Do you have a gift? Maybe just a minor talent for doing something better than others?

SifuPhil said:
Okay, I've gotten over my natural modesty and shyness ...

I'm a very good martial arts teacher. In fact, I made it my career for over 30 years. I still have a private student I've been teaching for 15 years.

Also, and this will sound wacky, I had a certain talent for making large, complicated dollhouses from scratch. It started when my wife said she had never had a dollhouse as a child. For our next anniversary I planned on giving her one.

But instead of doing what a normal, sane person would do - going to the store and buying one already made, or at least a kit - I decided to make this one by hand. I cut scale 2"x4"s and 2"x6"s, cut the flooring out of sheets of exotic woods and marble, installed working electricity and plumbing ... the project just ran away with me.

It ended up finished one day before our anniversary - a 4'x4'x3' monster, built so that it could hinge open in three pieces and mounted on its own table.

After a few people saw it they started asking if I could make one for them. I eventually started a lucrative side-business building dollhouses and ended up exhibiting at a few major shows up and down the East coast.
Click to expand...

Well, I am impressed Phillip.. You can Kung Fu but also create a working dollhouse, ok, I don't know from martial arts..except that old tv show, Grasshopper...lol. I'm so glad you aren't normal or sane and went out and built a better dollhouse :). Yay!
 

Linda said:
Phil, I love doll houses, wish you had a pic of one of yours to show us. I had a tin 2 story house in the 50s and I'd have thought I'd died and gone to heaven if I'd had one like you made. Do you not have the desire to make another one? Seems like it'd be a lot of fun.
Click to expand...

Maybe someday ... when I'm retired ... and have the tools again ... and the nice workshop ... and plenty of time ... LOL!

I think perhaps it evolved from my love of building tiny little houses for my train layout as a kid, as well as creating wooden toys for my son later on.

Karen99 said:
Well, I am impressed Phillip.. You can Kung Fu but also create a working dollhouse, ok, I don't know from martial arts..except that old tv show, Grasshopper...lol. I'm so glad you aren't normal or sane and went out and built a better dollhouse :). Yay!
Click to expand...

LOL - yeah, that's me - I'm just one big, furry bundle of contradictions! :D Like an egg - hard on the outside, soft on the inside ...
 
But instead of doing what a normal, sane person would do - going to the store and buying one already made, or at least a kit - I decided to make this one by hand. I cut scale 2"x4"s and 2"x6"s, cut the flooring out of sheets of exotic woods and marble, installed working electricity and plumbing ... the project just ran away with me.

It ended up finished one day before our anniversary - a 4'x4'x3' monster, built so that it could hinge open in three pieces and mounted on its own table.

That's really impressive son. My aunt had such a dollhouse. Every few years she change wallpaper and décor, ongoing project for many, many years. Quite a hobby for many people.

I can build things really well but I suck at math. So everything is made with a great deal of estimating. I admire people who can do real live carpentry. I can draw and paint, not like "real" drawing like shading and perspective but still rather imaginative. In the Spring I'm going to approach the townships about repainting park benches in fanciful themes. Maybe find some storefronts interested in something colorful. Large scale is fun...one of the kids rooms has an eight foot tabbie cat on the wall.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ina
fureverywhere said:
That's really impressive son. My aunt had such a dollhouse. Every few years she change wallpaper and décor, ongoing project for many, many years. Quite a hobby for many people.

I can build things really well but I suck at math. So everything is made with a great deal of estimating. I admire people who can do real live carpentry. I can draw and paint, not like "real" drawing like shading and perspective but still rather imaginative. In the Spring I'm going to approach the townships about repainting park benches in fanciful themes. Maybe find some storefronts interested in something colorful. Large scale is fun...one of the kids rooms has an eight foot tabbie cat on the wall.
Click to expand...

Thank you.

Our downtown has a mural painted by local artisans - it's on the side of a building, about 100' long and 2 stories high. Took them all of a summer to do, and it was a daily event to grab lunch, sit down on the ground and watch them work.
 
