The methods and processes seniors can select from to create pieces of hard art are as varied and ingenious as the people messing with them. To those seniors with a creative itch, breaking glass, playing with mud, and pounding metal objects represent some of the fun activities they can look forward to. We are talking about a big hobby here, and not needle point or jewelry making, though those are highly regarded crafts by some seniors. We are going to explore the ability to alter and reshape the earth’s natural elements. The choice of styles and final products are as varied as the elements themselves. Each element possesses picky-finicky properties that require specific treatment to bend, carve, mold, or position it. A thorough examination of this artisan’s dream is necessary.

Take Glass – Artisan wannabes produce their imaginative pieces using several equipment-demanding techniques. Glass tubes are bent and filled with neon gas. Liquid glass is heated, twisted and blown into various shapes, such as vases, ashtrays, or chandeliers. Sand and glass are arranged in designs and heated in a hot-hot kiln. Or, pieces of colored glass are cut or broken and used to create designs and illustrations for windows and walls, more commonly called stained glass … although few stains are actually applied.

The creative uses of glass are extensive, but most of these glass techniques require specific training and information, probably available at the local craft shop, a large work space, and plenty of band-aids.

Wood – Chosen from a countless number of available trees on earth and maybe the neighbor’s yard, is whittled, carved, chiseled, sawed, planed, turned on a lathe, routed, sand blasted, drilled, ground, sometimes chain sawed, or several other acts of deformation. Then it is sanded, burned, stained, painted, sealed, puttied, polished, waxed, and sometimes accessorized with another elements such as metal, glass, or clay, and finished to the artisan’s whim. And finally, glued, nailed, screwed, clamped, assembled, mounted, framed, or positioned, finally, to match the mental picture of the artisan.

Clay – Wet dirt, or more commonly, special mud, is an earthy material that is plastic when moist, fun to run fingers through, but hard when fired. It is used to create bricks, tiles, and pottery. Clay comes in a wide selection of colors. The artisan can throw the clay on a spinning wheel, mold it by hand and tools, trim it, and then form it into a vision inspired by years of lifestyle skills, that is, cast into a bowl, a pot, a wall hanging, or one more ashtray. Or it can be shaped into tiles to produce ceramics for a new shower wall or coffee table top by adding color, stains, chemicals, glaze, patterns, handles, metals, etc…. then fired in that hot-hot kiln.

Metal – Steel, tin, copper, bronze, aluminum, lead, and pewter are pounded, ground, bent, twisted, trimmed, filed, hack sawed, welded, molded, cast, glued, buffed, polished, painted, rusted, flushed in acid, or oxidized. The artisan uses these delicate techniques, often combined with one of the other craft techniques and materials described above, to create a range of creative fantasies, such as, jewelry, framed art, wall sculptures, gates, furniture (indoor and lawn), figurines, door knobs, mosaics, wind chimes, mobiles, another ashtray, and the list goes on.

Here it must be noted there is a fine line between Hobby and Mental Illness. A hobby is an activity or interest pursued outside one's regular occupation, etc. Mental illness is any of various disorders characterized chiefly by abnormal behavior or an inability to function socially, etc. Sorta close: Both are lonely pursuits.

Other pliable elements the aspiring artisan can play with are: Fiber – Baskets, tapestry and wall hangings, embroidery, quilts, clothing, accessories, but not ashtrays, which are created by weaving, looming, spinning, knitting, crocheting, dying, hand painting, and tie-dying, using cotton, silk, wool, linen, rayon, yarn, and maybe grass or reeds … so many materials and methods, and so many results. Sand – It can be blasted against any of the above metals, glass or wood to gouge out patterns. Air – Is infiltrated with any-color paint or dye, shot from a gun in the steady hands of a visionary, and aimed at a canvass, wall, T-shirt, vehicle, window, or any flat or round surface and creates images that range from futuristic nightmares to present day nightmares.

This is a summary of just a few hints for starter artisans. To be creative to the extreme requires creative tools. Off-the-shelf material and equipment will only carry the artisan’s imagination so far, and then ingenuity must develop new materials and tools to generate the picture projected in the inner eye. That is also part of the fun.

Why do any of this? Nobody has come up with a good rationale. But with so much time available to seniors, there are endless projects to pursue for fun. After all, as the much quoted Mark Twain said, “Work is a necessary evil to be avoided.” Being an artisan is a willful decision and doesn’t have many creative boundaries, or an age limit.

How to Have Fun with Retirement