Practice

We all look at the world through a particular lens developed over the experience of a lifetime. I am no different. Now, don't laugh, but today I'm thinking about Gingher replacement blades for rotary fabric cutters and flour. Take a minute to try to put those together. 

Here is the way it works for me. I have several items I buy through Amazon's Subscribe and Save. If you aren't familiar with the program, the way it works is you identify items you would like shipped automatically on a scheduled basis, and Amazon ships on the schedule. Part of the incentive for this plan is a better price; hence, Subscribe and Save. For the last couple of months, the Gingher rotary blade has been unavailable. Although we have inventory in the sewing room, the sewers in my world are concerned about this. 

Now let's turn to flour. This began with a discussion with my sister, Jaye, a couple of months ago. She told me there was a lot of baking going on in their house. Although flour had become difficult to get around the country, their local Hanaford Grocery had remained in stock so far. Since she sometimes sends me the results of the work from their kitchen, this was concerning. I had flour delivered to her. With freight, it may have been the most expensive flour in the country, but we have to do the necessary to keep things going.

To me, the common theme what people are doing during this pandemic. We are in our homes, like we haven't been in generations. With this comes everything people had meant to do, but before this moment in time there were too many distractions. When all of the peripherals are removed, we focus on the things right in front of us. In a conversation with my son last night, we talked about doing puzzles, and cooking at home. If this discussion had taken place a year ago, I would have wondered if we were both all right.

I've found extra time to spend at the Toybox. I've worked on some infrastructure projects, making the shop work better, as well as creating projects for others. I even made a couple of sales through Etsy. It's kind of nice to think about projects I have completed being out there, making others smile or telling a story about how they found this woodworker in the middle of Iowa. 

When I moved back to Iowa and set up the Toybox, I thought of myself as a decent woodworker. I am much better today. This has been driven by the simple fact that I am doing more woodworking. In the past, when I wanted to work, I had to move cars out of the way, and then pull tools and product out of the spaces they were stored in to get work done. It took a large commitment of time and energy just to set up and tear down. All time taken away from actual woodworking.

One day about ten years ago, Dan Keller and I had a conversation. Dan owns an architectural casework and millwork shop, and I've known him for years. He told me that if I wanted to be a better woodworker, I needed to do more woodworking. Wow, right? This is nothing we have not all heard in the past, in many forms, but the day Dan said it to me was the day the information struck me with real impact. So, I got my shop set up and started doing more woodworking.

I believe, but time will tell if I am right, that at the end of this pandemic, we will be a society of people who are better at crafts and talents from generations before. We are going to have more and better seamstresses and quilters. Heck, Gingher can't even keep their replacement blades in stock on Amazon right now. We will have people who thought cooking and baking was voodoo, and now they have the ability to be successful at it. I know I am a better cook today than I was six months ago. We will have better woodworkers because there has been more shop time. It is all about practicing the skills we want to become better at. 

Don't let this opportunity escape you. Do not just sit around and complain that you are unable to see friends and go out for a pizza. That will all return, but it has to be in the right way. Take the time to decide what you have always wanted to get better at, and start practicing the skill. The first time you do something, it will probably not be great. There may be a few bad meals, dry bread, or bad sewing outcomes ahead of you. But if you commit and practice, I know there can be real success in areas you have always wanted to be better in.

Here is a picture of a potting bench I built and finished for Sara last weekend. Ten years ago, this would have been a month-long project and I'd have returned to the lumberyard multiple times as I cut things wrong, or just didn't plan ahead. 

This project came together with one trip to the lumberyard and two days in the shop. 

Practice really matters. 

Now, go work on something you always wanted to master.