The Abbott Family Blog

I have always felt that it’s good to be capable of doing something better than good enough, even if you never actually do it. For example, even though you make a simple cupcake, you are able to make a multi-layer cake with all the frills and fancy stuff, (you know, the big, white cake of cake you roll in at divorce court) even if you don’t make it. Being able to have the power without using it to the extreme. Of course, the hard part about having the “power”, is that you can get sucked into it.

Now, I have a “problem” of when I am planning out something out to make, I plan it out much fancier than it needs to be. Fortunately, the rest of the family can ground me back to reality. Plus, when I start to get part-way into it, I then realize how much time it will take and will proceed to take the simpler approach.

Over the past three years, I’ve learned two skills that creates the option to make something fancy: woodworking and sewing. I learned to sew by sewing a Karate gi and woodworking by making a shamisen. That put some experience under my belt. Now, when I have a thought of making something, the image of being it a lot fancier than it needs to be feels a lot closer to reality and a lot easier than just making something that just fits the bill. While it can be very easy to make something fancy, it just takes more time. More time than you expect that’d it take.

Now in making things fancy, those two skills are deadly together. With this shamisen adventure, I’ve exercised myself quite a bit in making the shamisen by adding on special (yet very time consuming) things like a three piece neck, herring bone patterns on the inside, things like that. Fortunately, while adding spiffy things like that, I’ve managed to pull myself back when I’ve done enough. Sure, part of me wants to sand and polish the shamisen body until there isn’t a mark on it, but that gets neurotic.

Well, now, I indulged myself for one of the smallest parts of the shamisen that’s not even connected to the shamisen . . . bags for twists and wedges for frame and clamps in which to stretch a skin onto a shamisen.

You see, my first clamps were just two rectangular blocks with the edges of one end carved out (for a wedge to go in which didn’t even hold) and a bolt through the middle. Only took an hour to make all 18. They were basic and barely did the job, even slipped and didn’t hold. Pretty embarrassing. So, I finally decided that I wanted to do it right. So I spent about a week churning out 18 good clamps (which certainly goes on the Top Ten Most Boring Things To Do list mind you) with a dowel in the middle of each so they could rotate easily. (Basically . . . art)

Then, I made wedges and twists for the stretching process. I realized that I was gonna need a bag to put all the twists ‘n stuff in. I felt though, since I’ve spent so much time making the clamps, why should I just put ‘em in a ziplock? So, I pulled out a bag (that came with another shamisen we were borrowing) that I wanted to replicate and examined it. It looked fancy enough to be deserving of the little twists. It just looked a little . . . time consuming, because it had an inside lining and drawstrings. But I thought, piece of cake! I can get it done in a day!

Well, I did actually get it done in a day. But then I went farther! I decided that the ropes needed bags too! With lining of course (since lining increased the coolness triple-fold while not taking too much extra time).

1 week and 6 bags later, do I think it was worth it? Well, of course! (though I wouldn’t do it again) I’m not gonna spend 4 days doing something and admit that it was a waste of time! (though, whenever I see the bags when I pull ‘em out to stretch a skin, I always feel happy that I didn’t “skimp on the fixins” so I guess it was worth it)