Hello and welcome to Aly Art Creations. It’s great to have you here checking me out!
My name is Alyson Sim, I’m a delightfully maturing lady with bright orange hair, and yes that’s right, orange hair! Years ago very few people dyed their hair, except for the mature blue rinse brigade, who didn’t quite want to admit to being pure white or silver coloured. Now it’s commonplace, it’s great, finding new freedoms as we grow in years.
I diverse!
So what is the site all about? It’s about finding that you don’t have to be limited by anyone else’s words or actions regardless of your age. Mmmmmm, what do I mean? Well here goes, I’ll make it short, don’t worry!!
I was born in 1963 (Yes, you can work out my age, lol!), in Paisley, Scotland, the youngest of three, my brother Alan, 13 years older and my sister Sheila, 10 years older, so I was what you called an accident back then.
Anyway I did say I would keep it short!
So I grew up, went to school, always told I was a plodder, a late bloomer. You know the kind of stuff teachers and parents say when you’re not as clever or good at something as others are.
I remember getting a Blue Peter award for a painting I did in primary. I was ecstatic. However. disappointed too, that I never got a coveted Blue Peter badge. Those of you from the UK of my age group, understand!!
1st year, secondary school, Art Class. Now, you have to realise that my brother Alan, had left school and gone onto Art School and he was getting raving reviews. I loved it when he painted dragons on brown paper kites and we went to fly them, (Rabbit Hole, again! I’m good at that, lol!)
So here I come, I have the same art teacher! Great, no, an absolute NO! She was lovely mind you but, after seeing my attempt at drawing/painting, she suggested that we find something else for me to do with my time in Art Class and so I made my very first puppet. I still remember it clearly to this day. I modelled it on one of my science teachers, it had a bald paper mache head, a big nose, he was dressed in a navy blue suit, white shirt and red tie and I even gave him a pair of legs. He was pretty cool to me, even if I say so myself! So that was the end of my art days. Drawing/painting, I’ll leave that one to my brother! (Who, by the way now owns his own restaurant, in California, USA, who would have thought?).
And so with the passing years, and running children’s groups, I learned how to be creative, but left the nasty painting and drawing stuff to others.
However, I think God has a sense of humour!
So here we are, everybody expecting us to know all about art, Nahdah, not one iota! I remember Linette encouraging me to try. No way! I remember my childhood all too well. I can do admin, encourage and pray for folk, help wherever it’s needed, anything other than ART! Aaarrrrrrrggggg!
So roll on a few years and Linette is running a totally different workshop, close to where we live and it’s on making wire trees. Malcolm, my enthusiastic husband, suggests that we should go and make it part of our Christmas present to each other. HaHa, he’s having a laugh but I decide to go along with him to support him, (ladies, you know how it is!). That was the February just before the first lockdown in March 2019.
Under the close supervision and help of my friend, Linette, I made my very first tree, here it is in the making. Doesn’t look much at this stage, it was a lot of work wrapping that tree, but I DID IT!!! I have a bare bones tree, now to fill it up!
I started to add coloured wires to my tree, wrapping them around the trunk and making each branch a different colour. I then raided Linette’s stash and found a butterfly, little jingle bells, some hearts, keys, cogs and other trinkets and added each one individually to the tree.
I was starting to have fun using my imagination and how to place the little bits and bobs. Linette was great, she just kept encouraging me.
Lo and behold I managed to finish my little tree by the end of the day. I was even able to add a string of rice lights onto it.
Here it is pride of place in our bookcase! Guess what I even went home and painted my butterfly, Tahdah! My finished little tree!
What about Malcolm’s tree, you ask? Don’t tell him I showed it to you!
So the moral of this story is, don’t let anyone else’s words rob you of your potential. You are created unique, there is only one of you, (aren’t you glad, lol!). Try, try and try again, find out what you like to do and do it!
Oh, and by the way, with all that plodding! I got an HNC in Biomedical Sciences, MSc in Cancer Research. I gave up being a Scientist to become a Reverend with a BA in Biblical Studies. Funny how life turns out!!!
Now I spend a lot of time making trees, I love the variety. Have a look at My blogs to see what else I’ve been up to!