My First Week Back

Time to Switch Gears

My First Week Back

The more things change the more they stay the same.

I spent the first day of my week back just cleaning up my studio. After every big project I like to take a little time to put everything back away.

I find that in putting away the detritus of my last project I'm better able to draw it to a close in my head as well. There is a time for moving on to other things. I get nothing done when I try to split my focus in too many ways.

The next morning I walked in and pulled out a big roll of leather to start cutting down. I had it out on my cutting mat and was marking out the shapes I needed to cut out when it hit me.

I could smell the leather.

Most people don't realize I can't smell leather any more. I'm around it all the time. I'm desensitized to it. So when people walk into my studio and breathe that leather smell in I just smile and nod.

Standing there though I got a good whiff.

"Oh! That's what they are talking about."

It's a good experience to have. Sometimes you spend so much time working on a thing that you forget how it feels to encounter it for the first time. I don't want to lose the perspective of experiencing my work as an outsider.

Two days after that I messed up all the work I'd done that week.

I was making some Traveler's cases. I must have been in a hurry when I was making the template I was using. After days of dyeing, drying, cutting, and stitching I snapped the first one closed and it was crooked. I went back and checked the template and sure enough one of the marks for a snap was slightly out of line.

I'd used this to mark all the work I'd done that week.

It dawned on me then what I high bar I've set for myself. I not only have to make these beautiful things, but they have to hold up to being used. For ten years I've been pushing through on momentum alone. But this break has given me a chance to step back and look at what I'm doing.

I took a moment to grieve a week's worth of wasted effort. Then I sat down and carefully crafted a new template.

I've just finished the first one with the new template. It fits together the way it should.