Wreath Making
The 'Artist' and one of his carers enjoy doing crafts together. Lots of these crafts seem like they are too intricate for him to do, but he has great concentration, and loves to make things. Craft is a great way for us to understand him better; we can begin to work out how he is interpreting the world around him. Whenever the 'Artist' creates people, like in his Pictures to Ponder work, he has already thought about who they are; he doesn’t have much of an imagination so he makes people that he knows, and really sympathises with their situations.
He started making these wreaths five years ago, when he moved into his own flat, and had made them each year he has lived there. We don’t know why it is, but he loves making these wreaths: we think its to do with ownership. He can make a wreath that he hangs on his front door. For him, Christmas is a time of uncertainty, he doesn’t like the lack of routine, and everything changes; people’s moods are different, he isn’t doing what he usually does, there are lots of surprises, and he gets presents. He doesn’t like receiving presents because he doesn’t know what is in them. His mind works in a very different way to ours, so we don’t know this for sure but, he makes a wreath every year which gives him a routine, which is what we think he loves so much about them. At the start of December he always makes a new wreath for his door, which gives him the certainty he needs.
The method of making them is very simple, His carer uses flower oasis for the base, sets out everything needed and lets the 'Artist' do the creating. It takes a lot of concentration for Paul to stand up, so he sits down at a table whilst he works. Everything is set out in an organised way which will make sense to him, so that this activity is simple and straight forward. With little assistance he can take pride in what he has done as he has done it all himself, which again gives him ownership.
Its simple things in the 'Artist’s' life that make him tick, but when he finds something he enjoys, we definitely know, we just don’t always understand why.
