Are you a motivated person when it comes to making stuff?

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Patchouli

Patchouli

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Are you one of "those" people who are artistic and creative, or entrepreneur-minded and busy, and you just make stuff all the time or frequently have a project going?
Do you do it to sell? Give away? Keep for yourself?
There are many things I want to make and sometimes, once I get started on them, I realize I'm either doing something wrong, don't have what I thought I had or needed, can't afford, etc.
I guess it is more of a type of character a person is than motivation.
What motivates you? Besides fire, flood, etc. Do you give up easily on some things?
Share your thoughts.
 
i have a lot of ideas but not enough time right now. i am hopeing that will change this summer. the main thing i really like to do is cook. but only for family and friends. maybe that's part of the reason i like to spend time canning. i can do that with my kids.
 
I used to build custom motorcycles. I put a lot of creativity and fabrication into them. Then I would sell them and get depressed when the buyer would wreck them. I felt that all of my hard work and creativity was wasted. After a couple of times I resolved myself to consider the machine dead and gone... wrecked in my mind the day I sold it. Kind of like building a sand castle then destroying it before the bully down the beach did it. LOL. It helped a lot.
 
I like building stuff just for something to do sometimes. After I retired I used to build custom sights for rifles which I sold. Some were popular sellers but I enjoyed coming up with new designs and building them. I did this for about a year or more until it was not as fun anymore and then I went to something else. Right now I am getting my new shop ready so I can again build little things in there.
 
I have the motivation and purchased most everything to make cold process soaps and then we moved which was supposed to give me more room but eBay took over. We have a concrete block outbuilding but still trying to recover from building fence, deck and putting in a back door on house. So I guess I have motivation but no space or money right now. I know, patience.
 
Well it depends on the motivation for making......whatever it is. Hubs is usually better at making stuff than I am. I have a tendency to get over analysis paralysis. He doesn't, even though he measures twice and cuts once, so he's not impulsive either. He's an early bird gets the worm type of dude and I'm not. I can get easily side tracked and frustrated if I'm working on something that's not in my wheelhouse......but if it's something I'm the expert on, I get it figured out b/c I'm just stubborn that way. If it's anything mechanical, it usually ends up on DH's to-do list. :p

I've got lots of projects I could do......but I like to have fun and can be a slacker when the pressure isn't on. Although, when I get in "the zone", I can get stuff done quickly! It seems like the older I get, the lazier I tend to be.:confused:
 
I think I'm fairly motivated for things I must, or want to do - the stuff in between, not so much. I have more sewing I need to be doing (for money), but no time frame exactly - and then I'm online during what could be sewing time. But, I do really good work under pressure. In sewing I've had to prove it and believe in myself more than once.
 
I create and design things in my mind. I have lost sleep on the THH project and not driven a single nail or even picked the location. Since I wasted so much money in my youth, I now build in my mind, it is free and the material is real cheap. Once I am ready to actually start, it is going to be the most cost effective build of my life.

My latest creative plan is to build a side charging device for left handed AR 15 shooters. Charge on the right side and eject on the left side. All you lefties, hang in there.
 
I have lots of things I find 'pretty' and would like to make so I'll book mark it. If I still like it in a few months then I'll make it. For some reason, what peaks my interest at one time will be just so so another. I hope I'm not the only one? My problem is I like to get all of the know how first. Like soap making, I know I want to and will but I would really like to ask someone questions. For crafty items, I'm more the jump right in and figure it out as I go, but I'm also the type who will work on it none stop till its done, which is why I haven't started playing around with my new loom. I have to get the garden in first and know that will be weeks of work right there. Even my house work suffers and that is not a good thing. Its like I get tunnel vision. . .
 
I have made many things in my life. There were decades that I made most of my own clothing. I have made furniture, kitchen cabinets, spice racks, food storage shelves and sheds. When I was teaching I made LOTS of materials, mostly from cardstock and lamination. I always had projects in process, and some of them were quite extensive. I used to make baskets and pine cone wreaths. I have made quilts, home furnishings, and other useful things from fabric. I have made several counted cross stitch pieces. I made an Advent calendar when my daughter was an infants. I was doing Respite Care for Easter Seals at the time, taking care of a man who was dying of cancer. I tracked my time on that project, 100 hours. I have a 125 year old Victorian home that I am often working on--scraping, painting, tuckpointing, on and on and on it goes.
Advent calendar image.JPG
 
I guess I am more motivated to do things that will save me money in the long run. Like canning, and I have homemade mixes for hot chocolate, cream of whatever soup, ranch dressing mix, onion soup mix, taco season, fajita season, seasoned salt. I know they all cost more in little packets than it costs for bulk and there is no MSG in any of it, which gives me an allergic reaction. I have more mixes to make as I run out of what is in the cabinet. The next one is seasoning for yellow rice which I use a lot of. The only package of saffron at Walmart is $17.32 and is way more than I need so I will order a smaller amount off of eBay for $4.95 with free shipping. It's all about saving money, buying less processed and making it healthier which all does motivate me!
 
