Get Your Hands Dirty

The Untold Therapeutic Secrets to De-stressing Your mind!

Meet the original Jack of all trades, master of all! That’s right – Dewunmi Alugbin, Partnerships Manager at the Tony Elumelu Foundation seems to know, be and do-it-all. From dressmaking to Papier-mâché, gift wrapping to art acrylic! In this interview, we talk to her about working with her hands and her motivations for pursuing such diverse, multilayered choice of hobbies.

Enjoy!

We know you as the Partnerships Manager for the Tony Elumelu Foundation. But You are also quite dexterous with gift wrapping. Tell us: What else can you do?

I don’t think I can list everything I can do. I am naturally inquisitive, and there’s nothing that has piqued my interest or excited me that I have not dedicated time to learning. I am a generalist – so typically that saying – jack of all trade, master of none? That’s me. Except the metaphor is much more than that. It also means you can do many things as opposed to just being good at one thing. I believe that when you stretch your brain you will conceptualize things differently. You become more creative about solving problems you come across.

How did you first discover your interests in gift wrapping?

Gift wrapping is one of the things I enjoy doing, but it is not my sole interest. As a crafter, my interests range from paper Mache to paint acrylic and art pouring. There are so many mediums in crafting that you can engage in. Gift wrapping just happens to be one of them. Growing up, I was always the person interested in the packaging – in the painstaking detail of concealing the surprise. The process allows my brain slow down and focus on the creative task. It is one of the ways I learned to de-stress, because in that space, I don’t think about the pressure of everyday life.

How are you able to balance a very involved career life with such a time-eating hobby?

Crafting requires so much singular focus on one thing, even when the task appears mundane. If you are making a tassel for instance, the only thing required will be to wrap the yarn around the tassel. So while I do lead a very busy life at work, crafting is one thing I make time for to clear my head e.g. during weekends, you might find me making something simple, or maybe bringing out my sewing machine, make a skirt or edit something I already own – that actually makes me create a balance. Right now, it’s a hobby, a very welcome hobby, and as much as I would like to do more with it, if all I did was focus on craft, the therapeutic value would be lost.

How have these skills helped you in your personal and professional life?

Like I said, crafting provides me an escape from everyday life. When you have to shut down your brain to concentrate on one mundane task, it helps you quiet the noise and focus – sometimes that quiet helps you get clarity on other side. The other thing is love languages which has become a buzzword now but the way I show my own care to my loved ones comes in the form of gifting.

When I take time to put together a gift, when it is wrapped with love and care and presented, and you see the person’s response like wow. In that moment, you realise you’ve shared something with someone, you’ve made them happy, they in turn have made everyone happy.

In this age of industrialisation and automated production, is there still a place for handcrafted expressions?

Absolutely! I am however not blind to the implications of the 4^th industrial revolution, e.g. at a friend’s wedding where I handcrafted a few items in a very short time, with people working on different things we were able to produce a hundred wrapped gifts. So yes, industrialisation and automation may help if you are looking to produce in large quantities. However, this is just a hobby where I am able to craft or give someone for a specific purpose. In that sense, I am not in competition with automated products.

What is the most sentimental thing you’ve made?

Every gift I craft or make has its level of sentimentality and one is not more than the other. I do think what makes each one different is the recipient. The way the people take it, how awe-struck they are. In my case, people who have shown the most depth of appreciation are people who did not really see me as multi-dimensional. I mean, there are people who see you and say “ oh you don’t know your way to a kitchen, so when you are coming and say, oh I made this candle for you, or this bag charm for you, people are usually surprised.”

However, I have some special memories of hand-crafted experiences, like this case: It was my mum’s birthday and I was probably like 10 years old. We were living in New York and the tailor who was meant to make her Iro and Buba disappeared. My mum panicked – and bear in mind that this was not the age of YouTube where I could find how to make a dress online. Also, like I mentioned, I was 10. So, I took an old Iro and Buba that she had and took it apart, then following the same pattern, I made an Iro and Buba for my mum. To me it seemed logical that we needed an Iro and Buba and I could make it by hand. The moment I finished and presented it to her, she became so happy. Till today, she talks about it and that was also the moment she went and got me a sewing machine. The interesting part is, the moment she got that sewing machine, I lost interest.

If you could pick another skill in six weeks, what would it be?

Hmm, that’s a tough one because my brain does not really function in a linear way. Let’s suspend beliefs and say I could acquire the skill set within the a six-week time frame; I would want to learn how to fly a plane. If I could do it in six weeks, that would be what I would dedicate my time and energy to.

What advice do you have for busy executives who want to learn a skill but don’t have the time?

There are some skills that are more attainable and feasible than others. My first advise would be to start small. Figure out the one thing your current activities or job will enable you engage in. For instance, if you decide you want to learn how to make beaded jewelry in six weeks, you can do that. It depends on your approach. Also, in this age, there is no excuse for not utilising online resources to learn anything you want to learn. You don’t need to go to the market, you can take the courses online. Ultimately, when you are done with that, you will be very happy with yourself knowing we were able to squeeze out something from that time frame. As a generalist who is a master of many things, I would encourage these busy executives to try something else. Figure out how much free you time have, figure out why you want to learn this thing and map yourself accordingly