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Looking for a (constructive?) hobby.
InkSplat
100%ed Bad Rats.Registered User regular
100%ed Bad Rats.Registered User regular
So, I'm in search of a hobby, with a few guidelines, I guess?
I'm looking for something where I make or shape something. But also something that isn't crazy expensive over the course.
I love building lego models, but that ain't cheap.
I've been really interested in the idea of bonsai, but that is something with really long periods where you can't really do anything. And while that's still something I'd like to do, doesn't quite fit in here.
I had thought of wood carving, but honestly I don't have much of an interest in displaying the finished product--the process though is really interesting.
So, basically, I'm just looking for some ideas that I haven't thought of or never heard of.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
I'm looking for something where I make or shape something. But also something that isn't crazy expensive over the course.
I love building lego models, but that ain't cheap.
I've been really interested in the idea of bonsai, but that is something with really long periods where you can't really do anything. And while that's still something I'd like to do, doesn't quite fit in here.
I had thought of wood carving, but honestly I don't have much of an interest in displaying the finished product--the process though is really interesting.
So, basically, I'm just looking for some ideas that I haven't thought of or never heard of.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
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The rocket took me about half an hour to put together, and then a couple of hours for the glue to dry. The hardest part was waiting for a calm day where we could launch the rocket! If you're something that takes a bit more time, the more advanced rockets can take up to a week to complete and even require sanding and painting.
When we launched it, we went to a big wide open area and it turns out a whole bunch of the neighbourhood kids saw the rocket go off and they all cheered and thanked us as we walked back to the car with the spent rocket in hand. We felt like we had just put on a show, and it was a totally awesome experience. We taught our 2 year old daughter to count down from 10 to Blastoff! and hearing her giggle and laugh as the rocket shot up into the sky and floated down was a moment that I won't soon forget.
Building multiple rockets can get expensive, but if you're careful with assembly and don't launch on a windy day, your rockets should last for multiple launches.
I highly recommend giving rocketry a shot.
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Brew some beer!
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Doesn't really matter, I guess? I mean, ideally I'd like to be able to become good at it, but something easier than, say, learning guitar would probably be good. :P
This definitely sounds cool, but I'd probably like to save that for when my son is a bit older. But I will definitely make a note of that, because that's pretty reasonable for something a kid would flip over.
Yeah, see, whereas smaller-scale wood carving sounds like fun, I'm not sure the results live up to the process. Whereas for like, larger stuff like carpentry? That sounds awesome, but also seems like it'd be pretty pricey. Sculpting could work too though, and fits kind of in with the enjoyment of character creation suites.
But, the time I can dedicate in a given chunk isn't necessarily huge, as I've got a 13 month old, so dealing with clay and the like probably isn't the best option. Hm.
While I enjoy me some giant robots, I think the space requirement is just a bit too high, and the cost is kind of prohibitive of just giving them away when they're finished.
Unfortunately I'm not. But if I was, I'd be wanting that PicoBrew thing from Kickstarter. :P Though, it seems like beer brewing might fall into the same (though to a lesser extent) issue as bonsai, where there are spurts of activity, followed by long periods of waiting. I'm looking for something a bit more active.
Thanks for all the suggestions so far, guys. Definitely got me thinking.
So, if you wanted to try sculpting, I would recommend oil based clay.
Do... Re... Mi... So... Fa.... Do... Re.... Do...
Forget it...
Thanks for the info! That is definitely something I'll have to look into.
However, there are model kits of lots of other thing that are fun to build, paint and display.
Ships, automobiles, aircraft...
You could build a model railway. Layouts are often built on modular surfaces that can be taken apart and stored on some shelves in a wardrobe.
Remote control aircraft/cars/boats is also a great fun hobby. Not only do you build and finish the model, then you get to drive/pilot it! And there are endless customisation options.
You can also join clubs for everything I've mentioned, and meet a ton of good people.
You might look into crocheting.. I know you said knitting doesn't sound like your thing but crocheting is so much more flexible and little plushies (amigumiri) are practically the name of the game. If you get into sewing clothing though, you can save some money and learn to make really cool costumes from scratch. My friend's mother-in-law sews, and CUSTOM MADE her wedding dress for a tiny fraction of what it would have cost to commission specially or even buy something off a rack. That was the most beautiful dress, too. *sigh*
... Anyway, hobbies. Yeah. I had a friend in college who was really into papercraft. Some of it is pretty lame, but some of it is completely awesome. It is as expensive as the paper you use. If I had a ton of disposable income I would continue learning glass work, but that is possibly one of the most cost-prohibitive hobbies I can think of.
I would also keep taking violin lessons. Do you play an instrument? Things like guitars can get really fiddly if you get into customizing them. I have a friend who has taken up building pedals as a hobby, and he's always talking about specialty parts and customizations. Even just learning to play an instrument itself can take as much or as little of your time as you want.. just if you don't do it much it will be really slow.
My most prized possession is a solid walnut coffee table that I built in high school wood shop. It is a gorgeous piece of furniture. I'm a total nerd who took a ton of AP classes and you know what my very favorite thing about high school was by a large margin? Three days a week in wood shop.
If I had the time to devote to a serious hobby I'd find the nearest woodworking shop that offered time rentals and build every single piece of furniture in my house by hand. Lumber is cheapish, you're looking at 100-150 for a large piece of furniture (tables, bookcases, beds) and 40-80 for small stuff like chairs, clocks, stools, etc. At the end, you have an heirloom-quality piece of furniture that you built with your own two hands (and awesome power tools).
