Sometime Making Is Just Making

I often feel that when I work out in the shop, the product has to be amazing. This puts a lot of pressure on myself and therefore keeps me out of the shop. I tend to be my most productive when I am just “goofing around.” Like this week. I had a few things that I just wanted to get done. One was to get a camera working for a time-lapse video for my 3D printer. Once I got the printer up and running, I wanted to print something to see how it worked. So, of course, I printed a Baby Yoda. The time-lapse worked great. See the video below. And now I had a grey Baby Yoda. So, then I decided to play with the airbrush and paint it. Let’s just say I am not a painter. The airbrush worked out ok, but to get the detail I wanted, I changed over to just a paintbrush. It’s not perfect, but I had a lot of fun doing it.

Another project I had going was todo a small wall cabinet. The primary purpose was to attempt to do a project with marquetry I cut on the laser. It was an excellent “background” project. I really loved it. Every time I went into the shop, I took a few minutes and did some work on it. Over a week, I had a completed project. I made some mistakes, and there is a lot I would do differently. But I learned a lot, and I am ready to do another project like it.

Lastly, I was asked to help out a friend by making some lids to a couple of bowls that he had made. The turnings have warped over time, so we couldn’t just turn something. So, my son took our Fusion software and used a scale photo to create a digital lid. We then used Fusion to come up with tool paths for the X-Carve and then made the lid. It actually turned out great. It was an experiment, and again with no pressure, it was a lot of fun to complete.

This week for me, was a big lesson that not everything needs to be an award-winning project. Sometimes making is just making and is fun all on its own. I hope to do a lot more of it in the weeks and months to come.