Sunday, December 27, 2015

Crafts, Crafts and MORE Crafts!

My oh my...where DID the time go between the last post and now?  Ollie can tell you.....
Mom has been crafting on full throttle!  And Ollie has been right there watching and learning.

Most people think of November through December as holiday season.  For those of us in the Craft & Hobby Industry (and also illustrators who license art on retail products,) November through December is actually "trade show prep time".  When the calendar changes to the new year, we are packing to fly off to the first of several trade shows that pepper our life from January through May.

Needless to say....it has been nonstop creative!

Ollie LOVES whenever I do creative work.  He soaks up all the happy energy and is very interested in all the stuff that happens when I put on my "maker" role as a professional designer within the Craft & Hobby industry. Out come all the inks and glues and paints and all kinds of bright colorful STUFF! Amazingly, Ollie doesn't try to touch anything unless I give him the go ahead.  I'm ok with him playing with extra buttons and feeling felt and fleece and other safer items, but scissors, paint, glue and hot heat tools and glue guns are absolutely forbidden!

So, why would a curious parrot not want to be in the middle of all the creative chaos when I'm crafting?  The answer is actually simple.  He actually understands what "ow", "hot" and "don't touch" mean.  He has watched and listened and learned over the past 6 years of his life while we have trained and reinforced and commanded our dogs.  He experienced pain as a very young parrot when he had a freak accident that resulted in a chipped beak tip...and extreme pain.  "OW" has a very deeply ingrained unpleasant association. He also understands pain from our accidents and energy.  Hot food accidentally put in his bowl before it cools down enough also taught lessons about "hot"...and reinforced that meaning of pain.

Because he trusts and respects pain, he is allowed to enjoy hours of watching me create.  The reward reinforces why he should respect my telling him to NOT touch something....to NOT climb onto the crafting table...and to NOT grab something from my hand.

Ollie is my  true crafting buddy.   And a smart little parrot!

Do you have someone that is with you when you work on creative projects?



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