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Everyone has such long posts. I’m not that interesting. I’ve only worked retail really. It sucks. I live by myself and can barely afford the bills. I have over 100 windstones, including a couple OOAK from eBay. That said, I literally haven’t seen any of them in four years. They’re all shoved in a closet with a huge bookcase in front of it. I have zero display space. I kinda forget what I have (the entire black gold collection is really all I remember. A rainbow lap too that was never displayed?)
I’m getting off topic.
I collected all those pieces in literally about a year. That was back when I had no debt (thanks unemployment) and very little bills. Now the only windstones I get are from the two forums swaps a year.
In the end, I think it doesn’t matter what job you have. It’s your circumstances I think. If I wasn’t near bankruptcy with all this debt, working retail would allow me to buy tons of windstones often.I have collected Windstones for many years, and got a large bump in my collection when a store that was carrying them was going out of business and selling everything for less than half price. I took home several pieces that day (can’t recall exactly how many though) and I was one happy girl. I’ve got 19 pieces now, counting my recent PYO acquisitions. I went for a lot of years adding nothing to my collection when the few dealers in my area stopped selling Windstone. When I recently saw the PYO hippocampus, I knew I just couldn’t go on without that little critter, I’m so in love with it. So now I’m hooked again…happily I might add, though I do need to look into finding some display space.
I was trained in commercial art, but the idea of having that career was less and less appealing. For me, doing art all day for someone else, within commercial parameters seemed to lessen the pleasure I felt for sitting down to my own artwork. These days, I too work in retail. I wouldn’t call it a step down or something I can be less proud of, I make good money, have great benefits and I work with some fantastic people. It’s definitely brought out my people skills. Art is a hobby for me now, and I’m fine with that. I do what I want to do, when I have the time.I got my first windstone when i was 16. But i did not get into serious collecting until 2012. I am a recent hire at the Census Bureau as a cartographer and I am making 32k a year. Its a modest amount and with student loans it can be challenging to balance a budget and the desire to buy windstones. I struggled for a while with this and now I am doing better because i decided to focus on specific sculpts and color schemes. Mostly production/limited production curled dragons, tadpoads and colorshift pebbles. It has helped me balance my desire to continue to collect new pieces without breaking the bank like I had a time or two in the past. The community here is amazing. I suggest trading also when you might want to freshen up your collection. I used to tell myself, oh this is a grail piece and I am never letting go of it. However I find myself enjoying a piece for a few months or years and then ready to trade for something new. Trading also allows for that new piece without investing much more other than the shipping.
Thanks for the congratulations you guys. 🙂 I’m so happy to be done with it all. An art degree isn’t worth much job-wise, especially where I live because medical degrees are a big deal here, but I feel accomplished. I wouldn’t take back the experience and thankfully my loan is relatively small compared to some of my classmates. It’s about the amount you’d pay for an average new car. However, I very much have a mindset like Safire_blue at this point. Art is something I want to do for fun and have a job doing something else so I don’t burn out. I’d rather do commissions on my own terms/time and freelance. If I accomplish something with art later on, fine. If not, that’s fine too. I learned doing graphic design under the constraints a company would place me under by stifling most of the personal creativity and flare is not for me. Graphic design is not what I wanted to do to begin with, but is was as close as I could get to the art degree I would’ve liked to pursue.
Also, thanks everyone for sharing your stories. It’s very interesting to hear what people do for a living and how they cultivate their beautiful Windstone collections. I’m always amazed with the variety and seeing pieces I’ve never seen before. I had to sell off almost all of my pieces recently. Some I’ll likely never get back, but I’m optimistic I’ll have the chance to get them back someday. With any luck, I’ll find a job to support my Windstone habit once again. 😛
I’m a 7th grade language arts teacher and have been teaching middle school for 10 years. It doesn’t pay well (I make about $35,000 a year) but I love it, even though it’s stressful and extremely difficult. My husband works from home and doesn’t make much either, but we get by.
I’ve been collecting for a little over 10 years, so my collection has been growing and shrinking for a long time. Many of the pieces were purchased when hubby and I had just gotten married and our bills were very low. I’ve also found some very lucky Ebay deals, and pieces in physical stores. I’ve also been very lucky with trades, sometimes being able to “trade up” from a cheaper piece to a more expensive one, if someone likes the piece I have better than theirs despite the monetary difference. And I’ve sold pieces for a profit and then used that money to buy something new.
My collection has grown slowly over the years, with a few mass sell-offs to cover sudden expenses like vet bills or gathering a down payment on a home that suddenly came available and was perfect.