snappy1 said:
I guess I am more motivated to do things that will save me money in the long run. Like canning, and I have homemade mixes for hot chocolate, cream of whatever soup, ranch dressing mix, onion soup mix, taco season, fajita season, seasoned salt. I know they all cost more in little packets than it costs for bulk and there is no MSG in any of it, which gives me an allergic reaction. I have more mixes to make as I run out of what is in the cabinet. The next one is seasoning for yellow rice which I use a lot of. The only package of saffron at Walmart is $17.32 and is way more than I need so I will order a smaller amount off of eBay for $4.95 with free shipping. It's all about saving money, buying less processed and making it healthier which all does motivate me!
Click to expand...
I had heard many years ago about saffron and knew that it came from fall blooming crocus. I was in my daughter's former back yard a couple years ago and saw these flowers. I took this photo. I picked them, and watched for days while more bloomed, picking all that I found. You can order fall blooming crocus and have your own saffron. I think saffron would be a fun crop to grow for selling, if a person lived in the right place. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffron
fall blooming crocus.jpg
 
ssonb said:
ME Too VT ...do you cast your own..I am just getting in the art of restocking flintlock and percussion rifles and I make my own possibles bags.
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Cast my own for awhile back around 1980; got transferred into field service and relocated, sold all my stuff. Had a good stock of Linotype and lead hammers. And a poor understanding of the health hazards.
 
Weedygarden said:
I had heard many years ago about saffron and knew that it came from fall blooming crocus. I was in my daughter's former back yard a couple years ago and saw these flowers. I took this photo. I picked them, and watched for days while more bloomed, picking all that I found. You can order fall blooming crocus and have your own saffron. I think saffron would be a fun crop to grow for selling, if a person lived in the right place. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SaffronView attachment 4976
Click to expand...


Cool! I will see if they are available here! Thank you!
 
TMT Tactical said:
I create and design things in my mind. I have lost sleep on the THH project and not driven a single nail or even picked the location. Since I wasted so much money in my youth, I now build in my mind, it is free and the material is real cheap. Once I am ready to actually start, it is going to be the most cost effective build of my life.

My latest creative plan is to build a side charging device for left handed AR 15 shooters. Charge on the right side and eject on the left side. All you lefties, hang in there.
Click to expand...
Please do!
 
More laid back, creative type person.
Work well under pressure,super organized.
Everything has a place, everything in it's place.
Well it used to be like that.
Most every place is still like that but the sewing room.
Grand daughter takes over the place with her stuff. lol.
Wouldn't change that for anything in the world.
When daddy isn't looking, I take her stuff to his apartment.
 
Hilarious.
NH and I talked a while a few years ago about growing saffron, considering the price you can get per OUNCE. Or let's say a pound...$500 to $5000 per pound. Imagine the security system you'd have to have. Like a freaking black market item, higher priced than gold, opium, heroin or cocaine.
Nice article from wikipedia you posted. You have to handpick those little stigmas, 100,000 of them to make a pound, in a very short window of time.
(They call me mellow yellow. I'm just wild about saffron. Donovan song from the 60s, surely you remember?!)
Iran produces at least 90% of the saffron.
 
I constantly come up with ideas. I work them out in my mind and then if there is a possible practical use I will take the time to draw them up in my CAD software to work out the details.
I also write software when I have a need for something that I can't find. It is a great way to learn about a topic because to write software you have to "tell the computer" each and every step along the way.
I am currently involved in several projects that fill my spare time. I am building a simple but realistic case annealer that is automatic once the (magazine is filled) that will hold over 200 3006 cases and over 300 223 cases. It will anneal a case in 7 seconds each until the magazine needs to be refilled. I am deep into a ballistics program that is 6 DOF (six degrees of freedom) to more closely predict the flight of a bullet over very long range. I wrote a ballistics software before (back in the days of DOS) that I still use for myself which is quite good out to 300 yards or so but it only works with 3 DOF. Another project is my car (hotrod). It started life as a 1966 Mustang but has been involved in too many accidents to make it a good candidate for restoration. I am building it for street use with a mild engine but expect 6 to 7 pounds per horsepower. That will make it a good candidate for road cruising even up mountains. It will be quick and responsive but limited to about 130 mph maximum speed.
I am perfecting a way to turn 25 ACP into 22 LR CF cartridges. I have made some prototype rounds and they fit the 22 chamber very well. I have a mold for 40 grain bullets that I designed and I have designed a special powder measure that will consistently throw the 1.1 grain charges required to provide the same velocities as the high velocity 22 LR ammo. The only advantages this will have over a standard 22 round is that it will be easily reloadable and the loads can be tailored to the use and gun being used.
I am in the process of a few other projects but those listed above are the ones that are active now.
 
I can go along with that, is the inverse true as well? (are crazy people a little bit genius too?) I'm sure I can fit in both classes.
The nation average IQ in the USA is only 98. My IQ is a bit above that. All that means is that I am capable of learning quickly. It says nothing about my education level or my wisdom.
 
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