My One Little Word for 2012 is REDUCE. And one of the things I'm reducing is my blogs. I've been blogging at House of Peanut since 2005, and I've put a lot of effort into it. So I've moved all of the papercrafty posts from this blog over there, and tagged them as 'papercraft' so they're easy to find.
I know I don't have a ton of traffic here, but figured I should officially redirect everyone there.
Happy crafting!
Showing posts with label personal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label personal. Show all posts
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Friday, January 28, 2011
Crafting without a sense of direction or space
So a lot has happened since I bought those first beads in Ashland. I took a LOT of local jewelry-making classes. I'm one of those people who learns best from a class. I do ok with a book, but I am horrible when it comes to just jumping in and figuring things out on my own without any instructional materials. I guess all that academic learning I did left a mark.
I specifically have a problem visualizing things in 3-D. I'm that person who has to turn the map so that it's in the direction I'm traveling. I have no in-built sense of direction - I typically end up memorizing where I need to go, rather than having some spidey-sense on which way I need to head.
I spent hours trying to figure out how to make neat little wire wrapped loops for beads just using a book and various online sites, and mine were still sort of lopsided and wonky. After one in-person class, where I could watch the instructor do it, I was wrapping like a pro.
This same 3-D visualization issue tripped me up when I took a sewing class as well. I learned the trick to sewing things that look so neat and nice is that you assemble and sew them inside-out then flip it around when it's done. Well, that just totally messed with my mind. I just couldn't envision how to put things together that way. I sewed more than one beginner project backwards!
So some aspects of papercrafting are going to be a challenge for me. I love to look through idea books and magazines to get ideas on cards to make, especially since I'm so new to this and don't really know where to start. Most of these books give you a high level list of the materials used and steps, but not specific details on what to do when. It's definitely much more vague than my old chemistry lab manuals.
So I'll have to carefully deconstruct the steps and figure out where to cut first, the order in which to glue items, and that sort of thing. But, that's why I'm writing it down, right?
So a question for all of you - what's YOUR crafty challenge? Is there some aspect of your personality that gets in the way of your crafty vision?
I specifically have a problem visualizing things in 3-D. I'm that person who has to turn the map so that it's in the direction I'm traveling. I have no in-built sense of direction - I typically end up memorizing where I need to go, rather than having some spidey-sense on which way I need to head.
I spent hours trying to figure out how to make neat little wire wrapped loops for beads just using a book and various online sites, and mine were still sort of lopsided and wonky. After one in-person class, where I could watch the instructor do it, I was wrapping like a pro.
This same 3-D visualization issue tripped me up when I took a sewing class as well. I learned the trick to sewing things that look so neat and nice is that you assemble and sew them inside-out then flip it around when it's done. Well, that just totally messed with my mind. I just couldn't envision how to put things together that way. I sewed more than one beginner project backwards!
So some aspects of papercrafting are going to be a challenge for me. I love to look through idea books and magazines to get ideas on cards to make, especially since I'm so new to this and don't really know where to start. Most of these books give you a high level list of the materials used and steps, but not specific details on what to do when. It's definitely much more vague than my old chemistry lab manuals.
So I'll have to carefully deconstruct the steps and figure out where to cut first, the order in which to glue items, and that sort of thing. But, that's why I'm writing it down, right?
So a question for all of you - what's YOUR crafty challenge? Is there some aspect of your personality that gets in the way of your crafty vision?
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Hello from a crafty ex-scientist!
The first post is always hard to write. It seems so momentous, like it should be some grand introduction to this Huge Adventure Ahead. But that's too hard, so I spend more time puttering around with the template, because it really is easier to change the link color than write that huge first post about what this blog is all about.
Ok, here we are. You've figured out from the title that this is about papercrafting. And that I'm probably some kind of science geek. So now I can go back to fiddling around with the widgets in the footer, right? No? Ok, then, I guess I'll keep going.
If I were writing about myself in the third person like they do on book jackets, I can't claim that I've "always been an artist" or even that I did a lot of crafts growing up. Sure, I took the required art class in elementary school, and made those plasticky woven keychains at summer camp.
But mostly, I was a nerd. I focused on academics. I did science fair projects and plotted my acceptance into the engineering school of my dreams. I pretty much accepted that I wasn't an artist, and that I didn't have any creative talent, because I figured a person could only really be good at one thing. So I got my biology and chemistry degrees, became a software consultant, and eventually got my dream job at a large software company in the Seattle area.
Something was missing, though. My husband insisted that I needed a hobby other than work (and other than bugging him to go out and do stuff all the time, presumably). I had no idea what that was supposed to be, other than spending even more time at work. I got a motorcycle, rode for a couple of years, and sold it. Nope, that wasn't it.
On a weekend trip to Ashland, OR I happened to wander into a bead shop. And THAT was the beginning of my crafty life.
Ok, here we are. You've figured out from the title that this is about papercrafting. And that I'm probably some kind of science geek. So now I can go back to fiddling around with the widgets in the footer, right? No? Ok, then, I guess I'll keep going.
If I were writing about myself in the third person like they do on book jackets, I can't claim that I've "always been an artist" or even that I did a lot of crafts growing up. Sure, I took the required art class in elementary school, and made those plasticky woven keychains at summer camp.
But mostly, I was a nerd. I focused on academics. I did science fair projects and plotted my acceptance into the engineering school of my dreams. I pretty much accepted that I wasn't an artist, and that I didn't have any creative talent, because I figured a person could only really be good at one thing. So I got my biology and chemistry degrees, became a software consultant, and eventually got my dream job at a large software company in the Seattle area.
Something was missing, though. My husband insisted that I needed a hobby other than work (and other than bugging him to go out and do stuff all the time, presumably). I had no idea what that was supposed to be, other than spending even more time at work. I got a motorcycle, rode for a couple of years, and sold it. Nope, that wasn't it.
On a weekend trip to Ashland, OR I happened to wander into a bead shop. And THAT was the beginning of my crafty life.
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