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Old 07-13-2019, 02:09 PM
cliffrod cliffrod is offline
MetalShaper of the Month January 2020, March 2022
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: Spartanburg, SC
Posts: 2,845
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mr.c View Post
The vast majority of products are built down to a cost, not up to a standard. It's impossible to compete with products reaching the market at 1/10 to 1/4 of your products & operating costs. depending upon exceptionally loyal and often impractically generous customers, who are ever more difficult to cultivate in the impatient internet-connected world, is a treacherous existance. Ask me how I know....

Every choice and purchase- no matter the amount or justification- matters. We have what we create, including forum communities and product resources.
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Clint: Those are words of wisdom. And encouragement to stay the course. Thank you. I am going to print that and post it where I see it often. We are part of a shrinking community that still take pride in our work and for the most part the money is a reward, not the goal. A strange breed in todays' world.
I strive to do all things as unto the Lord. Even my own stuff. I know and God knows. No shortcuts or Mickey Mouse stuff. JB Weld is not a staple around my shop. I never shipped a product that wasn't up to standard. Poor surface finish put a TuckPuck back through the lathe for a recut or into a bin for my own use or abuse. Thanks for posting that. Carey
You're too kind, Carey. Thank you. This "lost art" of metal working may not be mainstream but it is being done on every street corner in comparison to what I do. Maybe that helps me see things in a different way. It takes a long time to really comprehend that the more you learn, the less you know. A piece of stone outsmarts me and gets the last word every single time & it isn't always kind.

The new world means exposing what you know and do for free- whether on purpose or secondhand- and hoping that somehow the bills still get paid. That's why theres so many classes & demonstrations. It's easy to sell ideas and romance. selling only completed work is really tough. It used to be that when you got old and lame after a career of working, then you started teaching and sharing secrets in a limited venue. Now many skip the tough part in the middle and shot for the viral bullseye on the web.

The worst part is what those teachers and their students (just like the cheap imported vs domestic products arguments) fail to see being creating until the future becomes the present. When it becomes the present, it's easier to see.

When chasing my stone apprenticeship, multiple Masters would not even speak to me. Not a metaphor- actual kicked out of their studios, treat me like a leper to my face, etc. Later, after nearly a decade, two of them changed only became clear that one was my second cousin and the other was an inlaw. The same level of expertise in metal, plus lots more, is now shared all over the web for free. Huge difference.

There aren't easy solutions, just like my opinion isn't clearly right or wrong. it's simply mine. i can't even claim them as completely mine, either. Before he died in 92, the artist Von Dutch had voiced similar concerns over the "hobbyization" of many specialty trades and the type of result it would produce. We're living in that world now. That perspective clicked with me long ago, probably inspiring & guiding me more than any other artist's or theory. Then, after a lifetime of adhering to principle over payoff, he got totally screwed in death by objectification and commercialization when his family cashed in. Not cool. The lesson continues...

Rant over.
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