Last year we had our first child though, so I haven’t been buying much at all. Our budget is a bit strained, but we’re still making it by!
I debated even posting here because my story isn’t ending well, but maybe it can be used as a cautionary tale. I couldn’t decide what to do after I got my AA; originally I thought Chemistry but found I didn’t like it. Did some work in the then-new field of laser discs (precursor of DVD) and, at 2 am in a tiny lab in California, played the very first CD, under very tight security. Laser discs didn’t fly (eventually DVDs came out and they produced much better quality video.) Got laid off when the plant closed and, after a year on unemployment, I was forced to take an entry level position with a food company just to make ends meet. Inertia kept me there; I finished my college degrees at night in interesting fields (Anthropology and Geology) but never left the food company…Now I am old, disabled, and still working part time at the same food company (the name has changed numerous times, but I stayed with them). I work from home and my world has gotten very small…’
Please! Do what you love and don’t let a paycheck hold you. I stayed in one place for the paycheck and I sincerely regret it now. Take chances. You remember the choices you didn’t make and it is sad. Good Luck with whatever you do.I have a reasonable Windstone collection that I love, both production and OOAK, but I bought on credit and am probably going to lose them to the Bankruptcy court. I will not be able to buy any more. So take the good advice already tendered in this thread and spend wisely.
I started collecting when I was fairly young. I would say that 90% of my dragons were gifts from my family. I have a few special ebay pieces from a long time ago, when it seemed like you could get them at a cheaper price than you can now.
I have my degree in elementary education and I taught for seven years. Throughout that entire time (actually, from the time I was a junior in high school) I worked part time at a library. While I was teaching full time and working part time I found I had some discretionary funds which helped build up my collection of other sculpts. However, this past year I finally went full time at the library (and am loving it!!) but I’ve had to slow down on what I’m buying. I’ve passed by quite a few of the recent grab bags, which I would have absolutely bought this time last year.
My advice for building a collection:
Skip the pieces you don’t absolutely love. That way, when one comes up that you’re head over heels for, you can afford to pay a little bit more. The rest is about grab bags, because I’ve found that’s where I lack the most self-control. Sometimes it’s better to pay after market prices on a certain piece instead of having 4 or 5 that you think are nice, but you’re not completely in love with. Also, take the time to think about whether you really need a piece or not. Decide before they come out if you really even want one. If I wait until they come up for sale before I think about it, I tend to get caught up in the excitement and end up buying. If I know ahead of time I don’t really need more of a particular sculpt ahead of time, it’s much easier to walk away.
I think the trick is that you can build a collection on any salary. It just won’t happen as quickly. Besides I think it’s better to have a few pieces you adore than lots of pieces that you only like. The best part is that collecting isn’t a competition 😛 and with a great forum like this you can have fun drooling over other people’s collections.
Hi! Congrats on graduating! It’s most def an accomplishment to celebrate! I started collecting later in life ‘tho I’ve always been a total “fan girl” for Melody’s work. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in the Humanities. I’ve a triple major no minor with emphasis on Fine Arts, Literature and Theatre Arts (’cause I couldn’t decide what I wanted to be when I grew up
tdm
Adding to the pile of “I started young” answers! I got my first Windstone when I was around 15. Before that, I had admired my friend’s KiRins, but couldn’t afford any of my own. With high school came a summer job, and I started working on my collection – I fell in love with the White dragon family, and my first piece was the White Mother! (I developed a method pretty early on, where I alternated paycheck purposes – the first one went to savings, the second to my checking account to spend; the next to savings again, etc.)
I’ve been a “slow but steady” collector through the years, and have amassed a decent (by my standards) collection! I think it helps that I mostly tend to concentrate on a goal and work toward it. My first goal was “all the dragon sculpts I like, in White.” Once I had that mostly accomplished, and new colors started coming out, I developed a secondary goal: “all the colors I like, on my favorite sculpt (the Lap Dragon).”
Over the years, I’ve taken up a couple of sidelines (I once walked into the store to buy a White dragon and fell in love with a Peacock Oriental; eventually I tracked down his other family members, and am still hoping for the Moon Oriental to appear in Peacock!), and also PYOs as I enjoy painting, but by the standards of several people here I’m still an amateur, and pretty limited. (Kirins are my only unicorns; I don’t do Curled/Coiled dragons; I don’t do wizards, castles, or cats; and there are a few dragon sculpts I don’t care for and don’t have any of; I did find one Pebble sculpt I liked, and have started collecting those, but no others.)
