Crafts Amongst the Cabins

Spent the weekend interacting with several dozen craftsmen and craftswomen demonstrating “forgotten crafts” amongst a dozen hand-hewn log cabins in the Rockport Lincoln Pioneer Village.
The village was mostly constructed during the period from 1935 to 1937 (Works Projects Administration funds).  The cabins are a memorial to Abraham Lincoln and the neighboring cabins during his lifetime here in Indiana.

When white settlers first migrated to Indiana, they built their homes with the only tools they brought with them:  Axes, knives, a maul and froe to split shingles.  Not much more.

Household crafts included: cooking over open fires with iron cauldrons, making and repairing clothes by spinning and weaving, making lye and soap . . . just to name a few of the unending daily chores.

All this was, of course, all done as a matter of survival.  Survival.
Unless you've lived it -- which a few of our older volunteers have - working hard for daily survival is a difficult concept to teach at these events.  We try.  Correction:  I try; they do.

Meet a few of our reenactors:

Above, Liz H. is a mother, educator of her children, web content designer (some hi-tech modern-age career) and a weaver, et. al.  Liz, thanks for my new bag!

How did these generous folks get to the point near-mastering their crafts?
I use the word "Persistence" in the Carpe Diem Life system.  Writer Gretchen Rubin, the author of The Happiness Project, uses the word "Frequency."

"We tend to overestimate what we can do in the short period, and underestimate what we can over a long period," she advises, "provided we work slowly and consistently."  Over the long, long haul, the small daily habit of frequency will foster both productivity and creativity.   http://gretchenrubin.com/

Rubin has found that frequent work makes it possible to accomplish more with greater originality for several reasons:

Frequency makes starting easier.
Frequency keeps ideas fresh.
Frequency keeps the pressure off.
Frequency sparks creativity.
Frequency nurtures frequency.
Frequency fosters productivity.

How can frequency help master your passions?

Unfortunately, the best habit I practice frequently is the habit of making a list in my "someday" journal, and persistently finding other things to do.  Hopefully, spending a couple of days this weekend with my more creative craftsmen and craftswomen will wake me up to the fact that, as Gretchen Rubin say, "Day by day, we build our lives and, day by day, we can take steps toward making real the magnificent creations of our imaginations."

Carpe Diem Life,
David Kuhn