Photo by Freepik: https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/medium-shot-girl-being-creative_16577953.htm
Crafting is a fun way for parents and children to bond and express themselves. For children, crafting can be a fun way to express their creativity and emotions while helping them develop crucial skills. Crafts for adults can do the same while also being an outlet for stress and an opportunity to spruce up the home. Regardless of age, eye care is a crucial aspect of crafting that often goes unnoticed. Paying attention to your eyes and other factors that can affect them can ensure health and comfort in the long term. Here’s how kids and adults can care for their eyes while crafting:
Wearing the right eyewear
Crafting often involves a lot of close-up work and precision to make something aesthetically pleasing or functional. As such, wearing the right eyewear can help both adults and kids see what they’re doing clearly. Glasses can help if you have refractive errors like myopia or astigmatism, which blur your vision and make it difficult to see. Not wearing them can cause you to squint or strain your eyes, making crafting more uncomfortable and painful.
You can upgrade your glasses by exploring the vast options online, which can make finding a comfortable and stylish pair easy. Eyebuydirect features frames like the Romy and Vinyl that are affordable, fashionable, and can be customized to suit your vision needs. If you have presbyopia, you can upgrade your lenses to progressive or bifocal ones, helping you focus on near tasks like crafting. Kids’ glasses like the Piano and Snap models are also available, and children can choose from and enjoy the wide range of styles and colors that can encourage them to wear them while crafting and in their daily lives. A pair of glasses can make a big difference in comfort and clarity when working on your craft projects.
Pay attention to lighting
Lighting is often ignored when it comes to eye health, but it plays an important role in caring for your vision, especially when you’re crafting. Proper lighting is a must for comfort, safety, and even productivity. Working in an environment that is too light or too dark can strain your eyes and make crafting more uncomfortable.
Adults may be able to adjust to varying lighting conditions, but children might have a harder time, and that can affect their developing eyes. Crafting in a room with a lot of natural light is ideal for the most comfortable experience. You can also control the amount of light that enters the room with blinds or curtains. Task lighting can also help illuminate your crafting area if the room lacks natural light. Desk lamps like the BenQ MindDuo 2 are designed with eye care in mind; the technology can prevent direct light from angling into a person’s eyes. Light settings can be customized to adjust to the environment and your preferences. They also boast a child-friendly design so kids can operate the lamp easily when crafting. Pay attention to the room’s lighting before working on a project to keep strain and fatigue at bay.
Take regular breaks
Crafting requires you to look at your work up close for a long time, but since you’re constantly focused on a near object, you can experience eye strain or fatigue. Children may be more affected by this as well, as their eyes are still developing. Constantly doing near-focused tasks can impact their eye development and lead to vision issues.
Regular and frequent breaks can allow adults and children to rest and refresh their eyes while crafting. You can follow the 20-20-20 rule, which is often encouraged for screen time. This involves looking at an object 20 feet away for 20 seconds every 20 minutes, helping your eyes refocus on something other than your work. You can also take a longer five-minute break every 25 or 30 minutes. During this time, you can drink water, take a walk around the room, blink or close your eyes, and do other activities to offer relief. You can set an alarm to remind you when it’s time to step away and when you can come back.
Check out Burlap and Blue for more craft ideas and tips.