Jack of all trades, master of none

[jane clifton]

I don't know if I have a question here, I''m just frustrated. There are so many things that I want to make and can do most of them "ok" but can't really do any of them as well as I want to. But I get so distracted by the versitility of the things that can be done on the torch!!
I guess my question is, do you focus on only one technique at a time till you get it down, making the same thing over and over or do you jump around (like I do)?

Any words of wisdom out there would be greatly appreciated. The problem I have I guess is I want to make EVERYTHING!!

And before you ask, no there isn't any one thing that interest me more than any other.


Thanks

Jane

[Swampy]

Force yourself to not do what you want to do; I mean if it's all torch work related and you can't figure out what to make first first, force yourself to not work on the torch for say, two days.

During that two days, walk round with a pencil and pad, formulate your ideas and draw what you will make next time you allow yourself on the torch.

If you still can't get it, if you're right handed, force yourself to only do stuff with your left hand.

Moral of the story is to force alternative thinking; the problem is your brain out of sync.

The above exercises realign your thought process.

Works for me, but your mileage may vary :-)

[VinE]

Who do you blow glass for?
If its to make money or for your audience you might lose them by "making everything".
If you want to sell yourself (and your work) more efficently, it would probably be a good idea to focus on getting one thing down.

[Mecha]

Try doing a certain technique over and over again on different pieces. Or focus on one or two techniques until you feel you have them "down".

I jump around quite a bit myself, but I am generally focusing on one or two specific techs whilst jumping around.

Sketching ideas as Swampy suggests is an excellent way to push your boundaries. Trying to get the form to match up with your drawing is great practice.

Good luck!

[Swampy]

Exactly, and when what you made starts to resemble what you drew, that is another step in your development.

Because you are translating the image in your head to a flat drawing and also a tactile object.

This a good strategy.

[Lurch]

When I want to perfect a tech, I practice it in my spare time for a week.. in clear, then with some color, or fume or whatever. When I feel I got the jist of it, I try to make a piece that my distributor will pick up... then I'm practicing the tech for pay, and the repetivness of having to fill orders get the tech perfected.

[harpentuan]

If at all possible I would suggest restricting your art to one of the "okay could be better" objects. And for awhile just make that thing. Make it 'till it comes out your ears. (inspired from Picasso's blue period)

[Gibsons Glassworks]

fine a design you like, make lots of them till you get bored of it.

[CripSkillz]

thats always my prob i would get bored doin the same thing over n over, and i just like to try anything i can.. monkey see monkey try to do ..

[somberbear]

i make 20-25 of something.... then i normaly have it , then do 10 of em in a row agian just to see if the next one turns out better then thel ast normaly does....

i just do that till its in there.....

peace
rob

[Greymatter Glass]

I tend to jump around.

jump around.

I throw up my hands, and jump around.

I'm on a big marble kick right now... sometimes I'll make pendants... I want to do more of my cut coil pendants soon. I'll get fixated on something for a month or two then find something new to work on. I'm kinda getting into millies now.

Do what you need to do, then do what you want to do - everyone has a different balance there. Don't worry if you do more of one or the other than someone else.

-Doug

[Red Raven]

Jane,
I jump around too and I know how frustrating it can be to never really progress.
What I do is to choose 2 or 3 things to focus on. Its slower than one tech at a time, but it allows my brain to process without boredom.
Finding way to re-use that tech in different object is also a good suggestion.
But most of all - be patient with yourself while working,
I find that if I decide its time to stop working on something "for the time being", it is because I have hit a wall with that tech and need to focus on it more.
But, because I hate failure, this is the point when I abandon that tech or thing telling myself I just need a break or am bored with it.
Of course I love variety too - but over the years I have been so frustrated being "mediocre" I had to make "being an expert" as important just trying something new.

[Meerkat]

Wow, this is so bizzare as I was literally going to make a post today with the exact same title as yours.

I recently had a major epiphany that has really changed my life and hopefully will allow me to take a better hold of it and steer it in the direction I want to go.

My biggest problem my whole life (in relation to what I wanted to do career wise) was that I was interested in so many things. Growing up and talking with a job counselor or looking into colleges and such, it always seemed like you had to focus on one thing in your life that you wanted to do and have the goal of sticking with that and becoming really good at it.

But that always seemed impossible.. If you look at any skill or craft, the people who are masters at it have been doing it for 20 or 30 years. Well when you have an interest in literally 30 different things, there is not enough time in a human life to become a master in all those things and I found that really dissapointing and frustrating.

