It's easy to get discouraged when you feel like you are lost in a sea of other voices. It can get downright depressing when you post a project you have been slaving away on for months to only get 5 reactions from your closest family members. You post into your favorite maker group and 2 people click on it before it's washed away by the swell of other people wanting the group's attention. You get scolded for cross posting in different maker groups because it's annoying... So, how do you keep posting? How do you keep engaging when you feel like you can't get any traction? Here are some things we did recently that are currently helping us out a lot when it comes to motivation and see a little uptick in attention. Plus some silver linings about being a small fish.
TELL YOUR STORY One way to get past the issue of no one reacting with what you are doing is to do it for yourself and ignore the statistics. Statistical data can be good when you want to evaluate what worked and how to replicate it but spending days looking at flat lined numbers does nothing for your creative spirit. For a time you have to put that to the side. In the beginning the numbers will never be significant enough to read anything in to. In 2016 we had this vision that we could start showcasing some of the things we were working on on social media. About 7 years prior to that I was trying to showcase that stuff in facebook "vlogs" before our wedding. People liked them, and I wish I would have stuck with it because they are really fun to look back on. I hadn't stuck with it because of self doubt. I thought maybe they were boring or stupid or too self serving and eventually I just talked myself out of it. Flash forward to 2016, I wasn't really into the Maker Community like Ben was. He had long been watching the high-speed videos that i found so annoying to listen to. Drills at super sonic pitch speed whistling over the book I was trying to read or the game I was trying to play. Why was that so compelling? What did he enjoy so much about this awful noise. Obviously, it wasn't the noise. It may not have even been the build. It was the story that Jimmy Diresta was telling. If you look at his approach - people don't flock to him for the one off builds usually. No, it's that they love seeing him tell the long story of life as a maker. Think of each of his videos as paragraphs in that novel. Who does he interact with, where does he go, what tips does he employ, how does he come up with ideas, who employs him, why is he building a teepee? If you are recording what you are doing you are creating an archive of your journey and the mindset shouldn't be about the individual builds or even the clicks. That will make it worthwhile even if you never make a cent off of publishing your video novel. You are recording your story, your progress, your style, you are showcasing your voice. Jimmy didn't start out with a huge audience, he had to develop a following and he has shared his history in several different talks. Most of the time he indicates that the story is the most important ingredient. Focusing on story telling - why a build is being done, exposing the challenges with the build and inviting discussion about that has effectively changed something that was so transactional into being about so much more. It's OUR builder's biography. Talk about a motivation changer and a shift in gears. STAY DETERMINED We haven't hit the monetization bench marks for YouTube Standards with SST, for a hot minute that was really frustrating. Not because of monetizations or the issues involved with it - it was that they had set bench marks and goals that seemed to dissolve in an instant after we met them. That being said, what we did start to feel discouraged about was seeing that our audience had kind of plateaued. Where were we going wrong? Why were people not finding us? Folks we talk to whom have been around for a while said it just takes time. Keep posting and eventually you'll catch fire. Stick with it has been their mantra. Some folks you see skyrocket in the first month they post, others it takes several years. Ben says it's like catching lightening in a bottle. Bobby Duke took off when he made something universally popular and interesting. Paul Jackman worked at it diligently for several years consistently building great things infused with his humor. Evan and Katelyn have worked hard to cultivate a community around them, they are everywhere at every event I see, they make themselves available. John Malecki and Brad Rodriguez focused on their builds but also created a great podcast resource with amazing branding. Andy Rawls focused on the quiet pursuit of cabinetry. Watching him is like watching an intricate dance. Then he shifted and expanded a bit to bring more content and showcase more of his business. They all pursued different avenues to get to a recognizable place. Whether by accident, ingenuity or by filling a void - each was unique in their approach. One thing that they all had in common is that they kept working. They never stopped and were flexible in what they chose to do. So, our focus has to be