Handmade Quotes

“All I know is that we, none of us, have much time on this earth. We are each here for a short while. There will be evidence if we choose to do this creative work. We need to make things that leave a mark, a good mark, one that says someone was here trying to do something of value. Speak up, pass along the knowledge that we have so that others may benefit from it and make a life for themselves. Show that the act of forgiveness is one of our most important tasks. Leave good evidence of yourself. Do good work.”
― Gary Rogowski, Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction

“I have to remember as well that I am in a race. Oh, people will say that I’m not competing against anyone. That’s not true. I am competing against time and I will lose. We all lose. In the time that I have, what will I accomplish? Will I give up and say the race is too long or too fast, too hard? Will I tire out early? I am in a race to do my work, the best work I can possibly do. It is important to keep my standards high while others are slacking off saying it’s too hard. It’s supposed to be hard; otherwise, everyone would do it. It’s supposed to make us whine and carp about the pace or the failures we encounter or the simple fact that some days I suck at this work that I have chosen. We all of us feel this way at some time. Then we sleep on it or go for a walk, sit with a friend, or stare out at the mountain. This work is also what makes us feel right. The race is with myself, making myself better each time I go to the bench or the easel or the drawing board. Making sure that I am improving my skills, and staying curious, and getting better at my work each day.”
― Gary Rogowski, Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction

“Neither approach works by itself. One gives us only product, the other only process. To be an artist in the world today requires a blending of the two in order to survive, to succeed in making and selling your work. This has to be done in a way that feeds your soul, not saps it. Pirsig posed this dilemma in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It was his understanding that these two views of the world have to merge in order for anyone to be at peace in the world. Technology is not bad in itself. It is how it is used and the effect it has on the maker, the builder, and the mechanic that’s crucial. He understood that the classic mode is primarily theoretic but has its own aesthetic. The romantic mode is primarily aesthetic but also has theory. The two can merge and work together at the bench. Pirsig’s goal was to bring these two points of view together to find the essence of Quality. Preintellectual awareness was how he put it. Understanding something before your mind could name it. It’s not just seeing the tool on the bench and your knowledge and experience of what it can do, but seeing it and knowing the feel of it in your hand. One combines these two senses together in a preintellectual awareness in order to understand Pirsig’s notion of Quality, his Zen approach to living and being in the world.”
― Gary Rogowski, Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction

“I have come to this bittersweet realization about my choices in life as well. Life doesn’t care. No one gets a participation award from life. If I die tomorrow, I will be gone, a few will weep my passing, and then the waters will close over me and my presence will be mostly forgotten by all the others desperately trying to live their own lives. Life doesn’t concern itself with whether I live or die. The universe, on the other hand, has a great interest in me while I live. The universe listens.”
― Gary Rogowski, Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction

“At the bench, the problem is always me. It is never the tools but how I handle them. It is not the work that is hard, it is managing my emotions that is the task. Working through the boredom, handling the mistakes, managing my patience, learning from my errors. This is the challenge.”
― Gary Rogowski, Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction

“The truth is that one of the hardest things I had to learn is how to fail. Henry Petroski is an author and professor of civil engineering at Duke University. One of the overarching concerns in his books is the importance of failure and its importance in how we design and how we learn. Read his wonderful book, The Evolution of Useful Things. Inventors design things because they are driven by the perceived failure of a current design. Is a function being properly performed or can it be improved? Petroski understands the necessity of failure in order to push an idea forward, whether it be on an engineering problem or one of technique or design. He quotes Thomas Edison: “Genius. Sticking to it is the genius . . . I failed my way to success.”
― Gary Rogowski, Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction

“Failure is how we learn. We acknowledge our ignorance first and ask for help. We try to correct it.”
― Gary Rogowski, Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction

“Practice is the key. If you can learn the discipline to practice, one day you will surprise yourself by how much you have learned, how much you have taught yourself.”
― Gary Rogowski, Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction

“The dominant cultural paradigm that we are sold now of living faster, buying more or bigger or faster, is not for me. That’s one way to live. There is another. To slow down. To try to do your best work. To make your efforts count. My father taught me many things that made me punish myself for not being good enough, but he also taught me that valuable attitude about doing the job right.”
― Gary Rogowski, Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction

“When problems occur they suck up all the air in the shop. They are gigantic, cataclysmic, insurmountable. I was lucky that day that Jane was there to yell some sanity into me and bring me back to a normal time and space. If you do not have this life preserver nearby, then quickly walk away from the problem. Walk away and let it shrink back to its normal size so a solution can enter the room.”
― Gary Rogowski, Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction

“The problem at the bench isn’t the work, the challenges, or the mistakes—it is always me.”
― Gary Rogowski, Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction

“As I was heeding gravity’s pull down the hill, I also heard music coming from upstairs. Three instruments, a violin, a flute, and a cello, were playing in a second-floor apartment. They were murdering a piece by Bach, I think. The murder was not in question, I just wasn’t sure if it was Bach or Haydn or someone else being killed upstairs. I stopped dead in my tracks to listen to them. They played with such a confident erring. On they stumbled and they never stopped to correct themselves. They pushed forward through their mistakes to the end. I applauded. I had to. I’m not sure they noticed me, but what luck for me to witness their attempt that morning. I looked out at the bay. What fine luck. Moments like the soloist practicing scales in Portland and the trio murdering Bach in Iceland give me such energy and such hope. These musicians were playing loud for all to hear and tough luck to the world if it was not perfect and the world judged them harshly. There is only one way to the proficiency of the master, and the budding violinist knew it as did the trio. Practice. Keep practicing until the notes have the precision they require. Keep practicing until the work is transformed, until the work transforms you, until study becomes Mastery.”
― Gary Rogowski, Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction