Skeptics and Optimists (in us) and Kumiko

One and a half years ago I made my first kumiko. It was an ordeal but I liked the process a lot. No power tools were used and no animal was hurt (except me, the Japanese saw is pretty sharp).

Without glue, it fits together.

It is not perfect. This was a good lesson for me to accept imperfection (among others).

Once the pieces are cut out, it is easy to put them together. I even did (but not finished yet) a simple small web app to experiment with the patterns.

And the seed was planted in my head. What if…

… what if someone would like to buy a kumiko set and can put it together (without needing to do any wood cutting - everything prepared)?

Skeptics and optimists are around me. And voices in my head are changing these roles, too.

Which one are you?

The kumiko set would not be cheap (it takes a lot of time to prepare it). And I can prepare only a limited amount of them.

The last time I did something similar was probably 8 years ago when I created and sold sets to create origami lampshades. To make them from prepared papers was way more complicated. And I had workshops, too (which I liked a lot - seeing people creating is priceless). I did tailor-made ones.

Both skeptics and optimists were not missing, too.

The logical argument I hear often is: "It doesn't scale." But who cares? I'm not planning to do a startup from it with all that hyper-growth bulls**t. I don't even want to make the mistake I made with origami lampshades again - going full-time on it.

I wish to significantly lessen one of the voices - the skeptic or optimist. I hope the surviving voice will be the optimist's one. I consider it the voice of life. But until now my struggles have gone on.

Anyway - do you like kumiko? Are you a skeptic or an optimist?

PS: I know that the skeptic's voice is useful, too. Similar to the fear - it is useful but should not cripple us.