6| feature| 18 | feature the / the standard| standard 2020 / oct 2020
Quarantine craze
Students share hobbies they picked up over quarantine
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t first, quarantine was viewed in a negative light, but as time went on, people began to adapt to the extra free time and began utilizing it to learn new skills and hobbies. With an extended summer break and a delayed start to school, students had more time to focus on their hobbies and pick up new skills. Senior Bailey Bowles refined her jewelry making skills and began her own business. In fact, through this new venture into the hobby and a business on Etsy, she said she’s planning on making $2,500 net profit by the end of the year. Bowles said the reason she picked up this hobby again was solely because she had extra time to do what she wanted. “I never really had time for it because I was balancing school and everything,” Bowles said. “Whenever I [start,] I really had to take a while just to sit down and learn again. And I never really had time to do that. And so a quarantine allowed me that time and now I just do it in between school and work.” Bowles said she began making jewelry because she had nothing else to do. With everything shut down, she was stuck at home and was forced to find an enjoyable way to spend her time. “I was so bored during quarantine that I
just wanted to try something new,” Bowles said. “I thought why not make earrings that I would wear today, so then I just started making them.” She said she first began to make clay jewelry when she was about 8, however she forgot most of the techniques and how to do it when she looked into starting again. She would repair her jewelry, but she never touched clay in recent years prior to her jewelry making endeavor. “I just learned the basics from YouTube, but you kind of just learn as you go,” Bowles said. “There’s not really any stone rules to it.” One challenge she came across was the holes. She initially punched out holes before she baked them, but the clay pieces would shatter when she tried to put the earring together. Learning from her mistakes, she now drills the holes after the clay bakes. Bowles makes everything by hand and with simple tools. She said she doesn’t use molds. “Flowers I mold together myself, and things like that. But I use cookie cutters to cut out the things,” Bowles said. “If I wanted to have a ton of flowers on it, I would lay out the clay … and then I would pick a cookie cutter and cut out the earring shape from that design.”
Senior Bailey Bowles writes a note expressing her gratitude to a customer for buying her earrings. Photo by Siri Chevuru.
Out of the many earrings she has made and listed, Bowles said her favorite by far is her leopard print earrings. She described it as a leopard print on a small circle inside a larger black circle. “It’s my first video to go viral and got like 150,000 views [on TikTok]. It was just fun,” Bowles said. “There’s a good memory to it.” Bowles is one of many students who took advantage of the time. Junior Faith Steiner spent her time learning to play the ukulele. Steiner is not new to playing instruments. She said she has already learned how to play the clarinet which has helped her in learning notes for the ukulele. Steiner said learning how to play the ukulele is a stepping stone to learning guitar. “I’ve kind of wanted to do it for a little bit,” Steiner said. “I’ve always wanted to learn how to play guitar, and that’s a little step toward that.” Steiner’s ukulele is no ordinary instrument; it holds a special meaning to her. It was gifted to her on her birthday a few years ago. “My grandparents got it in Hawaii for me and I love it because of the little dolphin [design on the guitar],” Steiner said. She said she began playing a few months
