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hmhaines

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 5, 2016
900
1
CT
I've owned my own business since I was 15. Started off as a photographer, getting paid to do senior portraits for friends and friends-of-friends in high school. Had my first "art show" in the basement of the local library. Looking back with an objective eye, I was a shite photographer who was lucky enough to get some good pictures. Also, the local library doesn't count as a gallery. Not here anyway. So stop bragging, younger me.
By 17 I had transitioned into sculptures, while making and selling jewelry to back up my obsession with antique tools and materials. I'm a little less proud now, but I got all kinds of excited at the time: For the first time ever, I had a sculpture in a museum that summer. It was made as part of a fundraiser for blahblahblah and the museum was centered around clocks and watches, but I took the technicality in stride.
Just before 18 I set out on a new business adventure: glassworking. Saw someone melting glass with a torch and decided I could do that. Just over a month later I had my shop set up and I taught myself how to use it. Finally something I can kind of be a little proud of for real, as an adult. I am the world's best and most experienced small-batch glass recycler. Instead of using pre-made rods, I melt everything from car windows to telegraph pole insulators, and I do it well.
Spent a few years saving up, then got a loan to expand into my real passion: welding. That was last summer, bought a welder and taught myself how to TIG.
All through this evolution of nonsense, I met and started dating a lovely and intelligent gal. She went to MIT while I stayed here in CT and tried to make my way with torch and tool. Despite all odds, we succeeded in keeping together a long-distance relationship and now we're finally going to be moving in together.
In Minneapolis.
November 30th, that's when I fly out. Leaving behind all of my tools, all of my glass, all of my steel. Won't be able to build anything for at least a year, probably two or three.
So, for now, I'm rushing to do as much as I can. And I'm screwing myself over every step of the way, just giving one last ditch effort to turn my barely-self-sustaining hobby-job into a successful business. Fingers crossed folks, though I don't have too much hope for the next four or five weeks.
I'm tired, guys. Depressed. Lost. Can't wait to be with Shannen, but terrified of not being able to go into my workshop whenever I want. The things we do for love, eh? I love Shannen, I love steel, I love glass. In that order, I guess. Like I said, fingers crossed.
Thanks for letting me vent. Don't know if it really helped, we'll see.

 

ashdigger

Lifer
Jul 30, 2016
11,378
70,056
60
Vegas Baby!!!
Good luck and I wish you the best but regret eats and people and gets between people.
I'm sorry I don't a more positive note but if you art is your freedom then leaving it behind is a jail sentence.

 

hextor

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 20, 2015
642
6
good luck, i know how it is, yes we men do anything for love, but follow your heart and happiness, I am a painter and i love drawing, when my kids were born, i dint do those things for a very long time!!, it was driving me crazy, but now my kids are bigger and now i can find time to paint or draw and play my guitar, when you create art, it comes from your inner most soul, and when you can't use your talent it will probably bother you, but you are moving with your love, and it will be a new start, new lessons to learn and new things to experience, hope every thing goes well with you and your woman, but don't ever, ever forget about your talents.

 

ejames

Lifer
Oct 6, 2009
3,916
22
I don't understand. Why can't you load your tools and materials into a U-haul etc and take them with you? Maybe a couple of trips?

 

hmhaines

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 5, 2016
900
1
CT
We're 23, she's in the process of getting her Doctorate. Not a lot of money for a house at the moment, and very few landlords are willing to allow welding and the combustion of pressurized gasses on their property. We'll be saving up for a house, since that's a bit more economical than me renting shop space in Minneapolis. Until the house, no fire for me.

 
When in college, I lived in an apartment that I threw clay in the livingroom and had a kiln in my bedroom. I did raku on the balcony. I also had an oxy acetylene set up in my kitchen. I had to step over piles of metal to get to the coffee maker. If you live near a college, there are going to be art students somewhere in the mix. It won't be that unusual. Come on guy, you never take a break from art... if it's really in your blood. You find a way. You break bones and grow more arms when you need to. Otherwise... eh... who knows... maybe your right.
I'm just so lucky to have a wife that understands that my passions to create outweighs all else in my life. She has and never will ask me if I love my work more than her. Because there just is no separating me from my work. Might as well ask me to cut off my head. But, that may just be me.

