"Naming the Feeling"

Touch and Feel #23

Stillness Overstayed

I am so happy to write to you.

Being able to write to you means I overcame my creative block the win is to be celebrated with you. To earn this moment, I tried several coaches including an AI coach I created where it checked in on my progress Monday through Friday via text message. It turns out, all that was truly needed was a thoughtful coach from Pennsylvania.

The coach, let’s call her Chris, in one session struck the source of stillness. I believe in learning from nature and cyclical nature of the seasons. So stillness is not a bad thing inherently. But creative stillness beyond a year, for me, is missed expressive opportunity. My stillness it turns out has been from feeling overwhelmed. Life is full of obstacles and options but acknowledging how overwhelming it all could be, has allowed everything to come to a point of understanding, of acknowledgement. I now have more tuned sensors in place for the feeling, in order to invite me to pause and discern.

What am I doing with this new capacity? I’m looking to widen my design handling of materials into industrial design. Years ago I got into woodworking because it was the most raw and immediate form to shape physical material and make something functional. This was a room divider I made to divvy up the living room from the workshop.

But I now want to get into CAD drawings and exploring different ways to manufacture an object and the materials available. I remember some years ago when launching a Kickstarter with my brother for a small habit tracker, we visited CW&T’s home and workshop and they praised metals over woods. I found the preference not very obvious but I now get it. The habit tracker we happily and successfully launched on Kickstarter below.

Millimeters Not Inches

In small increments, I want to create objects to refine my daily flow. It could be for the home or the car. I want to be ambitious but not so much that I get discouraged (a common trap for me). This summer I repaired a missing slat on one of our porch chairs. In this process I discovered a radius gauge (measuring the corner radius of a physical shape) alongside baby steps in CAD skill development. Peep the new green slat process scrub from my camera roll.

Lately, I’ve been wanting to replace the shifter plate cover in my car. The bristles are partially missing and reverse engineering the plate first and then finding a way to install new bristles would be a good challenge to step up the CAD skills.

An Endurance Sport

Next up on this journey is to increase the sophistication in skills and process for this shifter plate cover and in general and sharing the things that elicit a feeling within.

Thank you for your energy and attention. Reach out if you too experienced or are experiencing feelings of overwhelm or anything that a conversation could make one watt brighter.

Hugs & Creativity,

Hoyd

P.S. If you have a friend that would enjoy this type of inner world, please share it with them.