We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Grace Sharp. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Grace below.
Grace , sincerely appreciate your selflessness in agreeing to discuss your mental health journey and how you overcame and persisted despite the challenges. Please share with our readers how you overcame. For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.
Struggling with mental health issues, not only presents challenges in my personal life, but professional too. Tasks become overwhelming, small mistakes seem catastrophic, and everything is exhausting. Despite this, I have learnt that in order to live through this, I cannot put too much pressure on myself; If I can’t do something at that time, then that’s OK. Pushing myself too hard causes too much stress and frustration, which is incredibly unhealthy, and ultimately makes everything worse. There is no shame in allowing yourself to have a break. Moreover, I found that some relief is found if I channel my emotions into my work, expressing what I may struggle to vocalise through a physical medium.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I consider myself a craft practitioner, specialising in Glass Blowing. With an innate interest in exploring colour and form, I use glass and its fluidity in order to convey and express different emotional states and experiences. The ever-changing state and unknown elements that come with hot glass lends it’s self perfectly to exploring these themes, which is one of the main reasons that resulted in me becoming interested in glass as a medium initially. As well as this, I have recently started making more whimsical creations, glass objects adorned with illustrations of a variety of things I find enjoyable, doing this just allows me to create art I enjoy, without thinking about a bigger impact.
Working with glass as a material is incredibly exciting as you are working hands on with a raw material and creating objects from nothing but a blob of molten glass. It is also an incredibly unpredictable material, mistakes and breakages are common, but this allows you to learn to overcome perils and not become too precious about what is happening. Furthermore, it is a traditional, longstanding craft, that is considered endangered, therefore carrying on the traditional skills is incredibly fulfilling, even more so considering it is also a highly male dominated career.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Looking back at my journey, I believe that the three qualities that aided me the most were:
Persistence to improve my physical skills and techniques,
Innovation,
and
Being realistic with my expectations.
These qualities allow me to continuously work towards self improvement, in my life and career.
Physically improving skills that allow me to be a better creator improved my work, and thus my confidence in my creations and therefore myself. Which is also aided by having realistic expectations, pushing your boundaries is a good way to improve what you do, but if you push too hard, it can become counterproductive and disheartening.
Learning this will definitely allow you to work better, and live a more fulfilled life.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
When overwhelmed, I find it most helpful to allow yourself to rest, taking a break is essential. Spending time with friends, in nature, just doing something enjoyable, is such an effective method to de-stress, even when it feels like too much.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.gracesharpglass.com
- Instagram: @g_e_glass
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