on just doing and recording what we love to make and with each other. We will find our voice eventually, it just may take a lot of tossing noodles at a wall to see what sticks before we get to where we want to be. BE YOURSELF, BE UNIQUE At first when we started out in social media, we showcased a mask of ourselves. I don't think it's that uncommon to do that. It's probably a protection mechanism. If I'm not me, then when mean comments come up - it won't hurt as bad. People see right through that and click to move on to the next thing. Personality is a big draw. The way we had been approaching our videos is that we didn't talk much through the videos, just stayed matter of fact. A year later we were invited to be a part of an episode of Maker Monday and thought maybe we should just be ourselves, Pittsburgh Jagoffs. The feedback has been good and we have come to realize people enjoy the two of us together and how we play off each other. We'll definitely showcase that more in the future. It's really hard to get over the fear of exposing who you are to an audience. I should have known that from my history of being a song writer, but I'm not always good at connecting the dots. EXPERIMENT WITH NEW TECHNIQUES/CHALLENGES Too many dicks on the dance floor is a great song by Flight of the Concords. The men are lamenting that there are just all dudes and no ladies to dance with. The maker community can be very similar in regard to projects (not just gender) If everyone is working on a river table - there is nothing unique being showcased - just a bunch of reproductions of someone else's idea. Sometimes being unique is good and one thing that I personally have been enjoying is that I'm one of the few potters in our section of town. It's been very recent that I shook off the nerves and posted my first pieces to one of our maker groups. Once I started to share what I thought - no one in the group would be interested in - we started getting a lot more engagement. What's common isn't always what's going to get attention. In my day job life, if you are designing packaging for shelf you want it to stand out and be unique, if your cookie packaging looks like every other marketer's approach to selling cookies - the isle is boring and the consumer won't notice yours over another. We're trying to be more mindful of this as well in our arena. Ben is a wood worker like most of the folks we interact with. He was feeling bummed that his work wasn't being noticed in the sea of other wood workers, so, he started doing more unique projects. Odd takes on existing techniques. He made a mug out of a log. He took a traditional lathe bracelet and made it without the use of a lathe. To date, those are some of our top viewed projects. We had to break free of the thought process that if we don't do something the way it's supposed to be done we aren't adding to the narrative, we'll get called out. People are at all different levels of development with their hobbies and their careers. Embracing where we are and letting others share in our achievements as we grow is much more fun than just trying to pretend to know how to do everything. It's even more effective than we could have thought. Even benign posts about learning or failing at something can spur on interaction we never expected and might win us some really great new friends. In fact, people actually wait for when we post our updates and get excited with us when we finally figure a problem out. COMMUNITY BUILDING Investment in community is the biggest thing we have been realizing is important. The last two posts in my Maker's Notes have been focused on that theme. As your community outreach grows so does your audience. People who share common interests are going to give you the most value for their view because they are going to reach out to you. Don't let it be one sided though - it's not a one way transaction. Don't expect to spam post in a grouping and then not participate when other's post their content, questions or stories. It is important to share, but it's also important to participate actively. Eventually as you grow in your role in the community, folks are going to message you about whayou are doing - YOU WILL MAKE AMAZING CONNECTIONS. They will keep you motivated, uplifted and you will do the same for them. What's even more fun is when you get to connect with them in person. We doubled the size of our community within the first couple of months just by ignoring the numbers and focusing on interacting with people. At the end of the day, it's going to be much more enriching and rewarding to work in that sphere than to just have a bunch of empty subscribers who subscribe to your channel but never like or comment on your videos. If you can't tell, I am really loving our clan right now. One thing that we did to pair down the facebook groups was to focus on the smaller groups we joined and not as much the groups that are 1K+ people strong. The bigger audience of the 1K member groups is a problem because you are much easier to miss because of the way the timelines present your posts. You may post a really fantastic comment