Even if all you're doing is figurines and such it's such a rewarding hobby. It teaches you a lot about how to hand heavy equipment and smaller power tools, the paramount importance of precision and consistency, and the pure joy of having something really stunning at the end that will be in your house and be seen and used by everyone who visits.
Woodworking. I recommend it.
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Crocheting!
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Plus it's super cheap, Flour, Water, Newspaper, Wire. all you need
I really enjoy doing that while listening to some audiobook or podcast and while I used to play the games I now have little to no interest in them and am just in it for the painting.
And the minis do not take much room.
Cross stitch!
it's pretty cheap (especially considering that at least some of it is just money you'd spend on food anyway), and has the nice side effect of not producing a ton of stuff that winds up just sitting around forever. Plus it's a nice, ready-made social activity (hey dudes I made XYZ come over for dinner)
homebrewing is pretty neat too, but it takes a lot more setup to do correctly
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Paper isn't super expensive and there are loads of resources online.
Knitting and crocheting are also really good secondary options. The plus side you can make sweet hats and scarves and sweaters to wear.
You can make all sorts of cool stuff, and hang it around your place, give it to friends, or sell it on Etsy or something. And there isn't much waiting time.
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I have a family member who cuts out images from magazines, attaches them to decorative wooden plaques and varnishes them until the surface is smooth. They can be hung on a wall or given as gifts. (Or now, possibly sold on Etsy.)
The same relative makes "block trees" out of children's blocks. She sands down all the sides of the block so the paint isn't visible, repaints the surfaces the way she wants, combines them so each "tier" of the tree spells something, wood-glues the blocks together to form a sort of tree, and then attaches little trinket type things and ceramic animals to them. It's very process intensive, decently cheap, and is also giftable/sellable.
Cooking is definitely already a thing for me, and carpentry is definitely something that i would love to do, but the investment is kind of whoa.
But I did not think of placed that rent out space.
What about without power tools? How ridiculous would it be making larger objects with more, uh, classic methods?
Also, that block tree thing sounds cool. I hadn't though of doing Minecraft style sculptures in real life with tiny cubes, but that might be pretty fun.
Where do you live? There's actually a few schools doing traditional artisan methods for furniture construction (think chisels/handsaws etc.), or you can look up Shaker methods for how they did stuff. It doesn't HAVE to be expensive, you just need to set your goals appropriately, as remember that they didn't exactly have power tools back in the 10th century etc.
But really, low cost constructive hobby is probably going to be something like working with clay (bowls or other crafts) and knitting.
Otherwise you're going to be dropping $100+ to get started.
Maybe pick up model building and painting like aircraft or cars or something.
Granted I already had yarn
Okay, that would be $6 total
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I'm totally willing to go off-plan, the problem is I was dumb as a kid and got rid of my legos when moving one time. So I'm just starting to rebuild a collection for my son to inherit in a few years. A lack of parts limits my ability to just sit there and build.
I think my biggest issue with knitting/crochetting is that I don't like the texture of yarn and such. Its weird, I admit.. but the fray-y bits just drive me nuts. :P
It would take a while and probably require more experience than you'll have starting out. Planing a board by hand is not a fun experience and it's easy to screw it up. I once had to made a tiny little box without power tools in wood shop. It was a ridiculously little thing, shoebox sized, and it took me almost a month and wasn't quite square.
So yeah, maybe woodworking doesn't fit what you're looking for. But there are places you can rent time on table saws and whatnot, so you don't need to spend like ten grand building your own shop.
Hey there good looking.
Go to a wood show.
I find this really interesting.. is it all yarn or thread?
I once bought a giant package of yarn because it seemed an okay color and my husband liked it, so I was going to make him a blanket with it. The feel of it was so awful to work with (not sure how the product would have been) that I ended up scrapping the project. It felt like fingernails on a chalkboard sounds. The stuff I'm working with right now feels so nice I go out of my way to do squares in my spare time, so it's really a contrast. I also prefer to work with stuff that doesn't fray easily just because it's much easier to work with, but I have also shown a tendency to try to crochet anything. I made a little tiny jellyfish amigumuri out of no-fooling thread. I really like crocheting with thread. it is tiny and painstaking, but the result is so intricate and beautiful that I end up finding it really satisfying.
And then I give it away and never try to see it again.
They of course don't have to be holiday themed. I know my cousins have ones commemorating their births, and I have one that's entirely decorated in dogs. (Unfortunately at my parents house otherwise I'd take a picture & send that, because it's awesome.)
The nice thing about block trees is you don't have to spend money on them all at once, because there's so many different steps to the process and you can decide what you want to do with it. I don't think the person who made the tree in the link sanded down their blocks and repainted them like my relative does. But my relative goes kind of overboard with their trees. She'll spend a month sanding the paint off the blocks and getting them perfectly smooth before she repaints them. Sometimes she'll sand off the repainted blocks and paint them a different color. And you can decorate the trees with anything. It doesn't have to be tiny ceramic animals and do-dads. Legos would work just fine.
This is a cheap place to get projects too. Buy shitty furniture, disassemble, strip, sand, perhaps embellish, stain, reassemble, enjoy/sell.
I think, at least for the moment, I am going to take a stab at wood working and try to make my own Go board + bowls. Figure it'll give me a good range of things to try.
Now to just figure out how to do what I want to do. :P