lace is as good as you make it
February 17, 2011 § 2 Comments
In advertising, a lot of what I do involves a high degree of subjectivity. You constantly have to sell in your thinking and ideas to other people that may or may not see eye to eye. Your work gets crafted by a lot of hands, so it’s hard to look at something and say “I did that”.
For me, I enjoy the teamwork of the business and don’t worry as much about credit or awards, a little recognition now and then is fine.
It is nice though to have something that is truly yours, that you can craft from start to finish. It all comes down to your own effort and your own expectations of yourself. At the end of it you have a visible artifact as a testament to yourself.
Making lace removes any form of subjectivity. You either do it right and it shows or you do it wrong and it shows. The decision is up to you. As you can see above, I was doing it wrong and after 2 hours decided it wasn’t ok and started over. It felt really annoying and it felt great at the same time. I think a lot of times when something isn’t working right, we just try to fix it up a bit and push on, even if it isn’t a reflection of what we wanted it to be. It felt good to start over and do it right, even if it was a pain in the short term.
It’s hard to say whether I will continue making lace after this week, but it is really interesting to see how much you can learn in a week and I definitely know I need some kind of hobby of this sort in my life. It keeps you honest with yourself.
52 To Do 
So true, Darcie. I know what you mean when you say, “I did that.” As an account guy for 20 years it was the same for me, getting others to have ideas, selling other people’s ideas, seeing other people’s ideas in the marketplace (even though I had a big hand it, but still). Doing something concrete like that is great therapy. I do it with music sometimes – writing and recording really, really bad songs. But they’re my songs and, as you say, “I did it.” Just the act of doing it is enough for me.
Great insight (as usual).
Will
Thanks Will! I know you totally get what I mean. I wish I had a musical bone in my body. Maybe I’ll have to think about that for one of the weeks. In the meantime, I’ll keep chugging away at the lace.