why do we make stuff?

[ForresterModern]

My obsessions with making things usually started with a mild interest in something, then the discovery that to do it right required more knowledge, commitment, and often equipment or tools. From sewing as a teenager, to botanical guru during college (my dorm room looked like a veritable jungle---all legal), to competition dart throwing (and the never ending search for the perfect combination of components for the perfect throwing dart), to rebuilding a jeep suspension "ground up" so to speak for optimum four-wheeling during med school, to building golf clubs for myself and friends (I am so far from a standard fit it is ridiculous---guys at shops just look at me and their measurements and scratch their heads), to taking up flyfishing and then learning that the most important part was having the right fly for the right moment in time (matching the hatch) which meant over $1000 worth of flytying equipment and supplies and lessons and hours over the vise with fur and feathers and bobbins and nippers, to my last passion of cycling, both road and off road, which has led me to build two competition grade road bikes from bare carbon frames as well as rebuild and re-outfit one cross bike and one mountain bike, not to mention the dozen or so I took in, worked on, used, and sold off to make room for the new ones. But for me the making and the learning always started with a need for something better in order to do what I loved at a higher level that I wanted to perform, never really for the making of something by itself to be proud of. None of my old me-made clothes fit anymore, wife takes care of the plants and the landscaping, still have three sets of my old faithful darts but no longer throw, jeeps are long gone replaced with reliable 4wd SUV so complex I barely know how to run the stereo, I still have my fly tying box and over a thousand hand tied flies that occasionally find their way onto some tippet for a little air time, still make my own golf clubs every 6-8 years or so when I feel the urge but no longer build for friends or sale, and I maintain the stable of bikes for my wife and I that are currently clogging our garage and basement storage area. My biggest problem now is not the drive to build more (even though I still upgrade my bikes with new lighter and shiny bits, and have my latest set of golf clubs ready to cut and grip for summer) but the time and opportunity to make use of what I already have built. As with the other passions that have gone by the wayside, I bike about half or less as much as I used to 8 years ago, play golf about a quarter as often as I did 10 years ago, and fish maybe a couple times a year.

Guess I need to redirect some of that "build or make" energy into "make time to get out to do" the activities that I love more often. I hate getting old, and letting other things take priority over the fun parts of life.

j

[Cynthia]

I've always been creative, although it started with art (my mom had studied art, and taught me when I was very young)... now it's sewing and embroidery!

I love to make complicated garments one normally wouldn't wear, I guess because I never got to have crazy pretty-pretties so I'm making up for it now! The reactions you get when someone finds out you made it yourself add even more fun to finally getting to wear something you finished.

I've also made some great friends in this hobby, and from them I learn even more.

I just have to be careful with sewing, because it can be an expensive hobby, and I tend to be a tad slow (lots of hand sewing, using the sewing machine occasionally). I also keep trying to slow it down even more by learning things like embroidery. I'm torturing myself with pulled whitework now and just purchased a sample so I could have something more than just photos in a book to look at!

Some day I'm sure I'll get caught up a little with sewing and embroidery, and hubby will have lost enough weight, and I'll try to make a kilt for him.

[Nick the DSM]

"For the love of the craft or the love of the buck"- David Lee Roth

I have a different craft that a few others can share. Besides art, I'm a musician. My main line of playing music is playing drums in a heavy metal band, but the genre is unimportant right now. I've always loved music, ever since my ears could comprehend it. I'm learning bagpipes and I'm improving everyweek, but not yet great at them.

I've been in the music "business" for a few years now. Playing, seeing shows, and I've even been a roadie for a band. I can never see myself making a living off of playing music, even if I played two, three shows a weekend or even during the week. I do it because I love it. Actually, I'm setting up a show as I speak and an issue right now is how I want to get paid exactly. I can either sell myself to a system that I might get paid $20 or not do it, which means the only money I'd make is from merchandise sales.

It's more politics than business now...

It's a bit different craft than the hand made crafts that members here enjoy, but it is nonetheless something that takes time to make.

I love it though.

[Lyle1]

I never really analyzed why I made things, but I always knew that I enjoyed doing it.

Looking back I realize that my most productive periods of doing scherenschnitte coincided with periods of stress; if I was doing scherenschnitte well, I was really able to zone out and escape the stress. When I learned to cane chairs, I thought I might do it to earn a little extra money once I retired, but now that I am retired, I do it in secret so people don't ask me to cane their chairs. I do know that even though I don't have enough time to make everything I want to make, there are still some skills I would like to learn. It is probably fortunate that I will be in Scotland when the stained glass class I wanted to take is offered, but I can always dream about taking it the next time it is offered.

I still don't know why I make things, but I still enjoy doing it!

[James Hood]

As a lifelong US Olympic Gold Medal contender "Dilettante," the answer is, because it is fun. To create, make, experience, try, fail, succeed, learn, learn more.

And because artistes and creative people are more fun than the vast, lowing, blue-jeaned conformal herd.

[Ryan Ross]

Wow, this is an awesome thread.

I make things for a variety of reasons, just as everyone else here does. I was fortunate enough to be brought up around a family of highly capable, handy, creative, do-it-yourself type of folks. Some of my very first memories are of my dad or Grandpa teaching me how to make something.

