For each craft [I've seriously got to figure out new ways of saying 'hobby'!], I'll give you guys an overview of how I got into it and what I believe my skill level is.
here's an overview of the skill levels and what I feel they mean:
1 - I just bought my first [insert thing here]
5 - I can make stuff all by myself!! and it looks pretty good, too, at least my mom said so and put it on the refrigerator.
10 - i could do this as a living, but nah, no one would probably buy it.
and to the show!
- Jewelry Making - 5 / 10
- My college roommate got me interested in making jewelry - she is/am/was/were/be/been/being a super crafty person. In admiration, I wanted to be more like her. Yep, a real case of imitation / flattery with respect to this particular hobby. She taught me the basics of beading, of which I initially failed miserably, but over time and the experience that a couple of beading classes gave me, I can make some rudimentary jewelry.
- I'll post some pictures of some of the jewelry I've made and the remaining beads that haunt me.
- Sewing - 3 / 10
- My mom taught me to sew when I was probably 10 and I believe that I made my first dress around this timeframe. My mom grew up in the time where you made your own clothes, e.g. she made her own wedding dress. She tried to pass this on to me, like a dutiful daughter, I did what she wanted me to do. As soon as she stopped asking me to do stuff, I abandoned it completely.
- As I've gotten older, I've realized that sewing is a super handy skill - I recently got back into it by making random stuff. I'll post some pictures of those things, too.
- Drawing / Sketching - 4 / 10 [with practice 6 / 10]
- Even as a little kid, I always have loved drawing and art. I have a ton of books where I've filled up pages with half-done sketches. I've wanted to get more into it, but I'm honestly plagued by self-doubt and other internal criticism. This explains the half-done sketches. and probably explains the whole I can't finish projects, too. I really love charcoal, i love graphite, i love the idea of creating images and art.
- The idea of sharing things that I've drawn pretty much scares the crap out of me. I think i need to grow up.
- Painting - 2 / 10
- so I've tried oil and watercolor painting - i really suck at oil [who can screw up squares of color? oh me, because I'm impatient.], but i'm decent at watercolor, ergo the average is 2 out of 10.
- Photography - 4 / 10
- Who doesn't have access to a camera nowadays with the advent of the camera-phone? When my spouse and I were dating, we'd always have a third wheel with us: the camera. As I got used to it and the photos of me everywhere, I gently realized that I preferred to be behind the camera, rather than in front of it. So I got pointers from my honey and eventually took a class, so now I can at least make decent shots.
- I believe that point-and-shoot cameras are good enough for me. I've taken a DSLR class and realized that photography is a right- and left-brain exercise. My left-brain already hurts from my day job.
- Potterymaking - 4 / 10
- I've taken two courses on pottery making. I think I really love this. There's something so raw about making something come into your space and reality. However, this is an expensive hobby, which requires access to kilns and probably a lot more training because I feel like I'm a kindergartner with Play-dough.
- Writing - 5 / 10
- Okay, who didn't write pensive, dark, brooding, and [don't forget] horrible poems during their developmental years? I thought that it was pretty much a requirement for adolescence. My bad. I wrote a lot during my teenage years and during college, even taking a humanity course where I wrote and illustrated my poems and short stories. Were they good? I got an A in the course, so, I'm thinking yes, they were good enough for a college who is not really known for its liberal arts courses. Later, when I was 26, I took a creative writing course at a local community college. I went for ~6 classes, wrote approximately 10, then got swamped at my "real job". At the last class I went to, I talked to the professor or teacher and asked him if I had the chops to be a writer. He said "Yes, you are a writer." At this point, I dropped the class and went head first into my "real job". If there's a psychiatrist or psychologist reading this, feel free to analyse and send a private email on my diagnosis. oh wait, I have a fear of failure? oh yeah, I already knew that.
I also "dabble" in plants, billiards, wood-working, dog-training[who doesn't!?], biking, reading[used to be prolific, not-so-much anymore], and coding[of course].
I want to learn about furniture-making, welding and other metalworking, and learn how to drive a car fast and take turns at high-speeds [i think this is called high-performance driving or stunt-driving?]. The more i'm thinking about this, the more things I want to learn! aaaaughh!! this is how I got into this little problem of mine!
At this time, i bet you're asking yourself: what does this person actually want to do? Why is this person wasting my time with all these tangential soliloquies? oops, did i do that? wait, I thought that since you're still reading, you still care.
So maybe, we should reset the ground rules here: This blog is definitely about me. I don't think I know you enough to care about you. In the future, maybe I will, but I know me kinda well and I do care about me. But, let's move on and see if I can eventually become a better person.
