making

busy busy busy. not much time lately for updating the blog, or surfing, climbing or friends lately...but lot's happening in the studio!

momentum

At last I'm finding more and more time to make jewelry every day, energized and humming along until 11 each night.  The more I work the more it's starting to feel like my job again, rather than something I used to do and the easier it is to say i have to work.  I even opted to work rather than surf the other day...weird.

I'm making a bunch of new work, and keeping it simple for now.  I'm enjoying having the freedom to make what I want rather than the pressure of creating a product line for wholesale. That's how i started...I had just learned to make jewelry, and within a year was I doing wholesale shows with 30 + galleries to keep up with. I think my creativity suffered since I had no time for new work.  I was excited to be getting off to such a good start but found I was making work I didn't really like just to fill gaps in my line.

So for now I'm going back to basics...rivets, simple metalwork etc...building up my crimping fingers :) With that creative freedom has come a creative overload.  There are so many things I want to make, techniques I want to learn. Sometimes I can't focus and make one thing, I'll stop and realize I have three things going at once. One piece giving me an idea for another, starting on that then starting another...it's nice...a little spastic at times but I'm feeling the flow :)

catalyst

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i've realized over the past 5 years of being self-employed that i work best under pressure. i can create all the deadlines i want...but without some sort of outside repercussions it may get pushed aside until the last minute
for random side jobs or do something fun.
so a few months ago i applied for a bunch of craft shows. I had yet to get into the studio for a full day in almost two years and was still shuffling around old work trying to make it look new.

So my catalyst was Craftland, a really fun show/store on Westminster Street in Providence.
I had my deadline... asap... sweet!
Thank you Craftland and Devienna :) another jewelry girl making it happen. check her out www.dametals.com

Working in my studio is fun, so it's hard to say '"i have to work'" and push aside the other responsibilities that I've taken on. Mostly Sandywoods Farm stuff. fruit orchard that needed staking, craft show that needs planning, board of directors treasury updates an on and on. so i apologized to the farm every time i stepped outside for a break, feeling guilty but excited because i was actually making work. to sell.


that week was so good. i woke early, went into the studio with my freshly pressed coffee, good music and worked into the night. just making...and it was lovely.

the super elated feeling of creating has come back. i forgot how good that feels.

focus pocus

 inspired and creating.

gently falling into the rhythm of late summer hurricane swell, my little guy starting preschool and endless craft show applications. in the studio almost every day now. making, musing and generally excited about the challenges ahead of me. it's fun, making, selling, even not selling (like the show i did this past weekend) there are ups and downs..a friend say's running a craft business "is like a roller coaster" i like that...though I prefer a slow and steady rise and fall in terms of business.

    

the potpourri of jobs that got me through the past two years has slowly been taken over by the confidence that time spent in the studio will once again be productive. it has to be.

like dropping into a wave, you have to be be committed. hesitation or uncertainty will result in failure. i did that today and experienced a thorough underwater tumble over many large, but somehow soft rocks. then you just have try it all over again, but only if your energy and determination allow. uncertainty will at least slow you down, resulting in less than optimal performance. but sometimes insecurity creeps in, though i'm not sure if it's mine or that of others, weaving their way into my thoughts.  i don't have time to hesitate.

so...

 focus. focus. focus.

be the ocean

"The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing time… The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile." - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi