Do you have a desire to explore your creativity but also a fear of calling yourself an "artist"? Do you wish you were more creatively fulfilled but fail to take time for yourself to just create? Are there emotional issues blocking your creative side? Crochet can help! This simple and easy-to-learn craft can be used in unique ways to get in touch with your inner artist, explore and eradicate your deepest creative fears and restore balance to your personal life.
About the Project
In my popular book Crochet Saved My Life I shared information about the mental and physical health benefits of crochet. Now I want to take it to the next level by helping people learn how to use crochet to heal, improve their daily creativity and enhance their total quality of life. This is going to be done through a new book of creativity exercises as well as the development of online classes and creative email support.
More Details
Hook to Heal with have three core products all coming out in 2013:
- Creativity Exercises Book. My next book, due out 10/1/2013 is a book of creativity exercises for crocheters. It will show how crochet can be used to achieve mindfulness, release artistic fear, push to the next level of creativity, celebrate life and more. Many topics of creativity will be explored in this book that challenge you to find new ways to craft yourself to wellness.
- 12 Week Online Creativity Classes. Beginning in the fall I will also be launching online creativity classes. These will be weekly classes with chat/ video components that offer detailed lessons and guidance exploring the core ideas presented in the Hook to Heal book.
- One-on-one Email Support for Crochet Creativity. I am going to take the lessons that I've learned about using crochet to get deeper into your creative self. I'll be your personal creative crochet coach armed with hooks to help you get to the next stage of your personal growth.
Hook to Heal is a comprehensive program for people who want to use crafting to better their lives. However, each of the three parts will be available on their own so you don't have to commit to the total plan if you don't want to.
A Self-Published Project
When I wrote my last book, Crochet Saved My Life, I decided that the right thing to do was to self-publish and I was so glad that I did. This has allowed me to make the book available to more people in more formats than may have been available with a traditional publisher. I want to continue self-publishing because I think it helps me give the most back to my crochet / creative community. However, self-publishing is expensive and that's why I need funding to help get Hook to Heal off the ground.
I honestly need about $10000 to fully complete this project and I'll be exploring several sources for that funding but I'm asking for a modest $2000 from this campaign to get things started. Here is what the money will be used for:
- The time required to complete to complete both the book and the lesson plans for the online classes. I have been self-employed for about 10 years and doing this project means dropping other time-consuming projects that pay the bills.
- Photographer fees. This is going to be a photo-rich, creatively-inspiring book and that requires a professional photographer.
- Publishing fees. Self-publishing means putting out some money up front to get copies of the book ready (plus the pre-publishing editor fees, etc.)
- Web / tech fees. I'm fairly web savvy but I can't do it all on my own so some of the tech/website details are handed over to my awesome tech consultant who deserves to be paid for his work!
- Education for teaching online classes. I either need to hire a videographer or take classes that will help me make sure that I can deliver the highest quality online classes. Either way, a fee is involved.
What You Get
I wouldn't ask people to support this project if I couldn't give them something in return. The people who help fund this campaign will be the first to get the products that are produced including digital and print copies of the book, enrollment in the online classes, personal email support and more. Plus you can get advertising for your own stuff through my popular website. Big donors can even get a week of one-on-one creativity lessons with me! Or you can be generous and gift others with this program. See the donor perks for this project to get the specific details.
The Impact
I learned from the response I got to Crochet Saved My Life that people are hungry to learn how to use crafting to heal in ways both small and large. The lessons I've learned from these people are so touching, as they've shared stories with how crochet has helped them through depression, grief, chronic pain, serious mental illness, age-related memory loss and more.
The great thing about crochet is that it's an affordable, portable, easy craft that almost anyone can learn. Supporting this project means that you are supporting:
- A traditional craft
- Self-improvement through hands-on activities
- Creative growth for people of all income levels
- An indie author and female entrepreneur (that's me!)
One goal of Hook to Heal is that it will eventually have a non-profit component offering classes and support to people in need including foster youth teens and people in the mental health system. I hope to launch this aspect in early 2014.
Other Ways You Can Help
This campaign accepts donations as small as $1 and every little bit helps. If even that is too much right now, I totally understand. Some people just can’t contribute cash, but that doesn’t mean they can’t help. Here's how:
- Spread the word about this campaign. Use Indiegogo's share tools and it's easy! Blog about it, share it on social media , spread through word of mouth
- Ask someone you know to sponsor your contribution. You never know who may want to help you improve your creative life.
- Visit Crochet Saved My Life to learn more about the health benefits of crafting.
Thank you so much for your kind support!