The people I admired most growing up were people like Jim Henson, Tom Savini, Peter Jackson, all the people who worked at Industrial Light and Magic and most recently Adam and Jamie from Mythbusters. These people basically were creators of anything. If you needed a space ship or an alien or a model of a building or a animatronic fish or whatever, they would figure out a way to do it and would do it.... I loved that.... and I tried for many years to get into film and ultimatly into special FX, but it didn't happen.

But I haven't given up, I am now concentrating on building my own workshop and making myself available to commericalls, plays, operas, musicals, tv, movies, music videos, whoever will have me and want me to make them something, anything...

Where I was going with this, and to answer your question though, is that I then recently became very interested in glass blowing and saw this as another skill I wanted to add to my list and something I would like to become very good in, but I quickly became frustrated, not by the skill itself, but because I felt like I had to work towards being a master in it, it was all about keeping up with the joneses, I gotta learn the techniques and become as good as the people making the really insane stuff on here, but no matter what, I would always be behind, because they always had at least 10 years on me... and so I was getting anxious and frustrated all over again because I was back into this mindset of having to become a master.

That is, until recently and here is my ephipany. I was watching this really great video on youtube which was of Adam Savage (the blonde guy from Mythbusters) at a convention called HOPE. And he was talking about his background and what he likes to do which is build and create thigns and how one of his most important things was that he always wanted to know a little bit about everything, but there was always too many thigns he wanted to know and so he said to the audience.

"You know that quote "Skilled in Many, Master of None"? Well thats not the complete quote, the complete quote is.....

Skilled in many
Master of none
Often better than a master of one!

And everyone gasped and cheered and it personally just blew me away, that was the exact motto and meaning that I had been looking for in my life to understand what I wanted and where I wanted to go.

I no longer am trying to be a master in anything, no a glass master or special FX master or costume master or makeup master or model building master or anything..... I am just going to try to obtain as many skills as I can at whatever level I can and just keep learning and as the job/project dictates, learn more in whatever area I need to....

[Meerkat]

Btw, here is that video I was talking about, its the entire video of Adam at the HOPE convention talking about all sorts of really cool things, he talks alot about techniques of models and props he builds, including mentioning that he owns a portable laser scanner and rapid prototyping machine, so he can just go to places and scan an object he likes and make a copy for himself.

The video is in 13 parts (5 mins each).... its really good, check it out when you have time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_TrncK3NG8

BTW, only watch these 13 parts, which is titled "Facination with the Dodo bird" and is put up by "mediaarchives" as there are other recordings of the adam at the convention, but they dont have his full appearance and are just bits and pieces, if you watch the link above you can see them all.

[Red Raven]

I like that Meerkat. I have spent way too much time being "ashamed" of my own varied interests and lack of mastery in any of them.
You have a nice outlook. :)

I have learned to do so much just out of a desire to learn how it is done. I am not great at any one thing. But I am an encyclopedia of everything. I think my mother regrets the day she ever started calling me a know it all. lol

Now in my 40s I can say -
When life as we know it comes to an end I can still feed, clothe and educate and entertain my family. I even know how to make shoes and weave.

Out of curiosity - how many of you multi-tasker, multi-disciplined, multi-talented people out there are Geminis?

I think you are right Meerkat- diversity is the spice of life. Its not a train of thought I have allowed myself to think before now.

If diversity is the spice of life - some of us are a masala!

[Udai Hussien]

you know jane, if you drop by and see mike and I, im sure we (well at least I would) share with you

[shark bait]

Meerkat, Thanks for the link. I just watched all the videos. It was very interesting.

[jeves311]

yeah jane you just need to come up and kick it with all the crazy people like dwaine said there are a bunch of us now.

[Udai Hussien]

yeah jane you just need to come up and kick it with all the crazy people like dwaine said there are a bunch of us now.and we all shower, what, at least once a week? (debatable for Lester ;) )

[jane clifton]

Man, what great suggestions. I guess it helps the most to know I'm not the only one. I do think the thing I have to do the most is focus on one technique (like everyone mentioned) until I get it like I want. Last night I worked for 3 hours just on making footed shot glasses and took my time. I was pleased with the result and then rewarded myself by just playing on small sculptures. Allowing myself to screw up but just have fun with it.
There are so many things about glass that no matter what it is you are making that can be so frustrating. For example, to make a simple shot glass, you have to know: pulling points or attaching a blow tube, good striping techniques, melting in color, distribution of heat, even wall blow out, even wall reducing, good termination or tear off, even rotation, how to open a bubble evenly, how to even an edge .....blah, blah, blah.... Thats a lot of shit to know how to do well!!!!! and that doesn't even address how to work colors!!!!!
I guess I have to take my own advice that I give students, "if it were easy, everyone would be doing it!"

