What are your other creative outlets?

Curious what others here do with their time away from ID daily work. I should draw, paint and sketch more as a hobby, but as my main outlet, I find myself with guitar or mandolin instead of drawing pad.

I read lots of sci fi novels, cars and coffee get togethers with friends, going to coffee shops and shooting the breeze with buddies, long organized drives… I should play my guitar more and sketch less :slight_smile: !

Lego construction with my kids.

+1 on the Lego with kids. Or drawing with kids. There’s mutual respect: they think “dad can draw soooo good” and you think “I will never be this creative with form, scale, color, or content.”

I actually kind of enjoy yard work, specifically hard-scaping type projects, involving rock formations, patios, little walls, etc. Hard and dirty and creative in its own way, and cocktail hour is much better as a result.

Wrenching bikes isn’t really creative but mix-and-match component groups (like single-speed flat bar road bikes with every major component manufacturer represented) and then just the right decals can be quite satisfying.

Does posting on Core count?

half point at best :slight_smile:

I really like to cook. It used to be my main profession before I made the jump into ID and strangely it is first now after my career switch that I really enjoy it.
I am especially excited to throw myself into new and unexpected challenges and cook for friends and family in weird places and strange ingredients. It can be a bit scary but that is when I really surprise myself. Doesn’t always work out but I always learn something.
More recently I cooked a 6 course dinner for 30 people in a wood burning pizza oven, changing the wood depending on the course I was cooking. No electricity. That was really fun. And I didn’t make pizza :wink:

^ I can completely understand how cooking can be a good creative outlet. I don’t cook much, not even regularly. But when I do, I find it really calming and satisfying.

Strangely enough, my biggest creative outlet is playing football. It beats stress and I really like the level of mental involvement the sport demands at fairly competitive levels.

Next to football is reading.

I have an odd obsession with cycling. Love going for a ride. I enjoy hosting cycling events. I am also fascinated with vintage bicycles and racing, specifically anything prior to 1960 that’s Italian. Here’s about 5000 pictures as proof - iabisdb’s albums | Flickr

No doubt I am a maker. Landscaping (dig a hole, fill a hole, is all it is). Furniture/home accessories. Reproduction vintage bicycle parts. Mediocre sculpture. Cycling event posters, giveaways and other materials. And I am putting on the final touches on building out the basement. It features a storage/utility area, woodshop (metal work is done in the garage - another project for another day) and a “cycling cave”.

For my next big project, I would like to convert my driveway (100’ x 20’) from asphalt to granite cobbles. Just like the Paris-Roubaix race course. (Told you I have an odd cycling obsession)

I don’t know. 231 posts is kind of, you know, a bit, weak.

:wink:

I usually go running or see a movie.
Would like to pick up an instrument and draw more comics.
In idle mode my mind usually starts inventing things - products, apps, board games, sales tactics, anything.

Playing guitar, although it seems like that has taken a backseat ever since college and buying a home but I’ve been picking it up alot more lately. Currently building a slip-casting setup in my garage so we will see how that goes :slight_smile:. I also love cooking but not when its 6:30p getting home from work and still need to go for a run and take care of house stuff.

does acting as a project manager on you never ending house remodel count :slight_smile:

The few times I get to be creative I love it (redesigning the master bath layout, redesigning the fireplace, the outdoor hardscape, right now working on a new garage door design)… but that is 1% of the time. The rest of it (getting quotes, managing contractors, containing scope, cost and schedule) is not so fun… especially not fun is the writing checks part :slight_smile:

Very nice library of bike photos! Last year a friend of mine GAVE me his '80’s Bianchi road bike. Cool bike. Celeste Green is one of my favorite colors.

Thank you. And nothing better than a free bike. Most folks are too obsessed with the latest and greatest when in the case of bikes, it really doesn’t matter.

I had a celeste Bianchi. Known as a Sport model, kind of a 1950s version of today’s hybrid of the city and road bikes. Unfortunately, they only made them in a 54. Too small for me.


Bianchi Sport 101 by iabisdb, on Flickr

^^^ Gasp! That’s gorgeous!

Yes to this. But you’ve really got to do it right. They all have to be totally worn from time, with a distinct path down the center from decades and decades of traffic. Plus, every spring, you need to funnel a field of 200 cyclists down the driveway at top speed to see what happens. (Just don’t twist your bars back to center like poor old George…)

holy f***** s***.
Been looking for ideas for an Eroica bike, this is a mother-lode.

I couldn’t tell if that Bianchi was a old-style Sky Yaeger special or genuinely old, until I spotted the rear mech. Holy hell that’s sweet.

About a year or two ago the freelance work that I was doing for fun began to feel more and more like work.
So, I cut down on the side projects and looked for a new outlet.
In January, I began teaching Industrial and Graphics Design students at a local university.

I’ve only completed my first semester, but the end results were fascinating.
The classes provided some great discussions and learning experiences.
It has helped me to better understand the junior designers I work with and taught me how to offer better critiques.
For me, the opportunity to mentor these kids (particularly the ones that care) has been very fulfilling.

I would love to be spending more time in my garage building furniture or a stand-up paddleboard.
Unfortunately, I’ve found myself working on my house instead. The joys of homeownership.

Thank you. But if you really want the mother lode, my friends Paolo and Marco have outstanding blogs. Paolo stopped posting a couple years ago to focus on his bike shop, but Marco still posts.

Paolo’s blog - http://www.biciclassiche.com/
Marco’s blog - http://paramanubrio.blogspot.com/

Marco and me at the Mostra Scambio Novegro in Milano


Scambio 014 by iabisdb, on Flickr


If you are realllly serious about a L’Eroica bike, the scambio is the place to be. Or, if you are into vintage Italian motorcycles. My pictures from February.

A tall order. I’ll be satisfied with “only” this …