I made it to the second blog entry! Is anyone out there happy dancing like me? I know this doesn’t seem like a big deal but as I said last time, this serial starter and not so great finisher is ecstatic and it’s worth celebrating! So, happy dance away!
If you’ve been following along you know that this year, 2022, I am pulling down the tin scrap bucket and I’m making all the things. What am I making? I’m not sure yet but I’m going to get creative with my scraps and take you along on the journey here on my blog and on social media. You can read the first blog entry here.
Okay, so how did this month go? I made bookmarks!
The truth is, I have been asked to make bookmarks a handful of times over the last six years and I always tell people the reason I’m unable to make them out of belts is because the leather is just too thick. On some rare occasions, a very thin leather belt will find its way to my shop but the majority of the leather that I come across is just way too thick. I don’t know about you, but I want my books to lay nice and flat when they have a bookmark in them.
So, I had to buy a tool. It’s called a skiving tool. It basically slices the leather, sort of like a meat slicer, to make the leather thinner. Although I had to purchase two different models before I found the one that worked well, it wasn’t a daunting task to add this tool to my workshop.
Why did it take me so long to buy the tool when it turned out to be so simple?
This question reveals just one of the reasons I wanted to take on this project this year. As I get busier with my work, creative projects take the back burner to fulfilling current orders which I know is such a blessing! But taking time to be creative fills my soul and so this project forces me to dig into the bucket and create because I promised you I would! And hey!, it does benefit you in the process right? If you’ve asked me for bookmarks you’re definitely happy dancing right now!
I also realized that my scraps? They also have scraps…
I hadn’t considered this when taking on the “Not Just Scraps” project. If I’m trying to make my way through the bucket this year, do the scraps go into the trash or do I keep creating with them until all the usable pieces have been used? Well, I took to social media to ask you what you thought and you UNANIMOUSLY said to keep creating with them! It’s gonna take me much longer to put a dent in this bucket I think.
So while I haven’t decided what I’ll do with all the scraps of my scraps I have started setting them aside for further creative sessions, sticking to the integrity of the tin bucket and the project.
What have I learned this month?
Letting you in on the journey behind the scenes via social media has been fun! It’s actually a very vulnerable position to be in. Letting you see my creative process and decision making, especially when it goes wrong is scary. This month, I let you all know when my skive tool didn’t work and I had to get a new one. I don’t share those parts of my business often! What if the new tool didn’t work either? Then there would be nothing to show at the end of the first month!
Last month I said that this journey will serve as a reminder of what I always come back to: What looks broken may not be broken at all. It’s just a step in the process of being repurposed into something even more beautiful than you can imagine. I can whole-heartedly say that this was true for these bookmarks. I love them and they are beautiful. There was such amazing leather sitting up there in that bucket and it brings me joy to know that you will get to see it too.
I hope that each time you look at your bookmark you remember how many years it sat unused but not without purpose. It just wasn’t time yet.
This is so exciting!