This week we delve deep into our own psyches. Roleplaying, drug use, Judaism. It’s all way less interesting than it sound. Enjoy!
QUESTIONS:
If you had to make your living as a craftsman, what skilled trade would you want to learn how to do? –Jas
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I started making things when I was a kid primarily so I’d have a way to give people birthday and Christmas presents since I didn’t have any money to buy stuff. My cousin who was 5 days older, and who I always shared birthday parties with, got lots of my crafts experiments–like the chain-mail vest made out of pull-tabs from soda and beer cans. Then when I was a teenager I experimented with making my own clothes without patterns and used to doodle plans for clothing that would have interchangeable parts–like overalls with a panel you could change out at the front or where the pants would attach with buttons and you change them out for a skirt. I did have a summer job doing carpentry on a construction site after college and tried doing a lot of wood-working furniture projects after that that I think were more creative than stable. 🙂 I still do a lot of knitting and sewing. And some drawing and painting. I’m definitely a dabbler.
I considered making a pair of overalls that can convert between skirt and pants! I have the fabric for that endeavor but never got as far as even cutting it out. Oh well, fabric that can be repurposed I guess!
Those are the kind of fun things that fall by the wayside when you decide to breed. 😛
I’d be a baker and also a calligrapher. I bake sweet and savory items to relax, and have done so for as long as I can remember. I was baking goodies since before I saw my first cookery show, so there might be some past-life thing going on there. I’ve always enjoyed the act of writing using a tangible instrument such as a crayon, pencil, pen, fountain pen, calligraphy nib. I even enjoyed the school classroom “punishment” of writing a phrase 100+ times. During the two semesters of calligraphy class, I was most often transported into a different time while practicing the forms, and especially when creating calligraphic objects…perhaps I was some sort of scribe in a past life? 🙂
So… Dutch letters, then?
Mmm… Dutch letters…
Youbetcha!
Oh, heck! I didn’t even think about cooking/baking! I’ve always had a thing for that… though I’m not good at it. And I think it counts as a craft, in the sense that it’s a basic, physical job that’s needed for minimum societal functions (a definition I just invented).
That could be a contender against woodworking…
Cooking has really been helping keep my sane during the pandemic. I think it combines some kind of creative, meditative and doing for others elements that makes it really good for this moment. I don’t think I’d want to do it as a profession though ’cause it loses a lot of that. Happy to share any recent recipes with anyone. Most recent for me was a korean-style beef dish that came out well.
My role as primary cook in the house has come along at the same time as COVID, of course. And I’m really enjoying it. Funnily, so is Trish. She really likes NOT being in charge of it, or even having to think about what might be for supper. It just happens. 🙂
A common thing I hear (and experience) with a lot of “crafts” is the idea that it would cease to be as enjoyable if it was your job. Suddenly, you’d have external pressures and constraints, and it wouldn’t be for the love of it anymore.
As someone who never really felt fulfilled by a job, and who never does any hobby once I’m not into it, I’m not sure I can relate. But it makes sense to me, conceptually.
My brother has sometimes supported the idea that one shouldn’t do what one loves for a living because you’ll grow sick of it. This has not been my experience at all in that I love talking about and analyzing stories and haven’t at all gotten sick of doing it and getting paid for it. All the parts of my job that I sometimes tire of are the parts that don’t have to do with stories. I also wish sometimes that my students would like stories a bit more than most of them seem to.