why do we make stuff?

**piperdbh** · 19th February 12, 07:57 AM

Several of us here are of the creative bent. Some of us use the products of our hands to earn our daily bread; others make things without thought of recompense. Why? Why go to all the trouble of securing supplies and equipment, seeking training, and then investing the time it takes to make something? It seems like a lot of work. We could be using the same time to watch TV, swim in the local river, inventory our mildew collection or any number of other things.
Well, here's my answer. I make things because I have to. When an idea gets into my head, I can think of little else until I either write it down or make it (or both). If I go for very long without making something, I start to get depressed. When I start feeling down, I go to my kitchen or pick up some needles and yarn or a stick of lumber and begin planning something to make out of it. Whether the new project turns out the way I visualized it is not important; the action of making is the part I need. Sometimes I can sell something I make, which is nice, but many times the thing stays with me, and I often find things I've made and don't remember making them.

Your turn. Tell us why you make things, whether they be sporrans, boats, chocolate cakes, engines, model bridges, strap hinges or whatever.

**SoSelkirk** · 19th February 12, 08:02 AM

I feel your pain...your post sounds like I could have been the author.

**ForresterModern** · 19th February 12, 08:14 AM

Mine is not so much a drive to "make" things, as a drive to learn---how to do things, how things work, how things are made and used, and then maybe try my hand at it myself. I think we all have a "drive" force/energy within us that we channel into something---be that sports, hobbies, music, dancing, work, etc... and I think that those of you who "make" things have found a fairly steady way of utilizing that energy, and do so as your method of channeling that interest, drive, and energy in a fashion that appeases you, at least temporarily until the next challenge or idea comes along. And like everything in life, the more you make or learn about something, the more you realize how much more there is about that topic to learn or how much better or different you could make that product, which then simply becomes a self-repeating and self-fulfilling proposition, the slippery slope many of us willingly go down as far as we each may possibly go. That is why there are so many good---no---great artisans on this forum, and great thinkers and great teachers and great collectors of knowledge. Some may reach their ultimate fullfillment, others not, some continue searching for the path toward theirs, still others realizing the goal ever-being just out of reach, allowing them to continue along that path ever further, is their own fulfillment of sorts.

Wow, where did that bit of literary flight of ideas philosophy come from?

**piperdbh** · 19th February 12, 08:32 AM

Originally Posted by ForresterModern

Wow, where did that bit of literary flight of ideas philosophy come from?

Standing too close to the MRI machine, I guess.

**tyger** · 19th February 12, 08:37 AM

Originally Posted by ForresterModern

a drive to learn....we all have a "drive" force/energy within us that we channel into something....may reach their ultimate fullfillment.

God made us all in his image. We all contain that creative force. Most people use that force. Some do not.

**Joshua** · 19th February 12, 08:46 AM

I would have never stumbled upon Xmarks were it not for my own searching to make a custom Sgian Dubh. Since then, leatherworking has become my fancy, I'm even planning on making some curran-styled moccasins for the upcoming ren fest (provided I can find some cheap tartan-like fabric at Joanne's fabric in the near future to complete the look).

**tyger** · 19th February 12, 09:00 AM

Originally Posted by Joshua

I would have never stumbled upon Xmarks were it not for my own searching to make a custom Sgian Dubh. Since then, leatherworking has become my fancy, I'm even planning on making some curran-styled moccasins for the upcoming ren fest (provided I can find some cheap tartan-like fabric at Joanne's fabric in the near future to complete the look).

My advice is to give it up while you can. Otherwise, you risk being consumed by nothingness, and reduced to philosphical rants that only others like yourself can understand.

**tyger** · 19th February 12, 09:02 AM

.....................double post........................

**ForresterModern** · 19th February 12, 09:15 AM

Originally Posted by piperdbh

Standing too close to the MRI machine, I guess.

Nah, they are all the way at the other end of the hall, a good 75 yards from my office, and I am almost never actualy in the scan room----thats for patients (eeewww, just send me the pictures). Good thought though, as the magnetic field of the scanner being 30,000x earths magnetic field can "warp" some people's minds. Maybe that is why some people think I am a bit warped.