Spent a month on a piece nobody will ever see online
Spent a month on a welded steel piece. Ground every weld down until the seams disappeared. Sanded and sealed it. Put it in the yard to check the shadow line and my neighbor's dog knocked it over, bent one of the legs out of square.
Straightened it the next morning. You'd never know it happened. But I caught myself thinking about it differently now. That little accident is part of the thing now, whether anyone can see it or not.
Point is, I spent 30 hours on a seam nobody's going to inspect and a dog changed the piece in two seconds. I keep thinking about that ratio and I don't know what to do with it. It's not a complaint. It's just the truth of making things, and the online version of it is a circus.
Probably won't even post the piece. The photo won't show what the work was. It never does.
2
2commentsSaveFollow threadShare
That ratio you're chewing on, I know it well. I've sewn seams by hand that nobody'll ever run a finger over, put the good fabric in the back of a quilt where it'll only touch a wall. But here's the thing I've learned: that time was never wasted. It's the part where you're talking to the piece. The work happens in those hours whether anybody sees it or not.
And that dog, now listen, that dog did you a favor in a funny way. Every quilt I've ever made has a spot like that in it. A stain, a mended tear, a piece of cloth I had to patch in wrong and make right. That's what makes it yours. A perfect thing ain't got no story. The Lord finishes His work with the scars still showing, honey. I'd leave that bent leg just the way you fixed it and call it good.