I am told there are people who spend hours of their lives taking small, pretty (or not so pretty) odds and ends and turn them into larger, prettier objects by using something sticky, sharp, or stringy. These magical manifestations are perpetrated by people (they are actually known as ‘crafty people’) who are so organized that they save all their old corks, paperclips, hopes and dreams. These people are so meticulous that it’s astonishing. I have many friends who are this sort of people, and they are astonishing.
When visiting them, I usually spend at least half my time wandering around their houses looking at their perfect picture frames, hand carved blocks for their children, and paintings that reflect all the places where they have lived. (For those of us who only have one picture and vague recollections of entire trips, please continue in your craft filled ways. The world needs you.)
They tell me that they actually find joy in going through all the individual steps…..gathering all the tiny pieces of colored paper in the first place, remembering to save EACH INDIVIDUAL PAPERCLIP IN THE SAME PLACE, and then REMEMBERING WHERE THAT PLACE IS, and then actually intentionally making time later in their lives to bring all the corks back out of the closet/drawer/attic and follow a 14 step plan that involves FINDING MORE THINGS like glue/thread/paintbrushes. (I can barely do ONE of these steps, much less all 17.)
Let me tell you how this would work for me. After somehow completing all those task above, it would take me hours hours to create something that might actually never get used. In fact, the craftier something is the less likely it is that it will ever be used! This is for two reasons: first of all, if I am making something where functionality is the first priority, I probably should not be making it in the first place. I know there must be people in the world who are actually good at making wine cork bath mats, but it is definitely not me; whose sole experience with cork is opening a bottle of wine, and whose bathmat knowledge is limited to picking out the right color at Target.
And second of all, the craftier something is the more complicated it is, which leaves way more room for error. If the craft is paint by number on an already made tote-bag, it’s simple. But if I am gathering the clay in my backyard, forming the pot in my kiln, making my own paints to paint fake flowers on a pot made for real flowers, just think! I will probably get the wrong clay, I am terrible at pottery, and have an unsteady hand painting, and if any ONE of these things happen I won’t have a wonderful flower pot to show people how crafty and clever I am!
Although, come to think of it, I’m not sure a paint by number on an already made tote bag would be any more beautiful. At least, I always see an 8 when it’s actually a 3, and then my lobsters end up bright blue on a rusty red sand.
Crafts, man. They get me every time.
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