need is 1 egg whites, 1 cup icing sugar sifted, 2 drops liquid food coloring and you are good to go! Alright, maybe there is more, but it always depends on what you are making. Find a great recipe here.

We hope you enjoyed the article and keep in mind, Pinterest is a great source of inspiration for all sorts of hobbies!