or photo and within minutes there are 50 others that have pushed your post to the bottom of the feed. We've found much more value in a more intimate group if we need feedback on our work. We'll post a few things in the major groups and actively participate on other's posts, but we don't focus as much on trying to get a response from our posts in them. It's built our confidence back up having a smaller group to talk with. It's more intimate and the value is so much greater when you get to know people this way. Our goal is to tell an honest, unique story by pushing ourselves to experience things that may be a bit out of our wheelhouse and sharing with a great group of people. Maybe after a while we'll be invited to a comedy show or two. Until then, we just have to relax and enjoy the build.
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Previously in my Maker's Notes I talked a bit about community and why it is the fuel of what we are doing. The best way to grow your community is to participate and participating means meet-ups. For Ben, the idea of interacting with a group of people is not in his sweet spot. He describes his position as having low social needs and has a take it or leave it attitude with going to functions. He'd much rather be in his wood shop than out on the town for a night. When you see him at a networking event or even a family function, he is usually the quiet guy at the table just taking things in. If you can get him going though, he is as charming as the next guy and has the most contagious hearty laugh - but that's only if you can get him to engage. Now, that is in a normal social setting - I've recently come to find out that Ben immediately comes out of his shell when there are a group of makers around and it is delightful. Funnily enough, I've also seen this with a few other of my introverted maker friends. Earlier this year we decided to drive up to Cleveland after finding out that there was going to be a Lincoln hosted maker meet-up event in the heart of town. Cleveland is about a 3 hour drive for us. So, we got a sitter and made our plans. My initial concern was that it was going to be at a loud bar and we didn't really know anyone on a personal level. Two things that usually shut Ben down. It was only our second maker centric meet-up and I wasn't really sure what to expect. The first was in NYC that I wrote about last week. That was great, but it was a bit chaotic. This one seemed like it was more organized and there were at least a few people that we knew for sure would be there. We were fortunate enough to visit with Tim Cunningham of The Urban Forge on our way to town. He showed us his set up in his garage and talked to us about how he teaches at another local facility called 'Soul Craft'. He talked to us a little bit about how to set up our own home forge and even offered to come help us if we needed it! It was inspiring to learn how he was incorporating his passion for metal work into his life. He is an amazing teacher and is offering classes to his community on all different types of forging. It's just one way to keep a hobby paid for - learn so you can teach so you can learn. When we got to downtown Cleveland, we valet parked near the restaurant (Rockstar Parking!) I hadn't been to Cleveland other than to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in high school and that was quite a while ago. I really didn't know how close the lake was to downtown. What a cool city. We were a bit early so Ben decided to take me around his old work place. He lit up talking about the antics he would get into with the other security guards at one of the tallest buildings in Cleveland. He showed me some artwork around the building and we toured a few tourist hotspots as well. It was a good start to a pretty decent day out. It also helped to do that and release some nervous energy before we went to the meet-up. When it was close to time we walked back to the location. As soon as we approached the restaurant I saw a familiar face and fellow Pittsburgher, Gib Clark. We were going to be OK. Gib is known as a friendly and relaxed guy who is always up to introduce new folks to the inner circle. Let me tell you - he was the best tour guide we could have asked for that night. We hadn't met him face to face before, just commented on each other's work online. Funny, since we only live like 20 minutes apart. I think he even made several jokes about having to drive 3 hours to meet each other. Anyway, he introduced us to some really great folks who were initially in the front part of the bar waiting for the Lincoln festivities to start. Bob Lee was one of the first folks Gib introduced us to. He is a local Ohio maker with his own woodshop channel on youtube, Bob Lee's Woodshop. Bob does some amazing scroll work and is superbly kind and sweet. Before the gang got there we headed down to the private area in the lower level. This is the first time Ben and I got separated from each other, I'm not sure where he went to so I just stuck with 'Gibby' (as I now know he is lovingly called) and chatted up with a few other folks. Ben came