Dealing With Discouragement

[capnmeow]

here is a small kio fish and a small patch of a marvel superhero

[DoubleC]

OK I can see you need to work some on your painting, but overall I think they are excellent. And the perspective you got on Spidey is great, really pops to me. So really your frustration is more with time and the expense?

There are a lot of small things you could make and try to sell, your patches for instance that would give you more money for supplies. Time I can't really help with Capn. You'll have to figure that one out, sorry. Cheryl

[capnmeow]

well another thing is im pretty much voice acting alot that is where my time is really being sucked into .... and selling my tools could land me a bit of cash to were i could have a bit of a better audio

[DoubleC]

Then you just need to decide where you want to spend your time, and what you like to do best. Just because you like something better than leather doesn't make you some kind of failure. I couldn't list the things I've tried and lost interest in before this, would take all n ight at my age :-) Cheryl

[Northmount]

Remember that family is very important. If other things have to take a back seat for some period of time, so be it.

You do need to focus on something. Spreading yourself too thin on too many things doesn't work. You won't be good at any of them, where otherwise you could be really great at 1 or 2 things.

Good luck with whatever field you decide to choose as your main focus.

CTG

[jmkjmk2]

The more I look ahead instead of looking to the past, the more hope and encouragement I have. Best wishes my friend. Keep working.

[Mudruck]

dealing with discouragement : so how do you, as a leather worker, deal with discouragement in either not being able to get a technique, the response and feed back from others or art websites, or just biting off more then you can chew.

My experience so far is mostly frustration and futile efforts leading to wasted hours and a hint of guilty to were im ready to just "close shop" and sell my tools which would catch me a good chunk of change.

Heh, yea, been there... doing a quote, taking the job and getting started to find out that you bit off way more then you thought it was going to be. TO me that is just part of the learning process. When I did up my first tank/fender bib set and found out that the tooling the customer wanted was going to take me about twice what I had thought it was going to from the start... ouch! Now I know that I should add in a little extra time and be much more careful about how I quote a job when detailed tooling is involved.

Now as for technique... isnt that what the scrap bin is for? Almost every piece of 'scrap' that I have is covered in swivel knife cuts, test stamps and other stuff that I wanted to practice.

[countrywoman]

I absolutely agree with @northmount.

I should like also to say a few words: "Success comes from within." This is not my wisdom, but it is my own experience.

Edited June 14, 2012 by countrywoman

[Stewart]

Capnmeow,

In the 70's. $5. am hour was going nowhere. I received a set of tools and tried leather.Master at first swivel cut-- NO.

Buying leather out of question. So i sit aside the tools,found a company just starting out and put total effort in growing my

career as the company grew to 5 branches. Keys to everyone of them. when retired picked up the tools and started

messing with leather again. Frustrations yes. Going past ability is frustrating and seeing the work shown here is double frustrating.

As in any Art, you have to have a tad of talent and a lot of practice to get quality work. You can raw it out-It will be a

long hair pulling road and I believe looking at it as an 8 hr job. I do have a mentor and a family friend. Luke Hatley.

These times are different,Jobs harder to get and company's loyalty does not match workers loyalty any more.

You can sell your tools to better your earnings and buy them when you income is comfortable or retired or you can save them

and work with them if you unfortunately have a working break.

As for the fustration goes. redo untill you feel good with it . If it doesn't get better.try a different project in leather

till you hit on something falls into place.I showed Luke a coaster pattern i wanted to do. 3 times no good. Set it aside

untill my abilty devolipes to where i can work on it again.

Joe

Edited June 14, 2012 by Stewart

[capnmeow]

well guys thanks for all the support i am going to do maybe one or 2 more projects then give this a rest