 

orobusto

Starting to Get Obsessed
Aug 22, 2015
215
27
New York
My two cents:

1. Have you been able to do any searches online to perhaps hook up with another artist there where you can work as a job or hobby? You may also be able to give adult education classes as an outlet. I would think Minneapolis or a surrounding area would have a creative hot spot.

2. It seems like you are already a bit negative about the situation. Find a positive as soon as you can. You are young and still adaptable. You might just find a new way to create.

 

texmexpipe

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 20, 2014
998
246
Always jobs for welders man! And where there are jobs for welders there are workspaces. Best of luck Rabbit! FYI I think things like Love are worth temporary sacrifices, and sometimes even permanent ones.

 
I know a girl who put a sign up that she does freelance welding, and runs her art studio out of her house. She will get people throughout the day that need odds and ends welded all day long, and pays her mortgage with that to fund her artwork. Just from a piece of plywood with some spray paint on it.

 

tuold

Lifer
Oct 15, 2013
2,133
165
Beaverton,Oregon
I appreciated reading you story.
After you get settled at your new location look into any creative spaces that might be available at a community college. For the price of class you might get access to tools and materials. You also might make some creative connections through the faculty or other students.
Good luck!

 

iamn8

Lifer
Sep 8, 2014
4,248
14
Moody, AL
This to shall pass... or not... probably not. It's vital, when in the midst of an important transitional chapter in your life, to remember that one day you'll be dead and none of it will matter... unless death is just a pause and nothing good is waiting on the other side. Perhaps this isn't a healthy way to see things, but I never claimed to be healthy. I suppose what I'm saying is... nevermind.

Thanks for letting me vent :)

 

agnosticpipe

Lifer
Nov 3, 2013
3,332
3,413
In the sticks in Mississippi
I feel your pain rabbit! About 40 years ago I got divorced from my first wife (we married too young) and I moved from the midwest to the west coast. I had to leave a perfectly good darkroom behind that took me a while to put together. While renting an apartment I had to buy some new equipment, mostly basic cheap stuff, and made a temporary darkroom in my small bathroom that could be dismantled when I was done using it. Later after I got married again (this one has lasted) we bought a house, and I made another slightly better one in my garage using black plastic visqueen and got some better equipment. Next house got a more solid one I built in the garage and installed plumbing too. Now in my retirement house that we had built I had a darkroom built into the plans.
I feel you'll work things out like I did, and someday you too will have the wife of your dreams along with the shop of your dreams. Best of luck with your new endeavor.

 

hmhaines

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 5, 2016
900
1
CT
The general consensus is correct: it will be murder to be without some sort of outlet. I'm looking to spend that time learning how to play banjo.
I'll definitely be looking into welding apprenticeships, but I don't currently have any certs. Aside from that, I'll keep an eye out for any crafty jobs. Don't want to be in retail.
I feel you'll work things out like I did, and someday you too will have the wife of your dreams along with the shop of your dreams.
I'm doing my best to get there. Shannen is the perfect woman for me. Complete pain in the ass, but cute as a button and a hell of a lot smarter than I thought anyone could be. Did her undergrad at MIT. She's worth the trouble!

 

stvalentine

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 13, 2015
808
13
Northern Germany
I am just trying to teach myself TIG welding too. But no workshop would be a no-go for me.

Well, creativity will find a way and you a little corner to vent the urge to make things.
All the best for you and Shannen.
Cheers
Frank

 
The banjo is a worthy creative outlet. About fifteen years ago, I picked up the ukulele to help me quit cigarettes, thinking it would give me something to do with my hands. I could keep it in the car next to me and carry it everywhere. I soon learned to play quite well, and then picked up a banjolele, then latter a banjo. Then I was playing well enough to smoke a cigarette while playing, ha ha. Then the pipe. Then I met my wife who grew up playing piano and the fiddle in a North Carolina bluegrass family. The Lunsfords are quite well known in the NC mountains. So, now we take our instruments with us when we go to visit the mountains, looking for a jam.
May the banjo give you much joy, creativity and adventure, sir.

 
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