back to me with a wicked grin on his face. "Heidi, someone just recognized me and introduced themselves. They knew my work and wanted to talk to me about it. I can't believe someone knew who I was!" That person was Trevor Higgins from Dusty Squeak. A really talented guy that we follow on his instagram feed. Trevor doesn't post a lot of photos of himself, so, it's no surprise Ben didn't recognize him immediately. When we were talking with Trevor the Lincoln crew rolled in. Laura Kampf, Brett McAffee, Jimmy Diresta, April Wilkerson, John Malecki, Brad Rodriguez, Izzy Swan, Zach Herberholz and several others were all in town to be trained by Lincoln Electric on welding techniques. The entire event was orchestrated by Lincoln. When they got there, I lost track of Ben again. He was so excited to talk to some of these folks it was something I'd never seen happen before. Ben was being a social butterfly. He was so giddy and engaged with everyone there. I really couldn't believe it. As impressed as I was to see him go, he was even more impressed that one of his creative heroes, Jimmy Diresta was so approachable. Honestly, I had a hard time focusing because I'd never seen Ben like this - EVER - even when we were amongst groups of friends we've known for years. While Ben took it all in, I started digging into my satchel. I had packed with me some mugs to hand out. The first was for Gib. He snagged the Chewbacca mug. He was so delighted to receive one and immediately started drinking out of it. The reason I wanted to give one to him was because he was just so sincerely encouraging with my pottery any time I would post anything. When you are an artist and are your worst critic, putting wares online for people to view can be absolutely overwhelming and scary. With Gibby, he wants everyone to be successful and is part of the glue of the community. He links people together and shares their passions. It's the people like Gib who buzz around and make sure everyone feel welcomed that make it feel so friendly. In any village you need that type of person. They care for the community in such a unique way. By monitoring the landscape they make sure no one is left out. They touch base with people that have fell silent for a while and try and bring them back to the fold. Not everyone has the compassion or mindset for that type of role, but our boy Gibby is that person. If someone gets sick or needs anything, you bet it's gonna be him leading the charge to make sure that person gets what they need from the community. The next mug I gave to Brett McAffee. I had just been introduced to his channel through a podcast he is on with one of my favorite people Al from Al's Hack Shack. Their podcast is called Fools with Tools and it is really fun and inspiring. Steve House is the third host in the trifecta. Al and Steve are UK based, while Brett is referred to as Jimmy's little sister. Brett works with Jimmy in New York helping him out with busy work and shop maintenance. Brett has a great take on being a maker and offers some really entertaining build videos on YouTube. His themed approach to his channel is really awesome and it really seems that he has found his creative voice. As for the show, FWT is one of those podcasts that has really relatable hosts who aren't afraid to share their experiences with each other and their listeners. Having watched his channel and listened to the cast, I knew Brett loved video games and was someone I really wanted to work with in the future. So, I brought him a Majora's Mask mug. I chose that mug because he built a full size Link Bow from the game Zelda. The other fools, Al and Steve were a bit jealous - they'll get theirs eventually though, I promise boys. Brett and the boys give voice to the challenges, fun, tom-foolery, and education that we all love about this world. While I was chatting with Brett, Gib brought up my next favorite maker in the whole world, Izzy Swan. I was so delighted and received the BIGGEST bear hug. It was amazing. He was one of the first major YouTubers to provide feedback to us and opened the door to us realizing that there was a wonderful community available to us. This guy has such an inventors brain and we have loved watching the stuff he has built over the last year. It is inspiring to watch him create a makers space in Michigan and invite other makers to help build it out with him. From the things he builds for his kids to his crazy drill powered ride on contraptions, I'm just blown away by his talent. It was absolutely my turn to be awestruck. IZZY FRIGGIN SWAN GAVE ME A HUG. I gave him a mug. He has been drinking out of it in a few of his insta videos. He even asked for a bigger one, which I'm in the process of engineering. Izzy is the type to open his shop doors to share his knowledge and bring others with him on his journey. The last mug I gave to Laura Kampf. I've been following her since Ben introduced me to YouTube maker channels last year. She has grown so much as a star in the community. Traveling the globe giving talks about living a maker life. Her story is one that makes me wish I would have been