Do not be discouraged

Pete Howlett

Pete Howlett

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I was talking to my friend and fellow artisan Rauni Higson. She is an internationally acclaimed craftswoman who is about to embark on a huge commission - a 20" diameter bowl. She said that she is quite nervous about it.... as is her fellow silversmith of 45 years experience who has a vitally important middle east commission. EVERYONE embarks on an unknown journey when they are making something and as woodworkers we have the distinct disadvantage against metalworkers of working with variable, organic materials. The upside is we use inherent beauty, metalworkers have to create it. Annnnnd, though the journey is sometimes fraught with frustrations and little dramas you will get there in the end. However, never lose sight of the fact that each instrument is essentially a new beginning upon which you correct the mistakes of the past.
 
Thanks Pete, that's good to hear. When I'm discouraged (says the guy who rushed his eighth build to be done before Christmas and managed to screw it up), I try to remember what Ira Glass, a National Public Radio show host, said on the subject.

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.​
 
This can definitely be a frustrating craft; not for the faint of heart. I know we have all had failures that absolutely break your heart and at any moment in the build disaster is just around the corner!. For the last few weeks I have been completely unmotivated and have toyed with the idea of just laying off for a while but this has gotten into my soul and I just can't quit. If I just sit down and make myself work I get caught up all over again and it's OK then. I'm on about build number 37 or 38, I haven't kept very good count, and I want to go past the hobby builder stage but sometimes...
Thanks for the uplifting words

Just wanted to add, I'm betting most builders are pretty OCD with an emphasis on the Obsessive or we wouldn't doggedly continue. Maybe we're just masochists! And did I mention stubbornness?? LOL
I've been a serious musician for nearly 50 years and I know that's part of what has kept me going, the OCD and being stubborn. Somebody asked me the other day why I didn't pursue a musical career and I said that I hate starving! Building instruments and playing music are similar in many respects.
 
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Sign once read in a bookbinder's shop in Berkeley, California:

"Do not be worried about your first 5,000 mistakes. That is how you will learn to correct your next 5,000 mistakes."

I saw that sign half a lifetime ago and it is still liberating.
 
PereBourik said:
Sign once read in a bookbinder's shop in Berkeley, California:

"Do not be worried about your first 5,000 mistakes. That is how you will learn to correct your next 5,000 mistakes."

I saw that sign half a lifetime ago and it is still liberating.
Click to expand...

I'm going to print this out and hang it in the shop!

When discouragement hits me I go for a hike. I also gave myself set hours to work in the shop. Some days I don't want anything to do with the shop, but if I just go in there, that's all it takes to stoke the embers...
 
Now that I'm a confirmed old aged git :eek:ld: I don't make as many cock up's as I used to these days....But! When I do it's a doozy :uhoh: :wallbash: :wtf:
 
Favorite saying: Everything you do in lutherie (or whatever) is practice for the next thing you're going to do. It never ends.
 
jcalkin said:
Favorite saying: Everything you do in lutherie (or whatever) is practice for the next thing you're going to do. It never ends.
Click to expand...

That's a good one John and oh so true. Even when I on rare occasion think I've built the perfect uke I'll do something stupid like bumping the sound board on the case latch. And even if the instrument "seems" perfect in may ways, certain aspects of it could always be better, When I build the perfect uke I'll quit.
 
I remember being told in art school that everyone has 1,000 bad drawings in their head. You have to render all 1,000 of those bad drawings on paper in order to being drawing something decent. I think I have 100,000 bad drawings in my head. :)
 
sukie said:
Huh? I think mine is. :)
Click to expand...

Well OK Sukie, yours is the exception. :)
I'm sorry to let you down but this relates to another similar thread running now. Perfection doesn't exist in anything that man (or woman) has set their hands on. My "perfection" exists when no one can detect my mistakes but me. Even when I think something I did is close to perfect my wife will walk up and say "that doesn't look right to me." So perfection is also a perception. (BTW, my wife is ALWAYS right!)
 
Hi Chuck, I'll take the one with the hinge ding, to match my guitar with the most gorgeous spruce top I have ever seen, perfect until it had a case latch bounce on it.

I was an artist for around 30 years, I want to get back to it full time but making my rent gets in the way. Yet I don't want to use that as an excuse either. As for perfection, the Navajos always put an imperfection in their rugs, I believe other weaving cultures do as well, so as not to offend the Great Perfection or the Creator.

There is as well the Japanese concept of Wabi-sabi which is how we really should look at the world, it is basic wisdom.

Also there is an excellent book for creative people called "The War of Art", and another called "Steal Like an Artist". Both help one understand and break through resistance. They are brilliant at putting the amorphous reasons for not working at what we love or hesitating or feeling the effort isn't enough or plain procrastination into succinct perspective and offer excellent solutions.
 
Islamic builders set a tile or a stone askew when building mosques and other buildings. To attempt perfection is an offense to Allah.
 
Thank you Pete for reminding me why I started in this. I've been taking a "vacation" from uke building for about 6 months, using the excuse of moving halfway across the country, yet I've been able to set up my shop to delve into woodturning, something much easier than lutherie. I have some beautiful back and side sets in storage and I've been waiting for the proper motivation to screw them up.
 
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