Unravelings

miniSpinner review, part 2

 The miniSpinner arrived with little fanfare. Packed into a relatively small brown box and delivered by the friendly USPS via Priority Mail, there was little to indicate what fun resided inside the box.

Included in my review package were the miniSpinner with the sliding hook flyer and three bobbins, an AC adapter, a cigarette lighter adapter, a handmade sterling threading hook, and lots of packing peanuts to make sure it arrived safely. My review model was made from beautiful maple. I covet one in Zebrawood (Kevin said he could make miniSpinners in custom woods) but I need to win the lottery before that dream will be realized).

My miniSpinner had been tested prior to shipment and the test yarn left on the bobbin, along with information about the fiber used in the testing and where one would buy more of it.

 For my own testing, I used Polwarth fiber from Rovings in a colorway called Berries. I was up and spinning within 5 minutes of unpacking the miniSpinner. No adjustments, no fiddling, just plug in and go. I began by spinning sitting on a dining room chair with the MS on a chair facing me. This worked really well, as I could use the foot control to turn the spinner on and off to move the sliders on the flyer as the bobbin filled. 

The miniSpinner can spin! I found the speed adjustment (which effectively adjusts the ratio) to adjust in minute increments, and the scotch tension was very sensitive. The combination of these two features made the MS a joy to spin on. I feel that it is actually more sensitive to adjustments that any of my traditional wheels. And there is no worrying about treadling speed; just power up and go. The bobbins are huge so you can spin for a long time without changing bobbins (which happens to be my least favorite part of the spinning process). Combined with the WooLee Winder (which I did not test) you could sit and spin for hours.

miniSpinner review, part 1

Small, portable electric spinners have been around for decades. I have tried almost all of them, and have never really loved any enough to part with my hard-earned cash. Most of them were ugly, noisy, hard to adjust and difficult to spin on. The closest to my idea of what an electric spinner should be was the Spin Tech, which may or not be in current production; no one really seems to know.

Enter the miniSpinner. I was intrigued when a brochure promoting it was part of the goodie bag I received at the Spin Off Autumn Retreat (SOAR) in October 2009. I called the designer and builder, Kevin Hansen, and asked if I could review the spinner. Kevin was kind enough to send me one and I spent many hours putting it to work.

My personal thoughts about the miniSpinner will be the topic of parts 2 and 3 of this review; but first, a little history of the miniSpinner, direct from Kevin Hansen.

My wife Beth and I spent several years sailing in the Pacific. During that time, we stayed nearly a year in Tasmania, where Beth became interested in spinning. She started with a drop spindle and alpaca fiber. Not the easiest way to learn to spin, but if you can spin alpaca, you can spin about anything!

Now, you can only play with a drop spindle for so long before you want to move to bigger and better things. The only problem was, a conventional wheel was far too large for our boat. But, thanks to the suggestions of Tassie friend Charles Payne, the first miniSpinner, (now known as “Mark 1”) was conceived. My brother and I made it as a proof-of-concept in pine – really crude - but Beth spun away many happy hours on it.

After Tasmania, we moved on to New Zealand where a local friend became enchanted with Beth's spinner and wanted to purchase it. So, since I'd been thinking of producing these on a commercial basis anyway, we sold Mark 1 and I built a much nicer model, “Mark 2”, while onboard our sailboat in the Maharangi River on North Island, NZ. Several years (and many hours of spinning on Mark 2) passed. We finished our Pacific cruise and sold Red, our sailing home of nearly 10 years, and we moved on to design and build a home in Chimacum, Washington.

Once the house was mostly finished I had time to revisit the spinner project. I found an industrial-strength motor, designed a much improved microcomputer-based speed controller, made it prettier and more sophisticated, and in general turned it into a “real” product. Now I make them in production runs of 20 or more! It's been a lot of fun to design and build these, and I hope you enjoy using yours. 

Happy Spinning! Kevin Hansen

You can find the miniSpinner at Hansen Crafts.

Drum Carding, part 5

Drum carding, part 4

Drum carding, part 3

Drum carding, part 2

Drum carding, part 1

Creative? You can get organized!

Thanks to Marcia Francois for permission to publish this great article.

Creative people need different ways to organise themselves because traditional methods won't work for them.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to organising; in fact, I believe that since each person is unique, each person's organising system should also be different.

Let's look at four areas to organise yourself for success:

1. Attitude

There's a myth going around that creative people can't work in a structured environment. On the contrary, having a bit of structure in your life actually enables you to be even more creative and to do better work.

A few weeks ago, a client emailed to tell me how she's been energized and has been creating beautiful things again.

What was the difference in her life? We'd worked on organising her office space and within the order, she could be creative once again.

