Why do people retire?

[Maniah]

I was just curious about this since I have noticed a few people here mention retiring. But, why do people retire from customs? Not enough time? Physically unable to do it anymore? (My elbows and hands hurt like HECK sometimes) No longer interested?

Just wondering what the common causes are.

[lilacamy931]

hmm of course I am not the right one here as fairly new in the custom world of ponies though expertise in other areas,... it is always going to be down to personal choice and reasoning of which you have listed a fair few.. money is tight, dont feel the time, new family, personal matters, perhaps they dont feel a market for their customs anymore..

I had the latter on plushies I create, I had fair success for a few years in the craft fairs but then the recession hit and the time and effort into each creation outweighed what I could sell them for. It is disheartening to slash your prices to half and still no sales because situation is tight (though understandable). Also new loves and interests come up and you may want to put customising on the backburner to give something else your all. Everyone has different drives me thinks, for myself the customising of ponies was completely new and exciting and can not get over the creativeness you can get on one pony!

[NoDivision]

It's a good question. For me the only thing that would cause me to "retire" would be from a lack of interest. I already have very little time for ponies, but I do what I can when I can. And I never intended this to be a money making venture so lack of sales woudln't deter me either.

[lilacamy931]

actually I have to agree with you there the plushies I was on about was created with a market intention, pony customs has been more of a hobby for me (well now more an obsession) but we all have our different drives.

[Alatariel-Silimaure]

well I personally customized for about a year and then went on a hiatus from it for almost 4 years before picking it up again just recently. I had very little time to work on it, I was dealing with health problems, and my interests went elsewhere for a while. I just recently got back into doing it again after seeing some beautiful customs and I was like "You know... I never did finish a few I started and I do have all these supplies...." another big thing for me was that I had trouble figuring out a lot of things, so I retired from it until I could find something that would work. At the time all I had to work with was air dry clay and sculpey and I wasn't satisfied with either of them, they just didn't do the job, I wanted something that would harden on the pony without the need to bake it. then I discovered this forum and Apoxie sculpt through this forum and it was like a little song of joy played in my head and I started doing it again.

[Maniah]

For me, when I stopped a while back, it was due to depression mainly. I was going through a very rough time and I just lost interest in the hobby. I packed up my stuff and never looked back. Then a while back, my friend Brantwijn and I had been talking. Custom ponies came up in conversation along with the comments that it would be nice to make money off of the hobby. I encouraged her to try, because with FiM having such a following of adults (bronies), I bet the toys would sell better if they were marketed at that crowd. Then later on, I thought, why not? And I got back into it myself. I did have the intention of making money, because this is a hobby I cannot afford to do for fun. So I think that if I were to quit again, it would be either due to depression, or due to people no longer buying my ponies.

[HavACrumpet452]

I am no longer interested customizing (except the few I have left to finish) because I see more value in leaving ponies original or restoring. G3s are even starting to find their value now that they are no longer on the market so I even feel bad destroying them unless they are really bad. I also don't like supporting customizing that much because of all the people who come on here and say they customized a nice G1 because of a spot on it or something stupid like that. Maybe its hitting people that ponies (as we older fans know them) are off the market and that the supply does go away. I won't count G4's in that statement because they are a different species altogether.

[Lavender_Lace]

I would think it's probably just life moving in different directions.  I was really active in the community from '01-05ish (over on the old mlptp.com board), and then things changed and I no longer had the time or money to do customs or even collect.  Now that circumstances have changed again, I now have time...not as much as I used to, but enough to get back into it.  A lot of people that used to customize ponies have full careers now or got married and now have families.  Priorities shift.  Sometimes people get bored and move onto other mediums.  When Pullips became really popular a lot of people started collecting and customizing BJDs instead of ponies. 

The custom community used to be a lot different than it is now too.  It used to be very competitive, secretive, and some people were just down right snarky and rude.  So, there are people who left because they got sick of the drama.  I have to say that the community is much more friendly and enjoyable now, and so much better off with people sharing info, making more tutorials, etc. 

[Alatariel-Silimaure]

The custom community used to be a lot different than it is now too.  It used to be very competitive, secretive, and some people were just down right snarky and rude.  So, there are people who left because they got sick of the drama.  I have to say that the community is much more friendly and enjoyable now, and so much better off with people sharing info, making more tutorials, etc.

Ugh yeah totally agree with that, when I first started a few years ago, I remember asking one artist what they used, and they practically beheaded me. It was like people would rather stab you in the face than even tell you the material they used to make something, it was quite scary.

I love this community though, I get so many tips and tricks and tutorials and people that genuinely love the ponies and want to share their talents and sometimes their secrets it makes me happy and makes me enjoy making them more :3

[Maniah]

The custom community used to be a lot different than it is now too.  It used to be very competitive, secretive, and some people were just down right snarky and rude.  So, there are people who left because they got sick of the drama.  I have to say that the community is much more friendly and enjoyable now, and so much better off with people sharing info, making more tutorials, etc.

