My Son and Scott Pilgrim
Please bear with me, but I am just really proud of both my kids and have to plug them once in a while–so let it be know that this is a proud-mom-bragging post. My oldest son, John, is in San Diego this week at ComicCon. He was one of the background artists working on the new book by Bryan Lee O’Malley–Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour. The new book is being introduced at ComicCon. There will also be a major movie and video game released in August that are based on O’Malley’s book, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
Meet my son, the watchmaker
My son, Adam, has taken on a new adventure–starting his own business. I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of how hard he has worked at it. He went to school to become a WOSTEP certified watch repair technician and then branched out to clocks by working with a mentor who is a retired master clockmaker. He just launched his new web site for his business–Keeper of Time. So please help an honest, hardworking young person if you know anyone who needs repair work done on a clock or watch.
This has almost become a lost art. There are only a few WOSTEP certified schools in the US and they only turn out about 6-12 students each per year. Most of the people in my son’s guild are nearing retirement age. Yet they all stay busy with clocks and watches, many with weeks of work stacked up. For tech-savvy professionals like my son, the Internet opens up even more opportunities for business.
Right after high school, Adam went to community college for one year, taking general core classes that would transfer to a bigger university. Then he decided to take a break and work for a while. I have to admit I was worried that he might end up staying in a low paying retail type of job, but after one year of living on just above minimum wage as a store clerk, he had figured out what he wanted to do. Earlier that year, he had accompanied me to the house of a woman who was the godmother of one of his friends. Mrs. Bell had picked up a piece of furniture for me in another city when visiting her godson, to save me a trip, and Adam went along to help me load it in my truck. It just happened that Mrs. Bell is a retired master clockmaker. Adam was always a tinkerer and was immediately fascinated by her workshop. She took him under her wing, taught him some simple skills, gave him a few tools and took him to a few guild meetings and that was it–he had found his niche. Completely serendipitous. They have remained close friends and she continues to be his mentor.
As a career adviser at a major university, I saw many students who were majoring in fields that just did not fit them because that was what their parents thought they should do. I saw students getting a business or other professional degree for the money they thought they could make, but with little thought to what the job would actually entail or how good a fit it was for them. As a teacher in a small high school, I saw many resources and much encouragement for those students who were “college material”, but little for those students who weren’t considered to be college bound. I don’t know about the rest of you, but my experience has been that good plumbers and mechanics are every bit as hard to find as good doctors.
If you have college-bound students, encourage them to do some career exploration–job shadowing, internships, volunteer work, informational interviews–there are many ways to gain experience in a field to see if it is a good fit. A high school or college advising office can help your students find the right resources. Career fulfillment is different for everyone and everyone should have the opportunity to find their niche in the world, IMHO. I think my son has definitely found his.
My cubeecraft boys
This is the cubeecraft.com version of my boys, Inkmo and Jackmo. Those nicknames have evolved into alter egos that my son often uses in his cartoons. If you check out the Cubeecraft website, there are lots of other cool things to do with cubeecraft.
Charities for crafters
Busy hands are happy hands, so I have been looking for charity projects that would allow me to use my crafting skills for a worthy cause. Here are three that were recently highlighted in my Yarnmarket Knitting News e-newsletter:
Proud mom bragging
My youngest son is starting his own business and I am very proud of how hard he has worked to do that. He is a WOSTEP certified watchmaker and has been working at Breitling for the past couple of years, but they started laying people off this summer. He returned to Texas and is starting his own watch and clock repair business. He will start by contracting with jewelry stores instead of dealing directly with the public. He is very driven and self-disciplined and I think he will be very successful. He doesn’t have a web site up yet, but can be reached currently at info.keeperoftime at gmail.com.
