Stuff that works.

I like stuff that works and stuff that holds up. I also have a HUGE admiration for people that work hard. Sometimes when on the early wood kiln shift 5:30 am I think I'm an early bird only to see half the lights on on my street. People work hard around here. I always buy quality. I ain't a Walmart shopper. Buy quality and look after it or buy quality and abuse the heck out of it like I do. Quality is more likely to hold up. I bought 7 pairs of Darn Tough socks. They ain't cheap!!! 30 bucks a pair. However they are guaranteed for life. I've sent 3 pairs back in the past 5 years. They always send me a new pair. I like that and when they do I go to my local Mountain Equipment Store and buy another pair. I figure I have socks for life. 10 years ago this month I read the story of Hiut Denim in Wales. A whole community of jean makers laid off by big bizz so that they could have their jeans made cheaply in China. Hiut Denim took over the factory, rehired the workers and set out to make the best denim jeans in the world. I bought a pair for I think 125 pounds Sterling which is $213.38 cents Cdn today. That ain't cheap. Today they are $225 pounds sterling $384.07. Holy crap! But here's the caveat they will be repaired for life. I'm sending my jeans back and they are just about rags. Worn weekly for 10 years. Doing that math works out to $21.33 amortized over 10 years. I'm thinking long and hard about a pair of $400 blue jeans. Maybe they will be my Canadian tuxedo pants. No pottery making, wood splitting and crawling in fireboxes with the new ones. At USU I got turned on to the wordsmithing of Guy Clark. Songs like "Stuff that works" and "The Cape" I figure he wrote just for me. Those songs have made me cry. Sometimes I can look as crusty as a bear's arse but on the inside is a delicate flower of a man. Here's a few lyrics of Guy's I got an old blue shirt and it suits me just fine I like the way it feels so I wear it all the time I got an old guitar, won't ever stay in tune I like the way it sounds in a dark and empty room I got an old pair of boots and they fit just right Well I can work all day and I can dance all night I got an old used car and it runs just like a top I get the feelin' it ain't ever gonna stop

Comments

Anonymous said…
Jeans, jeans, why are Levi's so famous.
You can't even wash them once, you wash them and hang them out to dry on a line,
no dryer even, and they shrink so bad they never fit. I reattach all the sales tags
and return them. Go buy a pair of Levi's 4 sizes too big, wash them once, same thing,
they shrink so much they never fit, put the tags back on return to the store.
How many inches on the waist do you need to add, so you can wash them once and they still fit?

So I've been buying OLD NAVY, they go through the wash and dryer fine, but after a year of wear, they become crotchless, every pair I buy the crotch goes first.

May be I'll give those miracle jeans of your recommendation a try.

Major Tom
smokieclennell said…
Major Tom: I got a note from the owner of Hiut Jack I think. He said these are the most worn pair of jeans he has ever seen but send em back and Paul the superstar mender will have them looking great again. I will report back when they come. They have to go across the puddle to Wales and back. I bought a pair of Matt and Bowes from NC cost me about $200Cdn. Good jeans but not half as good as Hiut. Read the Hiut story. Your jeans also come signed by the maker. It's supporting craftspeople like us.
Anonymous said…
https://hiutdenim.co.uk/blogs/our-story

The things that define you are not just the things that you do, but the things you say no to.

Saying no is focus.

We only make jeans.

We say no to anything else.

Be narrow.

Be good.

https://hiutdenim.co.uk/
Anonymous said…
Did you watch the Coronation of King Charles, I was secretly hoping that
when they put the crown on Queen Camilla,
that she would suddenly burst into flames.

Di
Anonymous said…
Buy less. Choose well. Make it last. Quality, not quantity. Everybody’s buying far too many clothes.

Viv
Anonymous said…
Buy less. Choose well. Make it last. Quality, not quantity. Everybody’s buying far too many clothes mean, I know I’m lucky, I can just take things and borrow them and I’m just okay, but I hate having too many clothes. And I think that poor people should be even more careful. It doesn’t mean therefore you have to just buy anything cheap. Instead of buying six things, buy one thing that you really like. Don’t keep buying just for the sake of it.

Viv
Anonymous said…
Making in Between: Queer Clay – Exhibition Overview
Making in Between: Queer Clay (MIB: Queer Clay) is the second major exhibition in the American Museum of Ceramic Art’s Making in Between series. The series brings together works by artists doing intersectional work and exploring common themes of identity, culture, and community.

As MIB: Queer Clay shifts the lens of the Making in Between series from national heritage to explore broader influences on identity, it centers queerness as an unapologetic presence. Mounting an exhibition that focuses solely on work by queer artists, AMOCA brings less familiar narratives to the forefront of ceramics. MIB: Queer Clay will feature works by historical artists, whose identities have remained largely unseen until recently, alongside contemporary makers.

https://www.amoca.org/current-exhibits/queer-clay/
Anonymous said…
Students revenge, the secret of the reclaim bucket.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=603825105131433&set=a.401134595400486

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