Patience Grasshopper

 

As a crafter or a creator, our minds run rampant with new ideas, how to improve old ideas, and how to create something truly unique from everyone else out there in the crafting world. To get our minds to slow down long enough to focus, and I mean truly focus on a project, it takes complete concentration. I myself usually have 2 or three projects going at the same time in my shop, and I will bounce between them. This can be a benefit, and it can be a curse. Bouncing around helps break the monotony in the tedium of some that have long drawn-out tasks during prepping, such as debarking a very large walking stick. The curse side of bouncing around can leave a pile of unfinished work because we have moved onto something else.

I love to create anything from walking sticks and canes to wooden coasters with my digital artwork applied, and from wood spirits to just plain unique art out of roots and things. My wife, Julie, crafts beaded jewelry, etches glassware with a Dremel, and does beautiful crochet work. The different entities of what we create has us always coming up with something different. We have even collaborated with woodwork incorporated into her glasswork. Unique and original ideas are key. As with anything I can improve, and the more I do, the better I get. There are areas of woodworking that I have not ventured into yet because I haven’t gotten great at what I am doing now, so instead of continually branching further out (no pun intended), I keep practicing the craft that one day I hope I will be an expert in.

Question - do I see a piece of wood lying around and know right off the get-go what I will create? Never! I pick up wood, sticks, limbs, logs, or whatever when they look workable, then take them back to my shop until it is their turn to become something truly unique.
Example: I took down an old Magnolia tree that was severely damaged in my yard. Much of the wood had dry rot, but there was quite a bit that I could work with. One piece in particular was a limb that was very curvy and had a few knots in it. It couldn’t be used for a cane, but I did see an opportunity for a
piece of art. I have been working with this one for a couple weeks now, a lot of it is hand work because of the curves. Grinder, Dremel, orbital sander, then to sanding by hand to get the rough spots out of the nooks and crannies.  As I began to clean this branch up my designs kept changing. The more I worked with it the more my imagination was kicking in. Although it is still in the rough stage, I can visualize what it will look like, and it will be completely different from what I started to create. That is very typical when it comes to wood art.

Mistakes will be made, and frustrations will surface, but the main thing to remember is to take your time and be patient. When you start to rush a project it will have flaws, so before you try to speed through something, put it down and wait until you have the mindset that you want to take your time to get it right the first time, or even the second time. On countless occasions I have had to scrap a project because I was trying to rush through it and it broke, or the Dremel decided to take out a larger chunk than I intended, or the idea just wasn’t panning out like I wanted. Set it aside, take a break from it and try something different. After some time away from it, you will be fresh and do great things. I am still looking at a good size oak slab sitting in the corner that I tried to plane smoothly but was so uneven I gave up and set it aside, 8 months ago. I have since come up with different ideas for it, and yet it still sits there gathering sawdust from my other projects.

I often think that crafting can be obsessive. When I complete a project, I immediately begin another one. Even if I have 2 or three still sitting on the workbench, I start more. If it sells I am happy, but more than that, I am happy just creating stuff. And when we are at the market, I thoroughly enjoy people coming by to talk about our creations. I don't think I am alone on this. 
But, once again, I'm just "Thinking Out Loud".

Thoughts?