As the Spool Spins. Misadventures of a Wannabe Embroiderer
This is my blog documenting my journey to start an embroidery business. Did I mention I've never embroidered a thing in my life?
Blog Post 1: Who am I?
Who am I? The existential question. I found myself getting increasingly frustrated and restless at work and asking myself exactly who I was and what was I doing with my life. Looking around at the other people in the office who seemed content and happy all the while I'm feeling trapped. I remind myself that I was lucky, which I was. I was well paid, respected in my field, and even had a flexible work schedule. All the things most people are seeking from their careers. Why was this not enough for me?
For some inexpiable reason it wasn't. I wanted out, but how? A few of my friends have started businesses printing t-shirts and other custom products and I was amazed. I wanted to see if I could do something similar, but being plagued my whole life with essential tremors, hands that constantly shake and would make me a terrifying surgeon, I was looking for something less taxing on my hands.
Thus, I decided to try out embroidery! Now why you may be asking. Well, there were some wonderful YouTube videos and the machine looked like it did most of the work! If that's true or not I have no idea. I've never actually embroidered a single thing in my entire life. For some reason though I became fixated on this idea.
One day while home and dealing with a plumbing issue I came across an ad for a Ricoma EM1010 machine. You know it's expensive when they don't tell you the price, but make you reach out to a representative. Suffice it to say the Ricoma sales agent and their wonderful YouTube videos sold me on a machine that cost more than what I just paid for a used car!
After the thrill of making the purchase wore off I remembered when I was in college struggling to make it through college algebra. I was convinced that if I bought the fanciest most expensive calculator it would allow me to generate fancy and accurate answers. This calculator was like a mini computer! Dozens of formulas programmed in it, graphing, you name it. Well, the calculator proved to be just a wee bit too fancy for me. It turned out to be an overpriced paper weight as I never could figure out how to even get basic calculations out of that thing. You would have thought I would have learned a valuable lesson with that fancy calculator, but all these years later it seems like I might not. I am now the proud owner of a very fancy embroidery machine and all I can do is hope that it doesn't turn out to be another fancy paper weight.
So the simple question of asking myself, 'Who am I?' Has led me on this path trying to become an embroiderer. I figured the least I can do is write about this journey. Maybe it'll turn out to be a great success or maybe it'll be a cautionary tale which ends with me trying to sell my fancy machine at a discounted price. Either way, we will find out as we watch the spool spin and document the misadventures of a wannabe embroiderer.
For some inexpiable reason it wasn't. I wanted out, but how? A few of my friends have started businesses printing t-shirts and other custom products and I was amazed. I wanted to see if I could do something similar, but being plagued my whole life with essential tremors, hands that constantly shake and would make me a terrifying surgeon, I was looking for something less taxing on my hands.
Thus, I decided to try out embroidery! Now why you may be asking. Well, there were some wonderful YouTube videos and the machine looked like it did most of the work! If that's true or not I have no idea. I've never actually embroidered a single thing in my entire life. For some reason though I became fixated on this idea.
One day while home and dealing with a plumbing issue I came across an ad for a Ricoma EM1010 machine. You know it's expensive when they don't tell you the price, but make you reach out to a representative. Suffice it to say the Ricoma sales agent and their wonderful YouTube videos sold me on a machine that cost more than what I just paid for a used car!
After the thrill of making the purchase wore off I remembered when I was in college struggling to make it through college algebra. I was convinced that if I bought the fanciest most expensive calculator it would allow me to generate fancy and accurate answers. This calculator was like a mini computer! Dozens of formulas programmed in it, graphing, you name it. Well, the calculator proved to be just a wee bit too fancy for me. It turned out to be an overpriced paper weight as I never could figure out how to even get basic calculations out of that thing. You would have thought I would have learned a valuable lesson with that fancy calculator, but all these years later it seems like I might not. I am now the proud owner of a very fancy embroidery machine and all I can do is hope that it doesn't turn out to be another fancy paper weight.
So the simple question of asking myself, 'Who am I?' Has led me on this path trying to become an embroiderer. I figured the least I can do is write about this journey. Maybe it'll turn out to be a great success or maybe it'll be a cautionary tale which ends with me trying to sell my fancy machine at a discounted price. Either way, we will find out as we watch the spool spin and document the misadventures of a wannabe embroiderer.
Are You Capable of Owning this Machine?
Cue the training montage!