Ugh yeah totally agree with that, when I first started a few years ago, I remember asking one artist what they used, and they practically beheaded me. It was like people would rather stab you in the face than even tell you the material they used to make something, it was quite scary.

I love this community though, I get so many tips and tricks and tutorials and people that genuinely love the ponies and want to share their talents and sometimes their secrets it makes me happy and makes me enjoy making them more :3

This almost kept me from getting into the hobby at all! I asked a few questions that went outside the basics of tutorials, like how to get a gradient dye, or how to do eyeshadow.. And was met with complete silence. It is a lot better here. People answer questions more, but there is still a lot of secretiveness. I understand people wanting to protect their tricks and tips.. But I just feel like, why hang out on a customizer board if you aren't going to share like others are? I love sharing what I know and seeing what people can do with it. It makes me so happy! That isn't for everyone, and that's cool. But I cherish the people here who have been so kind and helpful.

[Alatariel-Silimaure]

The custom community used to be a lot different than it is now too.  It used to be very competitive, secretive, and some people were just down right snarky and rude.  So, there are people who left because they got sick of the drama.  I have to say that the community is much more friendly and enjoyable now, and so much better off with people sharing info, making more tutorials, etc.

Ugh yeah totally agree with that, when I first started a few years ago, I remember asking one artist what they used, and they practically beheaded me. It was like people would rather stab you in the face than even tell you the material they used to make something, it was quite scary.

I love this community though, I get so many tips and tricks and tutorials and people that genuinely love the ponies and want to share their talents and sometimes their secrets it makes me happy and makes me enjoy making them more :3

This almost kept me from getting into the hobby at all! I asked a few questions that went outside the basics of tutorials, like how to get a gradient dye, or how to do eyeshadow.. And was met with complete silence. It is a lot better here. People answer questions more, but there is still a lot of secretiveness. I understand people wanting to protect their tricks and tips.. But I just feel like, why hang out on a customizer board if you aren't going to share like others are? I love sharing what I know and seeing what people can do with it. It makes me so happy! That isn't for everyone, and that's cool. But I cherish the people here who have been so kind and helpful.

as do I, I was introduced to Apoxie sculpt on this forum and OMG it has made SUCH a difference in my customizing capabilities! I was just waiting to find a good medium that would harden ON the pony without the need to bake because I like always paint my ponies before doing the clay work on them.

simply asking for what material was used for customizing was enough to be met with a firing squat @_@

[TickledPink]

While I haven't retired, I have slowed down quite a bit.  I can't really speak for others, but I can' tell you from my side at least!

Life just gets in the way. I have bills to pay, and a husband and a few critters to take care of. I just recently got a dog, who is requiring a lot of my attention, not just in general care, but also because I'm training him to be a therapy dog..which takes quite a bit of time to train for.  I also work a part-time job, that is actually closer to full-time and that eats up a lot of my spare time nowadays.

The interest is not lost, but after I'm done doing all my "need to's" for the day, I'm not left with a lot  of time or energy to work on pony stuff.

I would imagine other people retire for the same reasons. I don't have children, but I know that would be a big factor in a lot of people's lives to chose to retire, since spending time caring for your children is way more important than plastic ponies.

[Ellis1342]

About a rear and a half ago I really got into the mega pony scene with the new show. I really went nuts with drawings and made quite a name for myself on da...then I hit burn out mode. I got sick of people asking for the same darn things over and over and not being challenged as an artist. I ran out of ideas and in general the idea of drawing or watching ponies made me wanna cry. So I left it be and tried a few variations on how I drew them...then I customized a g3 rather than the painful g4's...I was hooked. Every pony challenges me and unfortunately I can't make as many as I would like or I would have an overload of customs laying around. Thank goodness for cons. After the cons I will probably be a touch burnt out. Actually right now I am drawing again as a break from customizing.

I imagine burn out would be my reason for retiring. When the idea of ponies anymore just makes you go meh...though knowing me it wouldn't be permanent.

[PandaBerryInSpace]

I was into ponies a lot at this time last year, though, I wasn't posting here. I was posting on the TP under the name "Sprinkles". Anyway, I did a lot of customizing for several months, but then, I stopped... I lost interest in ponies altogether for a while. I was into Monster High more, and I was also doing a lot of gold commissions on Gaia Online. However, I got back into it when I started customizing Monster High dolls... And now, I'm back into ponies.

So, I guess the point of that story is that sometimes, you can just lose interest. I think I overwhelmed myself with the amount of projects I was trying to do.

[Tiella]

I really cannot ever imagine myself retiring, but I do get burned out from time to time. Like Ellis I get artist tables at cons and after a con is over and I have busted out a bunch of customs I tend to feel a tad burned out. What I usually do in that case is work on some personal pony projects or other art projects besides ponies.