How Often Do You Feel Like Giving Up?

[tanda4]

So frustrating at times. Still haven't completed a full project. There is always something that I screw up.

[jackd942]

I never think about giving up...there are no such things as failures, you have just figured out ways NOT to do something:) just don't repeat it...

[electrathon]

I recomend smaller projects. There is a shorter learning curve that way and less frustrating if things go bad.

Aaron

[Dwight]

I don't remember the number of experiments Thomas Edison did before he succeeded with the electric light bulb, . . . but it was a bunch.

The success at the end of the line, . . . erased the failures. Nobody in history class moans or complains about how badly #17 went, . . . or the problems with #35, . . . or the technical obstacles that ended #56, . . . they only remember the last one, . . . as they flip the switch and the light comes on.

No matter how bad the screw up, . . . something can be learned from it, . . . or, . . . in some "leather" projects, . . . the original idea can be abandoned, . . . and the pieces used for a different project.

I've done that with holsters, . . . and belts.

I've even got a holster in my drawer, . . . waiting for a customer. I started making it, . . . got it in the 90% done stage, . . . when I realized my customer was left handed, . . . and I had created a right hand holster.

Hang in there.

May God bless,

Dwight

[TomG]

Ditto on what Aaron and Dwight said. Especially the one about smaller projects. Make a single coaster. A key fob. Something you can do in an hour or so.

It will give you the sense of accomplishment and ease the frustration

[humperdingle]

So frustrating at times. Still haven't completed a full project. There is always something that I screw up.

What kind of things have you been making?

[WScott]

Take a break for a bit, do some reading and watch some technique videos....there is so much info at your fingertips here and you tube.

If you are more specific with your troubles and post some photos I guarantee you will get help from the members here.

Hang in there, we all have those days

[Cyberthrasher]

I get irritated and walk away quite regularly, but never think of giving up. You HAVE to look at every screw up as a lesson. Analyze it, figure out what went wrong, figure out what needs to be done to keep it from happening again. It's obvious you strive for perfection, otherwise you wouldn't be asking this, but you do need to learn to use it. It's good you don't want to put out crap, so fix one thing at a time and perfect it until the whole isn't crap.

[chiefjason]

My FIL gave me some great advice years ago. He told me craftsmen aren't perfect and don't make all perfect projects. They have learned how to fix their mistakes so you don't see them.

It drives me nuts when I let something get out that isn't right. Sometimes it's me, sometimes it's materials. Drives me nuts though. I'm currently rebuilding a holster for an SP101 2.25" barrel after the customer received a beautiful new holster for a 3" barrel. Doh! Told him to carry it till the new one arrived. I'll loose money on this one but probably get another one down the road for making it right.

Then there is the box of miss cut leather in the garage, the burnt kydex, the 75% finished piece that was just wrong, the belt that was too short because the guy swore he was a 34". It happens.

Re think the project, do more research on how to do it, then come back to it. Or maybe just work through the mistake and finish it. You will learn plenty in the finishing to carry over to the next one.

[veedub3]

My shop has plenty of half completed projects and mistakes - but as stated before quitting never enters my mind. I have only been doing this for 13 months. I am bound to make a mistake daily. But what I have learned is NOT to make the same mistake again, and how to turn that mistake into a different product. I finished a iPad sleeve just yesterday and I went to put my mark on the flap and I stamped it upside down. The stamp was a brass stamp that is clearly marked showing the direction and because I was not paying attention and distracted, I stamped it upside down anyway. Now I couldn't send that one to the customer so I cut the flap down and added a strap closer instead and listed it for sale. The lesson I learned from that mistake was to kick your freeloading, always begging for a bag sister out of the shop when working on customers orders.

Karina

[artycpt]

I have learned more by making mistakes than by any of the projects I have had go right from the start. Every time I mess something up I make it into an experimental piece that I come up with a new technique to cover up the mistake. This leads to a lot of half finished things around that need some kind of fix or other but makes it so I always have a new skill to learn and keeps me from giving up.

[jk215]

Ive thrown more card holders and wallets across the room in fits of rage then I can remember. You just have to come to terms with the fact you are always going to mess something up and thats how you master the craft.

[cjdevito]

I get discouraged all the time - I look at the works of some of the people here and I know it will be years, if ever, before I approach the level of skill they bring to the table. In the past two years I've completed dozens of projects, but not one of which came out exactly the way I wanted it to. The thing is though that every time I make something, I learn. Improving my work is an incremental process and I accept it as such. I'm sure there are some people who've picked up the tools and discovered on the first try that they're just naturally really good with them. I'm not one of'em, and I try not to let it bother me.

There are so many parts to leathercraft, too. Tooling, construction, dyeing, finishing, design, stitching, edging... I try to make it a rule that when I hit a wall on one of these aspects to spend time trying to tackle a different one. That helps.

Interesting thing is that my work is improving. Not at the pace I want, but nevertheless. There were patterns I bought when I was just starting out that I ended up putting aside at the time as being beyond what I could do at that point. I've since come back to them and managed to do them.

Be patient with yourself. The main thing you need with a hobby like this a desire to do it. As long as the desire is there and you keep plugging away at it, you'll improve. You just have to be okay with the idea it may not happen as quickly as you'd like.

Oh, and even when you feel you've messed a project up I recommend finishing it regardless. Two reasons. One, it's finished - it may not be quite right, but you got though it and you'll have a better idea what to do next time. It didn't beat you. Second reason, because learning from your mistakes is often one of the best ways to improve. If you give up on a project you lose a lot of learning opportunity, but if you take the attitude of "It's already messed up, so I don't have to worry about messing it up any more.... that means I can try this, and this, and that, and see what works and what doesn't" you can pick up a lot of knowledge even from a failed piece.