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Now that I’m back here contributing to this blog, I’ve been trying to be more mindful about what I share. I think it’s important to not only talk about projects when they go well, but also when they absolutely do not. This is one of those times.
I was working on the controller and stand for the Cutifying My Switch 2 series, and so many things went wrong. The controller I originally ordered was delayed because of a shipping error. Then when it finally arrived, it was the wrong controller. I had to return it and I have officially lost confidence in Newegg.com. While all of this was happening, I ended up buying two secondhand controllers by accident. Somehow, the cost of both secondhand controllers was still cheaper than buying one brand new, so I guess that’s technically a win. Still annoying, but a win.
The Rhinestone Problem
The thing that really threw this portion of the project off was the fact that the rhinestones I intended to use for the stand were very inferior quality. Part of my plan for this series was to use materials I already had on hand. I had quite a few gross of these 10ss color shifting rhinestones sitting in my stash. Once I actually started stoning, I ran into several problems almost immediately. But that’s part of DIY, so I kept going.
Even though I realized pretty quickly that these rhinestones were crappy, when I zoomed out they still looked cool enough that I convinced myself it didn’t matter. What bothered me immediately was the fact that I didn’t have smaller matching sizes to help shape the stoning properly. I’m starting to realize that’s probably why I still have so many of these rhinestones.
I told myself that whatever I was doing to this tiny white controller stand was still a fun upgrade, and honestly, that was enough to keep me moving forward. Then I got really annoyed with myself for not painting the stand a similar color beforehand to help mitigate the contrast underneath the stones.
Scraping Everything Off
I ended up fully finishing the stand and still didn’t appreciate it. So I heated it up and started peeling the rhinestones off one by one. After I struggled with that process for longer than I wanted to, my boyfriend jumped in and demonstrated that the fear of cutting himself simply does not exist. (Note to self: get better box cutters.)
After all that, I still had to sit there removing all the leftover boogery glue parts. Just tweezers, a hot blow dryer, and patience I didn’t know I had. So I was suddenly back to less than square one.
Starting Over
This time around, I found a better stash of rhinestones that actually had smaller matching counterparts. I painted the base first and immediately felt a sense of clarity I probably should have had from the beginning. Since I somehow ended up with two controllers after all this chaos, it felt fitting to get another controller stand and basically double the cuteness.
Conclusion
Even though it’s thoughtful to use supplies you already have, you should also use your eyes and make sure it’s actually worth it. I wasn’t that far into this project when I realized the rhinestones were bad quality. They weren’t consistent in shape or fire. Aside from not looking quite right up close, they also slowed me down because I was constantly having to quality-check them while working.
I still don’t know why I didn’t stop earlier. Maybe I just needed to see how it turned out before fully aborting the mission. If your gut is telling you something is off right from the start, maybe listen to it. I think I knew pretty early on this wasn’t going to become what I wanted it to be.
Even though I ended up recalibrating the project, I probably could have saved myself a decent amount of time if I had trusted myself sooner. Nonetheless, the project survived, even if it accidentally doubled in size. In my next post, I’ll show exactly what I ended up doing instead and how everything turned out.