A Good Hobby Is Hard to Explain

Friday, August 11, 2006

Page 15

AT THE SIDEBAR (Column)

A Good Hobby Is Hard to Explain

By J’AMY PACHECO

We’ve all heard this piece of advice: “Go find yourself a hobby.”

I have a hobby. I don’t talk about it much, because it’s one of those hobbies that, when revealed, makes people raise one eyebrow in that “Oh, really?” look.

I make shoes.

Well, “make” doesn’t exactly describe what I do. “Embellish” is probably a better adjective.

Not just any shoes, though. These shoes are so tiny that I have to tape them to cardboard squares to be able to work on them. And the embellishments I use are sometimes so small that I have to wear a stylish piece of headgear — not unlike a welder’s mask – in order to effectively place them.

I don’t remember how I got into “customizing” shoes for the Plastic Princess, Barbie. I do remember that I liked it, and quickly graduated from craft store acrylic rhinestones to genuine Swarovski crystals not much larger than the period at the end of this sentence.

At first, I made them only for friends. Then, I covered 20 pumps with crystals for a friend to give as gifts. Eventually, enough people looked at my hobby as being interesting that last year, I was paid to teach a class at a fashion doll convention. I was very surprised to find out so many people wanted to know how they, too, could provide their dollies with spectacular shoes.

When I was invited to come back this year, I decided it was time to expand my repertoire. I discovered something called modeling paste, and soon learned to turn the heels of a pair of tiny pumps into cocktail glasses, accented with slices of citrus fruits. I turned another pair into a set of peacocks.

I also discovered I could decoupage shoes with interesting results. A pair of pumps was quickly covered with shredded Barbie money and, in a nod to my profession, I covered a pair of black boots with newsprint. Trimmed with gold, of course.

I didn’t really think about the unusual nature of my hobby until a neighbor asked what I would be teaching at the upcoming convention. When I told him, he raised one eyebrow in the old, familiar look.

I have other hobbies, of course. I like to scrapbook, and really enjoy watching movies.

But I do this because it’s relaxing, and doesn’t require a lot of mental energy. I can sit for hours, engaged in a task that requires no spelling or math, and that provides little vexation beyond getting paint off my clothing or glue out of my hair.

Besides, I did some searching and discovered my hobby is actually quite normal when compared to others.

There is, for example, a 17-year-old girl in Arkansas who makes things out of duct tape.

“They laugh and mock me,” she was quoted as saying. “But they always come to me when they need an adhesive.”

Another youth collects empty boxes from Tic Tac breath mints. Even I don’t get that one. Nor do I get the girl who collects toothbrush handles.

“The challenges are cleaning the toothpaste crud off the handle and breaking off the brush part,” the 15-year-old collector was quoted as having said. Suddenly, glue doesn’t seem that unusual.

There is a young man who soups up plastic toy cars. Now, that I get. In fact, that sounds like fun. I’ll bet it would look really cool if one of the cars was embellished with some tiny crystals. But that’s another story.

I found another hobbyist who collects pictures of people wearing ugly prom dresses and posts them online. I’m not sure which was more spectacular – the pregnant prom-goer with her tummy exposed through an oval in the front of her gown, or the sour faced woman in a foofy gown clutching a bottle of beer. Neither, I might point out, had impressive footwear.

Other unusual hobbies I discovered include ferret racing (no word on weather the ferrets race their owners, or one another), collecting air sick bags, unbending paper clips and, the weirdest of all, collecting dirt from the graves of famous people.

A few weekends ago, I ran into a guy at the San Diego Wild Animal Park who revealed that he likes put these big ugly cockroach-type bugs on his shirt and walk around his neighborhood.

Suddenly, my hobby doesn’t sound so odd. So you may laugh and mock me, but hey, when you need something sparkly and small, give me a call.