I have exceptional hand-eye coordination and can do things simultaneously with both hands -- needless to say, I'm a high speed typist/keyboarder.
 
I'm not gifted , but I paint & write poetry. My entire life's collection of paintings and poetry burned up in my house fire. I had put things on flash drives. It never occurred to me that they would melt lol. I haven't done anything in a year because I keep being shuffled by workers from room to room. These two pictures my daughter had on her cell phone & just sent me. The first hangs in my Dad's living room. I gave it to him years ago. The second beach picture was unfinished. It was the one I was working on when my house burned down. The colors look off to me on my computer, but oh well..

P.S. Phil I think the thoughtfulness that went into that dollhouse gift idea is so touching.




 
I was good at dancing and took lessons. I was always one of the two "leaders" in the classes. I also won a few little dance contests at the local dances as a teen. Good grief, even I can hardly believe it!

Drawing was also something I was pretty good at.
 
Linda said:
Phil, I love doll houses, wish you had a pic of one of yours to show us. I had a tin 2 story house in the 50s and I'd have thought I'd died and gone to heaven if I'd had one like you made. Do you not have the desire to make another one? Seems like it'd be a lot of fun.
Click to expand...

My doll house was my favourite toy. It was a big wooden one my grandmother bought used.
 
So many talented people!

Ralhy,I would love a taste. :)

I'm good with tools,manual labor.crafts.
My latest pass time is mosaics.I finally finished a huge piece with multiple medims used and now I started a glass on glass.I am in the process of cliping glass in small bits.
 
I forgot to mention-----In addition to being a outstanding harmonica player I am utterly fantastic on BONGOS. Play me something with a Latin Beat and away I go. Arriba!!!!
 
Piano, writing. I'm not real artsy craftsy..but I used to embroider when I was a teenager. I did a whole set of tea towels and pillow slips when I got bronchitis..lol. I have done decoupage and my art thing is chalk (pastels) or pencil. I tried oil painting and that was a huge fail...but fun.
 
I forgot to mention-----In addition to being a outstanding harmonica player I am utterly fantastic on BONGOS. Play me something with a Latin Beat and away I go. Arriba!!!!

Hey is Ray Barretto still alive? No I googled it he passed in 2006...hey you could take over his place...he was amazing.
 
Karen99 said:
Piano, writing. I'm not real artsy craftsy..but I used to embroider when I was a teenager. I did a whole set of tea towels and pillow slips when I got bronchitis..lol. I have done decoupage and my art thing is chalk (pastels) or pencil. I tried oil painting and that was a huge fail...but fun.
Click to expand...

I did a lot of crewel embroidery in my 20's - pictures, pillows, etc. Still have some of them. I gave away a lot as gifts.
 
I did needlework in high school. A denim jacket with Lynyrd Skynyrd across the back. I read about something called trapunto and made a shady lady on the sleeve, felt and 3D. I don't follow directions good but I can look at something and create it anyways.
 
Ameriscot said:
I did a lot of crewel embroidery in my 20's - pictures, pillows, etc. Still have some of them. I gave away a lot as gifts.
Click to expand...

Very cool..I lovd doing gifts with embroidery..baby bibs and such..or later remember how embroidery on denim was popular? I did a few personalized shirts...forgot about that.
 
Karen99 said:
Very cool..I lovd doing gifts with embroidery..baby bibs and such..or later remember how embroidery on denim was popular? I did a few personalized shirts...forgot about that.
Click to expand...

My grandmother taught me how to embroider. She did excellent work. All our pillowcases had embrodery on the ends. Some tablecloths as well.

I don't like doing crossstitch and I can't seem to find any crewel embroidery kits. I'd love to do it again.
 
I am a pretty good fiddle and harmonica player. I play the banjo (to some degree) and also the piano (to some degree).
 
You could be a one man band. Have you thought of recording a clip for YouTube? it might go viral...
 
I have been reading this thread for awhile trying to figure out my hidden talent or gift and I'm tired of racking my brain......I've finally come to the conclusion that I'm not good at diddly squat.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top