adventurous enough to do in college and right after. She truly went after her dreams with such determination. Her builds are really interesting but the way she films them are so cinematically beautiful, she reeled me in. The way she balances shots and music is amazing and I learn something new ever time I watch one of her videos - aside from just how to make whatever she is making. Even with her growing popularity, she is so down to earth and kind. She doesn't have much time but when you get to meet her, it's like she could just be an old friend from college that you are reconnecting with. She is very genuine and encouraging. It's people like Laura who rise in the community but aren't afraid to bring others with her that make her a pillar. It was getting late but we were so jazzed up about how fun the evening was going we regrouped around 11 PM thinking of an exit strategy. That would get us home around 1 AM. Did we talk to every one we wanted? We didn't get a whole lot of photos but that's not why we were there. Did we hand out stickers? Did Heidi get enough to drink? Yes, we were set. So, we made the journey back to the burgh. For days it felt like we were glowing. So happy to have spent time with such an amazing crew. So excited for what the future looks like and really looking forward to the next meet-up. By taking a step out of our comfort zone we were once again able to connect with an amazing group of people and grow our network a bit wider. We met so many additional people who are such a daily encouragement when we post anything on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. People like Figments Made, Maker in Training, Prusa Wood Works, Tim Webster, Marielle Brinkman and Lisa Cravens-Brown. We got to share our enthusiasm and thank those folks in our community that are such a blessing to us all. It was well worth the travel time. So, if you or your maker friend are feeling a bit lonely - or you are nervous about going to a posted meet-up - maybe our experience will help you get over those butterflies and go. AuthorHeidi Jacobs is the Co-Founder of Slap Stuff Together, a maker's studio. She is also a Project Manager by day and part time professional photographer. If you would like to learn more about SST's adventures as a new start up you can follow them on Instagram or on Facebook. If you would like to learn more about their startup you can drop them a line at [email protected] I was recently asked why posting and interacting with the YouTube and Instagram communities was 'worth it.' Of course they were talking about how was I converting that time and effort spent into dollars and cents. To be frank, we're not making money hand over fist - we're not seeing a business model that gives back more than we put in financially when it comes to social media. When the follow up question is, 'then why bother?' my only response is because of the COMMUNITY. If you speak to religious folks, one of the biggest values they find in church is a shared connection with other people. They teach about it in their ministries as well, the need to surround yourself with others so they can keep you uplifted and remind you of why you exist. To help reaffirm your beliefs and faith. Congregate in groups of two or more and there God will join you. There are identifiable similarities for those in the creative community. Not every artist is a recluse or introvert or "Solopreneurs" who benefit from being disconnected from normalcy. Most of us desire the same thing everyone else does, validation. Creatives have a desire for people to bounce their ideas off of, mentors to give them advice, muses to inspire their creativity, and people who will value them and what they are doing. God comes in the form of inspiration when two or more are gathered. This isn't to say that the creative community is a replacement for a church or religion or any other functional communal experience, I'm certainly not advocating one above all, but more like a pretty amazing companion for those who desire it. With the arrival of the internet, people from all around the globe now have the ability to find new congregations for whatever interests they have. It can be as benign as people looking for other people who knit funky creatures, or more nefarious reasons as we've seen play out in recent years with radicalizations of thought and action. With every positive there is an opportunity to corrupt and distort the original intention. My hope is that the positive interactions far outweigh the negative. In fact, the internet is responsible for so much of what Ben and I have, including our marriage. We met online when meeting online was a bit taboo. It has brought many additional opportunities to us as well. Like: Etsy and Fiverr to sell our wares; Facebook and Linkedin to help reconnect with family, friends, and colleagues; Pinterest and Instructables to gain inspiration. In the case of Slap Stuff Together, we have been introduced to an amazing group of talented individuals who do so much to inspire us on a regular basis. By meeting these people online, we've been inspired to seek out others locally