Crafty Chewers?

I'm too busy remodeling my house to do crafty things. And even if I did have the time, I'd waste it rotting my brain with video games and shitty TV. My dad builds log furniture, though.

My wife likes painting, refinishing old furniture, and is getting into sewing. I'm good at providing moral support but that's about it.

I suck at crafty stuff, but my girl's obsessed with it... and actually makes pretty great stuff. (For example, starsforsydell.etsy.com). She's got stuff in local stores, and attends craft shows pretty regularly. I can't stand those places (or that store) for more than 5 minutes or so before I need a shot and a cigarette, though. The girlyness is overwhelming.

But it makes for a good relationship, since she makes jewelry while I watch stupid horror movies or play video games.

I do all my auto work. I recently purchased a factory shop manual.

I also am somewhat proficient with all things electronic.
I recently put together a home theater pc. It's working out quite nice too.

As far as scrap booking, knitting etc. I could give two flying fucks about any of that. I guess you could say, if you can't be seriously maimed, electrocuted or killed doing something, it ain't worth doing.

Lithium makes for very shaky hands, so I'm total shit at anything crafty, but it's something I'm interested in (my mom is insanely crafty, I'll see if I can get some pictures of some of the things she's done up), I'm just not well-equipped for it.

There was a point in my life where I made most furniture and shelving instead of buying it.

But I had access to a full shop then. Without that, it's far too expensive to make the shit I used to make. (I also had the benefit of renting out stuff I collected and made as set dressing and props, which paid for the hobby.)

Now I just go to Ikea.

My buddy makes all this stuff: www.tiviwear.com

I'm not sure if it counts as "crafts" anymore, though.

Alex, your girl's jewelry is lovely. That stuff is just my style, too.

I've been meaning to put my artwork up in the painting thread, but here's a sample of it, simply because it's my favorite painting that I've done so far - I painted this one around 2002:

It's called "Saigon"



I really need to get back into it - it's something of mine that I loved doing that fell by the wayside when my brother died a few years back (incidentally, another sentimental attachment is that "Saigon" was his favorite painting of mine too). When he died, I just got into this creative block that I haven't been able to work my way out of just yet, so it's been a while since I painted. I'm working my way back in, little by little though - I want to paint again, the desire is there, so it's not gone for good, that much I can predict. But back when I was painting a lot more, I was selling my artwork on ebay at a pretty fair clip (ebay is also where "Saigon" found it's home). I have about 100 paintings that I sold around the US and Canada - not that you could EVER tell that from my feedback rating. Miserable number. Art buyers are really bad about leaving feedback, I don't know why that is. I'd get emails from the buyers, thrilled with the painting after they received it. "Great, then please leave me the feedback." And nuthin'.

Anyway - in my attempt to get back into the art world, I did put up a page at MySpace to promote my stuff, so you can see more of it there if you want. The screen name is Art By Lisa.

About seventy percent of the black leather wallet I've had for many years is now comprised of red electrical tape. I would've used black but then you wouldn't be able to tell it was tape.

I used to paint the metal D&D figures that were popular for awhile. I got to be very good at this after awhile. I haven't done it in years, but just came across the stuff while cleaning out my attic, and the paint still appears to be liquid, so I may take it up again. I nevr did paint the giant on the armored war elephant. Mostly, I think my talent lies in writing, which I do a lot of hee on the boards & at work. I'm not sure if that counts. My wife on the other hand, was a fine arts major in college, & can paint, draw, sculpt & do light metalworking. She's quite good at all of it, too.

I'm usually noodling around with artwork on the weekends, but I'm trying to get into customizing some old action figures I have lying around - gives me a reason to play with Apoxie, as well as sculpt.

I also decided to add to my Mego collection by assembling custom heroes (Phantom and Flash Gordon are next on deck). My wife loves it as it gives her a reason to sew stuff, plus it's a hobby the two of us can do together (we're such geeks).

My dad's gotten into woodburning and woodcrafts. My brother's a jewelry appraiser out in CA, and he's made some awesome stuff (rings, bracelets, etc.).

Lisa, great painting - nice impresionism and color.

I was hoping this thread would contain mustache twirling and hands rubbing together.

I made an awesome demon pencil holder once out of wire and paper mache. That was a couple years ago. It's seen better days.

It just occurred to me: our esteemed thread starter, Ms. Zooey, hasn't shared her crafting proclivities with us yet.

I have a hunch that she at least knits.

EDIT: I suppose I can contribute. I used to be much craftier in my younger days. I suppose this is mostly due to the fact that I was in Cub Scouts/Boy Scouts for a significant portion of my life and I also went to an unrelated summer camp for several years. I crafted many a lanyard keychain and hemp bracelets in my day, let me tell you. I also did my fair share of woodworking: random whittling, pinecar derby, birdhouses, etc. In high school, I stopped participating in such activities and for the most part my crafting days have ended. Maybe when I'm older I can take up my whittling once again while sitting on my porch and spinning yarns for the neighborhood children.

I cook a lot. I'm not talking chicken for dinner, but bread, slowroasted meats, salmon dips, saucier shot. I work about 10 hours a day 6 days a week since June now, so not much cooking going on.

When I have a garage or shed, I do small and large scale carpentry. After I got married was the first time in my life I didn't have all shelves I'd built myself.

I can also sculpt and make pottery. My parents and friends sometimes get my art as gifts.

Is this a fad now? I've seen several teens pull out huge wads of duct tape in the check out line.

This isn't a terribly new thing. I knew a lot of kids that had duct tape wallets in middle school.

This thread makes me miss Craftcorner Deathmatch.

I, too, was let down. I was thinking "crafty" in the Beastie Boys sense of the word.

I do calligraphy and illumination, sumi-e, leather work (I make really great whips), and I've been known to dabble in Chinese paper cutting.

In terms of less crafty but still working with my hands I just finished re-landscaping (xeriscaped actually) our front yard and am finishing building our new walk-in closet and building a home theatre/bar in our basement.

I went to school for cartooning and visual storytelling, have dabbled in the comic book, logo/graphic/sign design, stage/set design, and animation fields, and have now settled into the video game industry (over the past 4 years). I also have some music and acting background, and like Iggy, painted the D&D miniatures back in the day. I've been making short films for quite awhile (some stop-motion, puppetry, odd stuff) and am looking to ramp that up and experiment in some film genres (horror, scifi) I haven't before.


The hands-on craft that I've been into recently is: designing and building puppets.

Every now and then I'll pick up a paint brush, but that's more my fiance's thing than anything else. I'm much more into gardening, landscaping, and home improvement than anything else right now. I'm finding while I'm good at some things (plumbing/irrigation, electrical, masonry, etc), I suck hard at others (texture painting, for example).

I just finished putting in a koi pond with waterfall in my backyard. I was mulling over starting a landscaping thread, but I lost my nerve, since I'm probably one of only a few people who are into that kind of thing here, so maybe I'll post those pics of the pond in this thread.

You post your waterfall I'll post my lovely xeriscaped front yard!

But is soon redeemed with tasty goodies!

I said electrical tape dammit!