The Left-Handed Scissor Saga

Are left-handed people really more creative? While science does not fully understand why some people end up left-handed, 10% of the population is left-handed. Some think genetics, prenatal brain activity, or the environment you grow up in determines handedness. While there may be disagreement on the origin of how you become left or right-handed, I am proud to say that I am left-handed and I am creative. While being left-handed is a unique trait, ask any lefty and they will tell you their struggles. Lefties live in a world built for the majority. Being left-handed might not seem like a big deal, but we have unusual struggles that we unknowingly overcome everyday.

As a kid, I was constantly coloring, drawing, making things with playdough, and was generally a creative youngster. Something I remember being the most frustrated with in elementary school art class was cutting with scissors. For a lefty, it is borderline impossible to cut anything, even paper, using right-handed scissors. Inevitably, there was one pair of left-handed scissors in the art room scissor box, but I had to dig for them and finding that one pair was like finding the golden ticket or a needle in a haystack. Sometimes I was lucky and had a great art class because I had found the only pair. More often than not, a right handed kid who didn’t know the elusive left handed scissors existed, would find them first. I would be left trying to use a right-handed pair, frustrated, annoyed, and feeling isolated. Some lefties even taught themselves how to cut with scissors using their right hand just to avoid the frustration. I never tried because it just didn’t feel right.

Scissors were not the only art tool that caused frustration. Lefties know that trying to write, draw, or color means your art will probably get smudged by the side of your left hand being drug across your piece. I learned to combat this by turning the page this way or that way to avoid my hand touching what I had just drawn. Also, sitting at the small round art tables elbow to elbow with my classmates meant that since I was left-handed, I was always bumping into someone’s right elbow or arm. How did I adapt to this? I tried to get assigned a seat at the trapezoid shaped table so I could sit on the left end of it, alas no more bumping. Again, something a right- handed student probably never thought about. Another frustrating tool to use was a tape measure or ruler. Imagine yourself trying to pull the tape out of a tape measure. If you are a right handed person you would hold the tape measure in your right hand and pull the tape out with your left hand. On the tape the numbers will be right side up and legible. Imagine for a second you are left-handed. You’re holding the tape measure in your left hand and pulling the tape out with your right hand, the numbers are now upside down. I have become so good at reading numbers upside down, I now consider it a skill.

Simply put, right-handed tools, especially scissors, do not work for a lefty particularly when learning to use them. This was mostly evident whenever I was working on a project that involved cutting fabric. I remember always feeling anxious prior to the cutting stage of my clothing projects. At times, I remember feeling frustrated that I could not see the outline of the pattern to cut around because my hand would cover it, thus resulting in a jagged cutting line, or a cut that was not on the edge of the pattern but a few millimeters outside of it. To make a decent looking garment, I needed to have properly cut pieces, especially one that was going to be judged at my local county 4-H fair.

Struggles or not I kept my creative spirit alive. I dipped my toes into many different forms of art as a teenager and young adult. Photography. Mixed media. Assemblage art. Collage. Paper craft and reclaimed lighting, to name a few. However, the sewing machine was always a looming presence in the back of my creative arsenal probably because fabric and textiles were always the medium I remember being the most frustrated with. I learned to sew when I was seven years old. My mom, who is right handed, taught me on the mint blue Singer sewing machine that my grandma taught her to sew on 30 years prior. Learning to use that sewing machine was another struggle I faced. The hand turning wheel, stitch length and pattern dials, needle position button, reverse button, and even the foot pedal were all on the right side of the machine. Also, this machine had a little tiny square piece on the left side of the foot pedal that your right big toe had to push down on to make the machine run, instead of the now more modern pedals that more closely resemble the gas pedal in your car. If I had tried to use my left foot on this old pedal, I would have had to use my left pinky toe to push it down. That would have resulted in a very strong pinky toe, but not a well sewn garment. Needless to say I quit sewing after I was done with 4-H, half of my lifetime ago.

All in all, I am thankful for my seemingly small left-handed struggles. It makes me unique, and I know that uniqueness translates to my current body of work. For the last 5 years, I have been making upcycled art out of anything and everything I can find. It wasn’t until the summer of 2020 that I re-acquainted myself with my arch enemy the sewing machine. My mom and I made over 1,000 masks during the pandemic. She sewed the first masks while I did all of the pressing and pinning because I was scared to use the machine I hadn’t used in 17+ years. Eventually, she got tired of doing all of the sewing so I forced myself to sit behind the machine once again. After we got re-aquatinted I found myself enjoying it. I was not scared, frustrated, annoyed or angry at it anymore. It was not some imminent presence that I could never conquer, it was something I could do and do well. I decided to continue sewing after our mask adventure with my red left-handed Fiskars scissors in hand, thank you Fiskars, and brand-new Singer sewing machine with a modern foot pedal. I started making upcycled fanny packs from textiles I found at various reuse stores. My Mom and I have continued to make sewn items over the last year. We officially became business partners six months ago, in January 2021, as the proud owners of Beque Design & Textile. We focus on making upcycled one of a kind handmade goods that are completely unique while helping divert materials from the landfill.

Left-handed people, me included, must adapt in order to live in the right-hand dominant world. Despite being in the minority, I have persevered and kept my creativity alive when it would have been so easy to just give up and move on to something less frustrating. Despite the struggles, being creative and having a creative outlet, is when I feel the happiest. Making items from upcycled materials is now so ingrained in me that I am not sure what I would do if I were to ever quit. Silently, we lefties go about our day looking at the world differently and thinking about our place in it. We must come up with inventive ways of looking at problems or obstacles and solving or adapting to them on a daily basis. And, although science can’t prove it, I truly believe left- handed people are more creative.