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.
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.