I do not make much money, really! I live at home because I can’t afford rent anywhere safe, I’m that (relatively) poor. For me, having Windstones mostly comes down to priorities (I will buy Windstones rather than other luxuries – my TV is almost 20 years old and I don’t eat out much! I also don’t have children) and patience (I buy what I can, when I can, and try to fill in the gaps later by watching for good deals on Ebay or the Classifieds), with a smidge of luck (I’m fortunately debt-free and in good health, and my car is, too) and planning.
For the last three years, I’ve worked for a nonprofit animal rescue group; I make $9.50 an hour, so with 40 hours a week you can work out what my tax bracket should be. 🙂 I’m hoping to find a better job and make some “real” money this year, so I can move out and give my collection the space it deserves (alas, a lot of it is boxed up in the closet right now, and has been since I came home) and do things like, uh, have pets. (Plural. I do have one snake already.)
Currently, I own… 35-40 Windstone factory pieces, plus a flock of PYOs. The non-PYO pieces range from a special Ebay Prototype Old Warrior (#13/15 of the very first Black Violet-Peacocks) down to a Frog Prince I picked up when a store was going out of business. So far, I’m not one of those lucky people who find Windstones at thrift stores, but I have gotten a few pieces at less-than-typical prices because they had a few scrapes or dings; I’ve been teaching myself repair skills!
Interested in buying or trading for: GB Pebble Sitting Red Fox in dark grey, Lap Dragon Test Paints (Water Sprite, Glacial Pearl, Opulence, Pastel Rainbow, and many others - see my Classifieds ad), Blue Morpho OW, GB Pebble Loaf dragons in blue/aqua/teal, and Griffin Test Paints (Black Rainbow or Frosted Jade).
Whoops, double post! :/
Interested in buying or trading for: GB Pebble Sitting Red Fox in dark grey, Lap Dragon Test Paints (Water Sprite, Glacial Pearl, Opulence, Pastel Rainbow, and many others - see my Classifieds ad), Blue Morpho OW, GB Pebble Loaf dragons in blue/aqua/teal, and Griffin Test Paints (Black Rainbow or Frosted Jade).
Well, I have to dig this up again. I graduated last fall and I’m still pretty much jobless and not working in what I majored in…like over half the graduates of this country I’m sure. At least my loan is under $20K. Initially, I’m wasn’t too surprised not to find something given I live in a small town and I’m unable to relocate for a job and I don’t “know somebody that knows somebody”. I applied to several design jobs with no luck, even an unpaid internship with the same results. Seriously, it’s unpaid! Why not let me work for free? I’m not a terrible designer. What makes me so sure? My teachers were tough graders and brutally honest. They didn’t hand out A’s or B’s like candy. If they thought you sucked they’d tell you. I watched them tell several other students they needed to consider another degree because those students wouldn’t cut it in the real world.
Anyway, I’m being told by family I need to go back to school for a second degree if I don’t find something by years end (and pile on more debt). Nursing is the big thing in my state. Everybody is going into that field because the potential to make good money. My sister is a nurse with many years experience and she’s makes a good living, yet she hates her job. The thought of going into that field repels me. Honestly, I can’t see myself doing anything else than what I majored in. If everybody is going into nursing I feel like I’d be stuck in the same boat I am now but with more debt. These schools are cranking out so many people and there aren’t that many jobs out there despite what the media says. The economy is not better!
RANT TIME!
Ironically, even the poo jobs (sans food service) in my town are picky about who they hire. When I apply at these places, I’m “overqualified” to work a warehouse job they say. I’d hoped to be able to find something non-food by now. I don’t want to go back to food service again. That’s why I went to college! I hear horror stories of people that have been looking for work for years. I also tried a staffing place. Useless. Another reason to go into business for yourself. I’m concerned and this keeps me up at night. I’m able to get by thanks to my dad but I can’t rely on him forever. I don’t want to be another statistic. Also, stop dissing millennials media! Not all of us are bums that don’t want to work!Advice, anyone?
I just finished an interesting but tough job.I have been painting and repairing the duplexes for my landlord and the ones my daughter and her husband have bought lately but my landlord needed an odd job done this week.Trust me,he did not pay me enough for this one.He needed 6 zippers replaced in his little experimental plane’s wings and he asked me to do it.I said yes because I don’t refuse work but I should have said no.This little job was one of the toughest I have encountered.I had to hand sew them in through three layers of vinyl and material.My poor old back and shoulders.I am tall and had to bend over backwards or kneel down to get to them while I did hundreds of tiny double stitches.UGH!It took me 2 days and I sure hope he never asks again.I’ll go back to my painting homes now thank you.
Every act matters.No matter how small💞
(Wanted......Brimstone Lap)
Male Hearth....one day🤞Dream on.
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