Brass Guitar Picks

Brass guitar picks are probably not going to be a product I will be offering in my shop any time soon, but making them certainly helped me advance my metal working skills a little.

My hubby plays the guitar, and I wanted to surprise him on his return from a business trip. My original idea was to make a guitar pick and engrave my darling´s name on it, but further down in this post you will see why I decided to leave the finished pick plain in the end.

First of all, I grabbed one of my hubby´s plastic guitar picks and drew its outline on a piece of paper. That, I cut out and glued it onto a 20 gauge brass sheet. The next step was sawing it out with a hand saw. Once that was done, I simply rubbed the paper stencil off under running water. So far, so good!

Given that the raw pick had rather sharp, irregular edges, some sanding and polishing was necessary. This gave me the opportunity to try out my new rotary tool by Dremel. I started with the roughest sanding wheel and worked myself down to finer bits from there. I also wanted to round the edges off so they were less thick than the center of the pick.

I was quite pleased with the end result. Only the surface of the pick needed some polishing to get rid of the traces the work process had left on it.

And now the frustrating bit: working with the engraver apparently requires practice, because my attempts at writing even one single letter came out miserable. I just couldn´t figure out how to deal with the vibration of the engraver and keep my lines smooth. I did rehearse on a piece of scrap metal, but was ultimately not satisfied with the results. They looked as if I had worked whilst suffering a bout of tachycardia. Meh.

However, the story has a happy ending. My hubby came back safe and sound from his trip, and loved his new guitar pick. It doesn´t only look very posh, but also produces a fuller sound than plastic picks - especially when playing chords. I might repeat this project!

Is empiricism (learning as you go) a viable path towards becoming an artist or artisan?

Well, first of all, I believe you should never stop learning anyways, no matter how accomplished you already are. But there is more to the question.

Especially for aspiring artists, hands-on practice is immensely important. When I graduated from high school and was expected to choose a field of study, I longingly glanced at performing and fine arts. Stacks of university pamphlets were accumulating in my room. Exciting degrees were beckoning, promising to open doors to a lifestyle I associated with happiness. Yet invariably, the details of the admissions process stopped me dead in my tracks. Along with your application, you needed to submit a competitive portfolio or prove you had substantial work experience. If you did both, better still. Not even twenty years old, and I had already missed the train. I patched together portfolios for film academies and failed, unsurprisingly. I imagined professors opening my portfolio, chuckling, and throwing it into the trash bin. Having "well-meaning" professionals tell me I was unfit for the field because I lacked vision and personality did the rest. Enrolling in a randomly picked humanities degree because that´s what you do when you run out of options, or when you can´t figure out what you want in the first place, seemed nonsensical.

So I became aimless. I moved half-way around the planet and, against all odds, chewed my way through to two degrees in classical piano, knowing full well I was neither good nor eager enough to stand my ground as a professional in that genre. However, those titles allowed me to earn a living as a music teacher. I was still thirsty for a different kind of existence, but at least I had evaded the horror-scenario of a meaningless nine-to-five job or plain unemployment.

Meanwhile, internet had become ubiquitous not only as a means of communication, but also as a platform for self-expression and self-marketing in all imaginable fields. It was more than a mere technical novelty - it also promoted cultural shifts. Suddenly, you didn´t need authoritative approval to make yourself heard or have your work published. Of course, a lot of charlatans felt encouraged by this circumstance, but it also provided all those with a fair shot who were the autodidactic, empirical type rather than the structured academic or seasoned business strategist. A fresh Zeitgeist and alternative approaches to life were being generated.

Personally, however, I was stuck in an outdated mindset. Dreams were a nice thing to have, I had been taught, but they were to remain dreams and the highest virtue was to live with a realistic and skeptical attitude. My family wouldn´t believe me if I told them I actually tried taking this lesson to heart, but that unfortunately, it was incompatible with my nature. I would have had to shatter myself to pieces to follow the norm, but then you don´t really get anywhere when you´re broken, do you?  

