Tag: make

Making Things

Jennifred Jones

I like making things and I like using things others have made.

How are things designed? How are things made?

Many good things are made with the user in mind…done with beauty, usability and ease of use and ease of repair. Therefore, what is designed and made should be made with the customer/user in mind, not just ease and profit in the making.

Good service, good product will always bring in good customers who will pay more for the better product.

Many times we’ve become accustomed to how things look at the expense of how they work or how long they’ll last. Do we want to spend our money on poor quality items based merely on how they look, that will soon need to be replaced, or pay more for well-designed good quality that will last?

I realize some items we won’t want to pay more for, but why not consider supporting makers of good quality rather than short term throwaways?

Hands On!

Jennifred Jones

My heritage were the ‘hands-on’ folk. We made stuff! Good stuff!

It didn’t all start out as good stuff. As we learn the stuff goes through a progression from bad to better to pretty good to ‘that’s great’!

Mom’s side had the wagon master in her lineage. There were produce gardeners, writers, musicians, decorators, shop keepers, sewers.

Dad’s side were cabinet makers, craftsmen, painters, metal workers in casting and tools even on the railroad.

Mom became an interior designer doing anything to help make your house a home. Dad became a professor teaching shop class, metal work, drafting, slide rule (what’s that?) and at home helping in the cabinet making department for mom’s business.

My older brother had his own hobby shop for years. Now with 2 college degrees, he chooses to work with his hands in maintenance…electricity, plumbing …steam heat is his specialty! Get him down there with the boilers, radiators and pipes and he’s in his niche!

Younger brother took up cabinet making and makes his living restoring old houses, boats and furniture. Beautiful work!

Both brothers are deep thinkers, avid readers and good problem solvers.

Now my own flock of kids – all grown – are hands on entrepreneurial sorts as well.

The wonderful thing about hands on, hand made, is you are looking at what you make as you make it. You see its flaws and promises. You adjust as you go, and it will be unique! That’s what we people want!

So to all you hands on peoples out there…keep up the good work. Share your skills so we don’t lose your craft. Keep growing and improving. The world needs what you have to offer. What you are doing may seem small in your eyes, yet every nut and bolt is needed to hold the bridge up.

What can I make better today with my very own hands?

The Idea Chain

Jennifred Jones

How is a chain made? One link at a time.

How is anything else made? One idea at a time.

Ideas, thoughts, are like links in a chain. You can make the chain any length you want, you can make the links any size or thickness you like, and you can use any material you desire…either from what you already have or from something completely new.

Some chain links are made round, others rectangular, some oval or twisted.

Some links need to be very strong and are soldered closed. Others are merely closed so more links may be added.

The strength of your idea will determine the strength of your chain. Some chains are longer and some only need a dozen or so links.

Your idea will determine all of that and often you won’t know quite what you need until you begin to make it.

The important thing is to begin. See where your idea leads, what links can be added, when you need to take some away. Ideas like chains can change directions. A flexible chain can be twisted this way and that as your idea develops.

Chains are not rigid like a steel girder. They are meant to move in any direction needed.

Begin your idea. That is the first link and will get the process started. It may take a little longer sometimes to make subsequent links, to get them all shaped and attached, but keep going. So many good things have happened even with a hesitancy to start, or from a ‘blunder’ in the middle.

Get the idea out into the open – into the light to see which direction you want to go. Keep thinking, keep experimenting, talk about it with others. Link by link your chain idea will grow until you can use it to pull along more.

After that chain is finished…begin a new one!

Let your life become a fun game…building, making, helping, doing, thinking…repeat, repeat, repeat.

…my first link will be…