Silence and Solitude

I find it hard to begin to write and I am never sure how to start this blog.  So I just sit in silence and tune into the sounds in my new apartment.  The wind is strong tonight causing my window to shake I know that the cold frigid air is near.  My bench is quite tonight as I contemplate and look over my latest designs.  I feel the smoothness of the freshly polished silver in my hand and the glint of light reflecting in the stones.  It's moments of reflection like this when I stare at my work thinking to myself.  "Wow I actually made this." I love looking at the coils of sterling silver and other various raw materials while sitting at my bench and get excited about what these will eventually become.  

There are times when my design process is very specific with a clear idea of what I want the outcome to be.  When I create pieces that I know customers love and sell well I become a jewerly making machine.  Every thing is lined up and I create in an assembly line style.  

Then there are days when  I slow down, take the time to touch different stones laying a variety of colors and textures next to each other and then I just let go and create not knowing if it will work out, but always excited for what can happen. Like any artist I have days where I get stuck, I melt a crucial piece of metal in the last stage of a design, or I end up scrapping the idea all together and it ends up in the "pile".  But that pile of unfinished work serves a purpose too and eventually will become the catalist and spark a new idea for something beautiful.