Stop telling yourself that you can't be organised; rather tell yourself that you organise yourself in non-traditional ways. And that's perfectly okay.

2. Schedule

Traditionally, we've all been told to work according to the clock. I'm telling you to work with your energy cycles; don't do battle with them.

If you know that you tend to go through a bit of a slump around lunch time, maybe that's when you want to run errands or exercise to give yourself an energy boost.

If you design websites and you know that you're most creative at midnight, then design your websites at midnight Who says you have to start working at 8am?

3. To-do list

Scrap the to-do list. Yes, you read that correctly. The to-do list may set you up for failure especially when you feel you're not getting things done.

Rather use an Eat the Frog list. This list helps you be more flexible so you only need to get the most important things done. My clients are always a bit shocked when I tell them, "the less you have on your list, the better it is". Just make sure those are important things on your list.

4. Workspace

When you can find your equipment and supplies easily, your valuable energy is used for actual creativity and not wasted on looking for things.

It's so important to have your workspace set up according to your organising style. Are you a visual, auditory or kinesthetic learner? Are you a paper or electronic person? Maybe the reason you can't seem to get your papers organised is because you're actually an electronic person.

I've had clients with very messy offices whose computers are perfectly organised, and vice versa. It's so important to play to your strengths.

If you register for the Virtual Organising Makeover Session, you'll definitely uncover your unique organising style.

My challenge to you: Check your attitude and tell yourself you can get more productive once you organise according to your style.

And if you're not sure what your style is, find out here.

Want to use this article in your ezine or on your blog? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb.

Marcia Francois is a time management and organising coach who empowers small business owners and other busy professionals who want to make the most of their time. You'll get simple, practical organising and time management secrets to help you work less and enjoy life more! Visit http://takechargesolutions.org for your free Organising Success Pack.

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Master Craftsman

The Flash from Helen’s Bench

Helen Driggs is Managing Editor of Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist magazine.

Every now and then, I am reminded of why I do this. The other night, I was hammer forming and I crossed over to that very calm, focused and quiet place of concentration where it was only me, my hammer, the anvil and the metal. Nothing intruded – I felt my breathing slow, my vision focus sharply forward, my mind go quiet, and I blissed out. The studio was silent, dark and still except for the sound of hammer strike and torch flame. I totally lost track of several hours' time, and I felt like I’d received a great gift when I came back. The rare feeling of that place is where I am so happy and most alive. It’s where I want to go and stay whenever I can and I fiercely fight for space to get there. It is the place of focus and creativity. It is the place of excellence.

Do you have 10,000 hours?

I recently sat in on a lecture on becoming a “master craftsman” by Lew Wackler, one of our long time contributors to Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist. His main point was that for someone to reach master status, they had to practice their craft for at least 10,000 hours. He’s done that and beyond.

Lew’s concept made perfect sense to me because traditional art school training set me up to expect to invest lots of time making bad art to get good. I’ve been lucky enough to have studied with masters in every creative arena of my life: painting, dance and metals. The masters I’ve respected, become awestruck over, and have admired most were artists who had given up everything to focus on the one thing they wanted to excel at. They had the talent, desire, drive and dedication to do only “the one thing.”

Most people, myself included, could not do what they had done. Even if you are bursting with natural talent, you may never get there. It is very hard to abandon a “normal” life and do “the one thing” without diverting energy on family, friends, a home, stuff. And I will be very un-PC here and say especially for a girl. Sorry. It’s just a biological fact, so please don’t send me a nastygram.

I am too interested in too many things to choose only one. I love my son and my friends and family, I like to cook, paint, work on my house, garden, dance, and I have a genetically driven need to constantly make things with my hands. Happily, I’ve become accomplished at many of those things, but I have given up other things I passionately loved because I knew that to get good at them it would take more life than I could possibly give – so I abandoned them rather than do them badly. But I can’t imagine doing that for everything but “the one thing.”

I don’t have forever in front of me like I thought I did in my art school days, and I want to make the most of what I do have. It’s hard to give things up. But it is worth it sometimes, and choice is what makes us human. I figure I’ve spent roughly 3,500 hours so far on metals. I’m not even halfway to becoming a “master” yet. There are processes and techniques out there I’d like to try, and I fully enjoy every moment I spend at my bench. Yes, I hope I get to 10,000 and beyond, but to tell you the truth, I don’t even care. I love working in my studio with the skills I have. I'll just love it more with more and better skills.

To me, the funniest thing about it is that someone quantified it, and I’d never really considered it in those terms before. And it would be cool if you got a gold medal when you clocked 10,000 – but silly for a metalsmith, because they would probably just melt that medal down to make something. Sort of the point, right?