In my spare time, I had occasionally dabbled at making jewelry and sporadically indulged in DIY projects. Nonetheless, I was convinced my existence was doomed to remain unfulfilled. All things beautiful were out of reach. Remember, you need portfolios, and certified experience, a vision, personality... I just didn´t have the infamous "it" - the magical ingredient that makes you a star or an artist by birth. What a nasty echo to carry around in your head!

I wasn´t oblivious of the internet. In fact, I had been telecommuting as an author for learning software while I was studying music. But it wasn´t until I ran into someone who was using the new media and a whole lot of initiative to define themselves as an independent artist, when something finally clicked. She showed me her shop on Etsy. I was instantly hooked and, from there onwards, spent innumerable hours browsing the shops, marvelling at people´s creativity and artisan skill. There was no reason not to try.

Some sellers on Etsy clearly had years of thorough training under their buckle. Others displayed varying levels of technical accomplishment. I realized that, as long as you mastered the craft necessary to manufacture the specific item you had in mind and applied good taste and care during production, you could offer appealing, good quality products. If all you want to make is wire-wrapped earrings or knotted necklaces, why put the idea on hold until you have a degree in jewelry design - that is, potentially until never?    

The following year saw everything fall into place. My partner and I moved in together. Our new home had a tiny room that was too small for almost any use, but nicely accomodated a little workshop. I began experimenting with beads and textiles. The first outcomes were nowhere near fit for sale, but eventually I made pieces I liked and was comfortable showing to others. Not quite three months ago, I opened the CatYarnLoft on Etsy.

Does my shop sell a lot? Not yet. Will it make me rich? Nope. Is it revealing opportunities for learning and personal growth? Absolutely yes! Is it fun? Hell, yeah! Doing something you love brings you closer to yourself. It helps you appreciate your instincts and particularities. Each and every one of us is a unique, irrepeatable synthesis of elements - like a gemstone. It often seems as if only clear diamonds are valued, while diverging colors and inclusions are considered flaws. It´s a fallacy. You are at your most beautiful and most empowered when you appear as what you really are, not as a fake of something else. The phrase "show them what you are made of" is, in this sense, accurate advice.

I still mainly earn my living with jobs I hope to leave behind eventually. However, knowing that on the side I am exploring alternatives relieves much of the frustration caused by everyday routine. Happiness does not need to be postponed until a goal is reached. You can allow it to happen along the way. Nourish your skills and apply them as you advance. Let yourself grow. Behold what arises. Enjoy.



   

That´s me! The little guys in the basked are persian limes, freshly picked from our dear, generous tree.

This blog, most of all, is intended to be a journal about why I opened a shop on etsy (https://www.etsy.com/shop/Catyarnloft), how it forms part of a multifaceted attempt to build an independent and creative existence, what experiences I have made so far, which problems I am facing and how - or if - I manage to solve them. 

For some of you, my articles will provide pleasant entertainment. Others may value the information as practical help for their own projects, and yet others, who would like to express their ideas but haven´t yet dared to, I hope to inspire and encourage. 

Mind you, I am not an internet geek, business expert or a social media goddess. Probably, many also find me too old to be toying around with career experiments. Could I have gotten my sh... together at an earlier age? Ideally, yes! But the reality is that only today, hitting almost forty, am I finally able to let go of expectations, stop the unsatisfying attempts at fitting in and simply walk in the right direction, regardless of the results. Just because I have misused time in the past it doesn´t mean I should continue squandering it away in the future - and I believe this goes for everyone. 

Accordingly, I will not create a sugarcoated blog that makes my existence look like a lifestyle magazine or an interior design catalog. You won´t have to fear pictures of me doing yoga poses on a tropical beach or drawing perfect cocoa hearts on my husband´s cappucchino. I promise not to make you feel like garbage because the cookies I bake look prettier than yours. Instead, you will be getting the real failures, the actual, odd moves forward and, most importantly, the gist of the learning experience.

Thank you for being around!