One of the most endearing things we've found in our travels is the movement away from commercial manufacturing toward handmade merchandise. What Jim Blankman does can only be described as taking it one step further and each creation is made individually. Almost every piece that Jim makes is a one-off, meaning that its form and function are determined by the needs or tastes of the end user.
As we looked around his shop, we couldn't find any two things that were the same. In fact, many things that Jim had made to serve the same purpose were wildly different in appearance. His street luges are no exception; one may appear to be a Shaker street luge — clean polished board and simple lines — and the next might look more like it was made for a rapper — funky, metallic purple with radical curves. (For the uninitiated; street luge = skateboard + luge. )
Unlike most people, Jim seems to be able to let his imagination run wild, re-conceptualizing between each project. When we asked him about mass producing or mass marketing his creations, Jim usually found something else to talk about. If he were to truly get into the business end of things, he would have to get out of the creative end of things. Even if someone else were taking care of the business of marketing his creations, it would affect the day to day pace of creation that Jim allows himself.
We were particularly grateful for this attitude when Jim decided that teaching us how to street luge was more important than keeping his shop open. His mind seems to work that way, jumping from interesting idea to interesting idea with no real concern for making too many plans or thinking too far into the future. If Jim decides he wants to learn to forge iron jewelry, he instantly drops the casket handle he is working on and makes his first bracelet (which he gave to a delighted Emily). Jim's ability to live in the moment while following his bliss is his greatest quality. You can track where he stands on any given day by what he is working on — a luge, a casket, a guitar — by hand, one project at a time.
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