Some things I make because the type of high quality gear that I need is A. waaay too expensive and B. Not quite right.

I started making my own bokken (I'm a life long martial artist) because I wanted ones of the proper proportions for my various needs. I forge shuriken because for the longest time, they were basically unavailable, and later, very very very costly.

I make furniture because my grandpa taught me how, and because I enjoy working wood.

I've made many Halloween costumes over the years, because off the peg costumes just never cut it, and I take Halloween VERY seriously (ask any of the half dozen other craftsmen that were kind enough to help me along with my costume last year).

I made a sporran once, because back then, what I wanted wasn't available, and I wasn't fortunate enough to be buddies with three of the finest sporran makers around.

I guess when people think of me, they generally think of the hats I make- I know I've told the story before, but it's worth a short telling again.

During my first semester in college, a few of my friends wanted to start a knitting club, and needed live bodies. I had heard that knitting was relaxing and very zen, but I had also just gotten into the kilt wearing thing about six months before. I wanted a proper, old-school bonnet, and back then THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE SOURCE FOR THEM that I could find. So I learned to knit, and was surrounded by lovely, very cute girls the whole time. Fastforward about six years, and I finally got up the gumption to make my first bonnet; the second and third followed within the same week. I was pretty proud of them, so I showed them to Matt Newsome, who immediately told me that he wanted the STM to carry them. I said ok.

So making those felt hats is a labor of love, for me. I started making them because I wanted one myself, and couldn't find a source I was happy with. I kept making them, in part, to help the Museum, but more because I wanted other folks to be able to find that type of hat, as I remembered how much I wanted one, once upon a time. I make them to help a bit in preserving the history of a small item that became such an identifying feature of the Scot.

But the best part, at least for me, about making something for other folks is seeing them enjoy it. That still puts a monkey eating --it grin on my face, every single time. And especially with hats, as a good and faithful hat is darn near beyond value, and something that one can grow quite attached to, over the years.

So yes, there's my long, it's late at night ramble, the moral of which is "Making things is good for the soul".

... you risk being... reduced to philosphical rants that only others like yourself can understand.

God, is that true. Anyone who doesn't believe us, just head on over to Tyger's bonnet thread in the accessories forum, and read a few of the 20 or so pages there.

Only one "craftsman type" can truly understand another, it seems like. And we craftsmen can tend to be ultra-sane and super crazy, all at the same time. ith:

[kiltedwolfman]

It's a simple thing for me. I spent 20 years as a combat arms soldier so now creating things feels like a natural part of the cycle. I spent a great deal of time destroying things, now I get to make things. I suppose it's a mixture of Zen and a desire to see something tangible and beautiful wrought y my own hands. It is much the same reason I've been a student of Budo and an instructor in the same for 30 years. Being able to see something flourish whether it be a kilt from my table or knowledge and ability from a student gives a sence of relish and fulfillment that's hard to beat.

[ForresterModern]

Lyle reminded me of another couple of "phases" of my life, the first while was still in high school and college when I did woodworking with my father building several use and space specific items of furniture for my rooms at home and college. The last piece we built together was a cherry wood cradle made by our hands over a two week Christmas visit home in 1987 in anticipation of the birth of my first son less than two months later, a cradle used by my first two children, several nieces and nephews, and most recently by my second son, and which now sits in a guest bedroom awaiting the next member of my family to have a child.

Then a second right after my first marriage where I spent a great deal of time haunting auctions and estate sales and flea markets for old furniture in need of repairs and refinishing--I furnished more than one house with everything from re-upholstered chairs to completely stripped and refinished victorian china cabinets to beds and dressers and dining room sets, couches, end tables, mirrors, whatever we found and needed or could use. Most of it is gone now---resold for money to buy better, handed down to my older kids or cousins, lost in the divorce, or simply upgraded now to newer better made stuff. My second wife does not share my affecton for antiques and the unmatched eclectic style of furnishing so we buy new "sets" now that we can afford it. I miss those days and the smell of oiled wood, and the grit of sanding dust under my nails, and the slow-to-wash-out wood stains on my hands and fingers.

Must look for my old work apron which I am sure still has many of those smells and stains and dust still in it.

[Thomas H]

I make thing mostly because I am trying to save money and most of the time end up spending more to make it myself . Or I want to save time and do not want to wait for it to be sent in the mail.

exsample : I am looking into making a horse hair sporran ,It will cost me more to buy the hair by it self then to just buy it ,So I am beginning to learn to just buy it .But my OCD will not let me (I still want to make it )

I have a Kilt jacket stuck in mid process and found myself at a stand still
last night .thinking should I scrap it and buy one .But I could not stop
thinking about it hanging there unfinished --Even my wife said we need to
find a happy medium between projects and just buying it made all ready.

Thank You for the vent -I feel better now

[Laird_M]

Ok, my response started like the Monty Python Spanish Inquisition - 'Our main tool is fear! Fear and Surprise. Okay our main two...'

For me its down to four things:

1. It can sometimes, though not always, be cheaper to make something than to buy it:
2. You can craft something unique for yourself or as a gift for someone you care about;
3. I enjoy working with my hands;
4. It gives me something better to do than watch the mindless drivel that is modern TV! or all the repeats of repeats of....