Dwaine, Jeves= I would love to come up there, but I didn't think Mike was doing any blowing anymore. I thought he was all lathe? Besides, the last thing I need right now is to come up there and see you guys do even more techniques I want to perfect!!!!! Let me know when you all will be there and I will come up if possible. No doubt it would be a blast!!!

By the way, no gemini here, I'm a leo, which makes it worse I think!!!

Thanks again for all the responses and Keep them coming, it helps a lot to know I'm not alone.


Jane

[jane clifton]

ps..also it is very difficult to come back from AGI after watching all the great glassblowers there and deal with my own mediocracy (sp?).

[Udai Hussien]

Umm i see mike from bench to lathe quite a bit. I know he's been doing lots of stick stack stuff. and there are others there working bench also.

[themoch]

Jane,

after reading all this i'm not sure how to answer your question much differently. I find different projects to become obsessed with, for a while it was marbles, then Inside out, then beads, then implosions, then milli, then flower implosions, then hollow work, x-mas ornaments, goblets, marbles again, bottle stoppers, pendants, goblets once more...

to me, i think the day i get bored with glass is the day i run out of finding new uses for it. so far 6 years hasn't seen an end to it.

I'd like to point out that things don't hold my attention for very long, but glass sure has. i think it has something to do with the fire.

when i first started i really wanted to make pendants and marbles... i've probably only made ~200 marbles, but i've made 1,000's of pendants.

the only thing i do in glass that i would call perfect is pendants. I'm a freaking loop master. just do something 100 times and you'll figure it out... yeah 100 seems daunting at first, but after a few days/weeks/what ever... you realize that it's not so much...

i realized this when i was putting an order on bottle stopper slugs, and realized i was about to order my 6th case of 100.

just keep at something if you want to "master" it. but you don't have to do it all at once.

[jane clifton]

Andrew,
My problem isn't that I get tired of anything its that I want to make EVERYTHING! There just isn't enough hours in the day!!!

Jane

[themoch]

i feel ya.

make lists. I do, but i rarely stick to them once i'm in the shop... that is unless i NEEED to make something. even then i get side tracked. :-P

[Aussie]

I started out in flameworking as a scientific apprentice to my father. Scientific glass is all about technique. I never finished it, the urge to create is too strong in me and scientific glassblowing leaves little room for expression. I hung in there just short of 3 years and got technique technique technique. For the first month I did nothing but pull points. Second month I got to do right angle tubes as well as pull points. third month U tubes/point/right angles, fourth blowing spheres, then T joints and so on. I wasn't allowed to move on until I could do each of those properly. My dad was a hard master in that respect ... he started his apprenticeship at the age of 14 and he taught me how he was taught (in Germany in the late 50s and early 60s), and his training to become master took 7 years ... he also had to use soda glass, not boro (he was the first apprentice to pass the master examination in over 15 years at the first attempt and the only one from his year to do so). Those three years of sci glass bored me shitless! BUT ... it gave me the opportunity to be able to learn things right without distraction (I didn't even use colour until my 5th year as a glassblower). I did want to do everything, too, and relying on my own discipline would have confused me no end, so I'm glad my dad was there to keep me on the straight and narrow, although I didn't appreciate it then as I do now. I use everything he taught me just about every day now like second nature and I thank my lucky stars that I was taught the way I was taught. It's a long hard road and I'm not suggesting you should do a scientific apprenticeship, but I do believe in the long-term benefit of mastering one technique before moving on.
I also believe that mastering technique will enable you to free yourself from it and allow you to do anything you want to do!
Also do yourself a favour, don't let anyone tell you a technique is wrong. Every technique is right as long as it enables you to do what you set out to achieve. In that spirit, learn as many techniques as you can, the more you know, the faster you will learn, the more you work with glass, the more you will know what it does and why it does it. And that's the heart of it.
I hope some of that at least made sense.

cheers
Chris

[CripSkillz]

humm Im multi talented and Gemini, what does this mean?? and i do do almost everything and am pertty good at it, but never the best..

i guess i just like to many diff things and know i wouldnt be happy doing one thing forever..

[vetropod]

I make glass insects. Sometimes I get tired of insects and make some truly bizarre stuff, and have also branched out a bit more to make some other strains of the evolutionary tree. But all in all, I've gotten good at making insects by making sh!t-tons of 'em...

If you're only in it for fun and don't want to get bored with it, then don't worry about trying to become a master! But if that is not the case then I say: "There is no think, only do!"


Wes. http://www.wesleyfleming.com/images/icons/magic.gif