How do you get started and then avoid burn out?

[Glenn]

We all start full of spit and vinegar, full steam ahead. Then we start to loose interest or have other things to do. In blacksmithing, how do you get started every day, get motivated, or decide what to do, IF you can convince yourself you really want to build a fire? Then later, how do you avoid burn out and avoid loosing interest in beating metal? If your in the middle of a large order, or production work, or a large job, how do you stay interested and excited enough to finish?

How do you get started, again, today?
How do you avoid getting burned out on blacksmithing?

[rmcpb]

I have the opposite problem. I would only get the forge up and running about every fortnight, too many other things get in the way so no burn out for me.

[JosephPrivott]

I got somewhat disaffected when I began to 'smith, and other things like going to school interfered (although that boredom usually kindled my interest, pun intended). the disafection came from poor technique, and lack of resources. That was five or six years ago, and things are different now. As I've mentioned, I am now trying to turn my avocation into a vocation, and that provides a lot of fuel (oh I'm on a roll today). This past week I felt a little burned out because I have been diligently working on my items, but have had few buyers. I'm mostly over that now as a Trade Faire is soon approaching, and with it, the potential for a wholesale account.

That being said, I am not near my forge everyday, and the drive to make items give me vigor. I make one or two types every time I fire it up, and the experience offers me a new challenge, and by the last item, a new product (typically) under my belt. I feel my biggest drawback is a lack of artistic creativity. I have great spatial skills, but the other also serves to discourage me. Lots of duality.

To quote vonnegut: "And so it goes."

[civilwarblacksmith]

As this is my part-time job, I only need to look at the reasons that I am doing it. And that is the fact that it brings income in for my family.

[coltpax]

I like to try something new, or spend about an hour just messing around with hot metal instead of trying to make something specific. I know that I got burned out about a year and a half ago, then I met a fellow smith near me that helped me get started up again,and then I also got my gasser, so now its alot easier than coal. Thats one thing that burned me out was waiting an hour to get a coal fire going, then waiting another hour afterwards for it to go out. But I have a tendency to stop smithing for a week or so because I get a little angry at some of my improvised equipment (handheld belt sander stuck in a vice), but i'll eventually have to start something and I'll get out to the forge.

[HWooldridge]

I am interested in the end result and have that in mind when I start (it doesn't always turn out like I initially thought but that's part of the fun). I like to finish things so try to push myself to achieve some level of completion every day. Part of that stems from the fact I have worked in manufacturing for almost 30 years so goals and production output are a natural part of the process.

I get burnt out like anyone else but blacksmithing and metalworking has always kept my interest in the long term.

[Finnr]

To me the process is the joy. I like making a finished product that people admire, but it isn't the product that makes me ha[[y it's how I got from start to finish. I guess that the fact that I love what I do gets me going even when I'm hurting.
Finnr

[ironrosefarms]

How do you get started and then avoid burn out?
Well the hardest part for me is getting started, the fact I have to haul all my stuff out and set it up under the shade tree means I loose a lot of time in set up and tear down. This causes my total time available to be reduced significantly. As for burn out, my problem there isn't mental as much as physical. I'm still working my way back from my motorcycle accident and my body tells me that it has had enough after about 4 or 5 hours of steady work. So I have to pace myself somewhat, be sure I take a real break and let my body rest before picking up the hammer again. By resting I can usually double my amount of work in a day...

As for what to work on I sketch anything I see that is of interest and keep those in a sketch book along with photo's and such. I find also feeding my mind with the craft in places like IFI is valuable in this process as well.

[mike-hr]

On repetative projects, like 200+ forged pickets, I keep interested by making a game with myself and a stopwatch. I do 10 pieces and see if I can shave some seconds on the next 10.
I have a good stereo with satellite radio in the shop, I try to make the shop a fun place to be. My wife just got me a revolving mirror ball for my birthday, it's great to have on when doing power-hammer work after dark.
There's some days when I just don't feel like working. Good time to chop wood, go to the dump, catch up on paperwork.

[Buffalo]

Now and again my body just won't allow me to push as hard as I would like, but for the most part, I am just driven to manipulate iron. I work iron at my "job", come home and sneak away to my forge, to "just try one more thing". Then go to sleep and dream of forging all night. If I would have been bit by the steel bug when I was younger, I would have lived at a shop. To avoid burnout, I keep my forge temp down!! ha ha