who also are active in this community. Ben and I have already begun to reap copious amounts of benefits from our interactions. We're consistently inspired by seeing what other people are working on. We are encouraged by new and amazing mentors in our disciplines and we're able to open up to a new understanding of what we can be as artists/makers/parents/spouses. The connections have brought opportunities to collaborate on projects and even brought new customers to our shop. Last year, Ben and I stepped out of our comfort zone and took a trip to Maker Faire New York. It was our first dive into interacting with a community that we'd kind of been nervous bystanders in. It's not that people weren't welcoming, it's just that we were new and weren't sure what to expect - very similar to any new relationship or activity. During the day we wandered around the Hall of Science grounds in Queens. We were feeling one part in awe and another part out of place. A lot of the booths that were there were filled with technology we'd never really been interested in before. Ben was a little down because there wasn't much woodworking and I was just a bit overwhelmed by all of the things I just had no idea existed. Fortunately our awkwardness changed, the highlight of our day was a talk being given by several content creators; 'I like to Make Stuff', 'Maker's Muse', and '3D printing nerd'. They talked about their foray into YouTube and this community, highlighting on what was making them successful and what their plans were in the future. Along with the information from the talk we also benefited by being able to have a mini meet-up outside the hall with some really fantastic people; Bernie Solo, Paul Jackman, Pat Lap, Kyle from 'Chasen Makes', 'ijessup', Evan and Katelyn and a slue of others. They were so fun to spend time with. Plus, we finally felt like the trip was well worth it. This was what we had been hungry for, engaging with people that understood our mindsets and passion for the same things. OH, and to swap stickers - lots of stickers. This community is emphatic about them. Due to our experience in NYC we started to become more active in the facebook groups. Having met some of the folks in person made it easier to interact and share. Our network has continued to blossom and we're finding more and more ways to incorporate our passions into our small business and share our world with those around us who doubted the value before. We've made new friends locally as well as internationally. One of the highlights has definitely been watching the spirit of this community grow so quickly. Two weeks ago was Maker's Central in Bermingham, UK. We were unable to attend but still got to participate because of our dear friends who were there. They took our stickers with them and posted videos sharing their experience with those of us who were unable to attend. We got to be a part of it vicariously through live streams on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. What an amazing time to live in. We have found our tribe and our tribe has found us. Quite frankly though, the biggest benefit of sharing what we do is helping to ignite curiosity and creativity in other people. It has never been more apparent to us how many people gave up pursuing their creativity because our society doesn't see the value in it. People are desperate to work with their hands and learn trades and crafts after years of being told there is no use in it. Nothing highlights that more than our experience from the start with people's biggest reaction being - where is the money in what you are doing? I have my moments where I'm like, yeah, this is hard not having a whole lot of money - I'm tired because I'm doing so much more than I'm used to. BUT if I sit and really look at it on a normal day, I wouldn't trade what we have gained for any amount of money. I've never seen Ben happier than when he gets to share what he is working on. Personally, I've spent so much less time in front of a TV screen wasting time in the last year. I'm much more driven to accomplish tangible things than I ever have been. I have no doubt that as a result, we will be rewarded in the future with better health, better relationships, and maybe just maybe a way to inspire those around us. Not to mention, Carver will grow up seeing us actively pursuing the things we love and not just tirelessly working as cogs in a broken system. Heidi Jacobs is the Co-Founder of Slap Stuff Together, a maker's studio. She is also a Project Manager by day and part time professional photographer. If you would like to learn more about SST's adventures as a new start up you can follow them on Instagram or on Facebook. If you would like to learn more about their startup you can drop them a line at [email protected] We have a 2 year old. Similar to most at his age, he loves to watch and participate in whatever we are doing. In our side hustles, that can make it difficult to get project work completed. Think power tools and saws, dangerous chemicals and breakable items. We never want to put our kid in harms way but we also don't want to stifle his curiosity. As Mother's Day approaches I am very mindful of how my actions could affect my son as he grows and engages with me and I'm also feeling a bit reflective. I remember when I was a kid my dad would say, "go tell your mom she wants you." It was his way to tell me to leave him be and cue my mom to step in. He would be elbow deep in grease and trying to put brakes on the car that he was desperate to get just one more year out of. Times were tight, we had one vehicle this grey and rusty clunker. My mom would pull me into the house and have me play with legos or my little brother. As a child, I was just as curious as any kid. Plus, I'm sure the younger version of myself just wanted to spend time with my dad. He was my hero, he could fix anything and was a genius with tools. His time was very limited. He had to repair the vehicles, mow the grass, move that heavy thing for mom, get enough sleep so he could work a double the next day. In his 1980's life, life wasn't as balanced in the household that we live in currently. He worked full time and my mom was a stay at home mom. They had their separate gender roles in the housework and in their relationship to the kids. On top of that, shift work was his reality which meant his time was even more limited. No one can blame him for it, I certainly do not. Even with those challenges he faced, some of my fondest memories involve when he did take any extra time to spend teaching me. He would engage my curiosity and let me solder something or screw the bolts back into place on a piece of machinery he had just repaired. Every chance I got I would push to see what he was doing. I adored those times and still do. As a result, I want to share as much of my experience that I can with Carver and so does Ben. We never want him to feel he isn't welcome to join us in our endeavors. We've made a concerted effort to expand our world to bring Carver into every thing we can. Effort is the key here, it's not easy and it doesn't come naturally. It requires both of us to step into each other's worlds and sometimes put aside our own urgencies or desires to finish things quickly. That can be a tough hurdle because there are still only 24 hours in a day and our time all together is limited to Saturdays. Planning for activities and chores when there isn't a second person can be a challenge, but we make it work the best that we can. In the evenings when I'm alone, instead of working on projects that Carver can't be around for, I let him play with the clay and get dirty in my studio. That way I'm not frustrated because I can't get anything accomplished and my creative needs are being met. Plus, there is always something to do in there. Even for just an hour I will work on 3D Printing, blog writing, clay work, painting, printmaking etc. Bonus is that Carver can hang around for those things and even participate in some. When Ben is home, I can work on projects that are a bit more 'PPE time' (we'll call it that), like using power tools or carving with chisels where you need Personal Protection Equipment. Ben will bring him around and talk to him about what I'm doing so Carver is at a safe distance but can see where mommy is and know what I'm working on. It works visa-versa with Ben's projects too. Both of us get our time and Carver gets to be included and learn. It doesn't have to just be about creative projects either, it can include those chores like mowing the grass or repairing a leaky sink. It's good for him to be a witness to those things. It's even better when we take a step back and acknowledge even though the project might take a little more effort if he is there, it's so much more valuable to share that experience with him rather than having him as a bystander. Carver is already intent on mimicking what we are doing, he pushes around his little push mower after seeing Ben do it. He uses the broom like he's seen both of us do. He pats his lump of clay like I'm doing when I'm forming the balls of clay to throw on the wheel. It's so rewarding to see him put what he is seeing into action. Ben and I both are constantly amazed at this little person taking it all in. As my dad says, "thems new eyes" As we learn about what type of parents we want to be and to be more aware of each other's needs, we'll be able to navigate these waters of the Dual Maker + Child lifestyle a little better. What's even more exciting will be when we can graduate Carver from finger paints to soldering tools and scroll saws. It will be amazing when we can let him loose on his own projects while we work as well. OR even to have him mow the grass and fix the leaky sink. I certainly can't wait but I'm loving the role that I have now. I'm thankful to my dad for giving me the wrench when he had the ability to and I'm really enjoying motherhood so much more than I ever thought I would, it's so very worth any sacrifice. |
HEIDI JACOBSSmall Business owner and Artist, committed to growing as a maker as well as sharing her and her husband's experience with owning a small maker studio. Archives
June 2019
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