December, 2017 Blog Carnival - When You Can't Make Jewelry

After taking a break, the Jewelry Artisans Community blog carnival is back to finish up the year.  Our topic for the month of December is "When You Can't Make Jewelry"

It just so happens that I've been living this situation the last few months so I feel qualified to write about it.  The first seven months of 2017 were going along great; I was in a creative groove learning new things,  just full of ideas and making new jewelry designs on a daily basis .  I couldn't wait to enter my studio each day.

 

Heck, I was so creative and my mind so busy that I even made refrigerator magnets out of real fall leaves!

 Then along came August.  While learning how to operate a dirt bike, I crashed and badly sprained my knee.  It later turned out that the tip of my tibia was actually fractured.  This affected jewelry making because the studio is downstairs and I wasn't able to navigate the stairs.  After stewing about this turn of events for a week, I managed to hobble down the stairs one day, grab my tools and some wire and hobble back up the stairs where I parked myself in the recliner with ice on my knee and fiddled with wire.  It wasn't really making jewelry, but it satisfied the need to create.


As my knee healed, I was able to go downstairs again, but by then it was time to leave on a long planned vacation to Sweden and Poland.  Seeing so much history, meeting wonderfully friendly people, eating incredible food and having experiences we'll never forget made the trip a dream come true.  There were moments I longed to be in the studio, but I didn't really have time to think about it because we were having so much fun while on vacation.

Once home, I couldn't wait get back to work making jewelry, but it wasn't to be.  Shortly after returning home, my sister came to visit for two weeks.  Between catching up and showing her the sights, there was no time for the studio.  I put it out of my mind and enjoyed the time with my sister.

And, now we're about to leave for Thailand and Vietnam; it will be April when we return.  This will be our third trip to SE Asia and I am really looking forward to going and seeing the friends we have made there as well as enjoying warm weather while it's snowing at home.  And, let's not forget eating authentic Thai and Vietnamese food every day!  There has been very little studio time because we're doing all the things that have to be done to prepare for a trip of this length including winterizing our home.  This will be the longest I've even been away from my studio.

Whine, whine, whine, whine...!

At this point, my frustration about no time to make jewelry and my desire to be in my studio have given way to acceptance.  It's not the time for jewelry and I am not going to fight it.  Just as the bloggers from JAC needed a break from the monthly blog carnival, I am going to look at this as a break that will refuel my creative soul and re-charge my artistic battery.  Sometimes we get so intensely involved in being creative that we forget to savor the process and the journey and focus instead the end result.  There is also that trap artists get caught in of feeling they have to be productive and constantly coming up with new things.  Taking time to step back can be just what is needed to look at it through fresh eyes.

I am going to go to Thailand and take a side trip to Vietnam and thoroughly enjoy our time there.  Thai and Vietnamese food awaits!  Warm weather!  Exotic (to me) sights are waiting to be experienced.  My camera will get a workout and I will be inspired by all that I see, hear, smell and taste.  When we come back, the studio will be waiting to welcome me home.  But, I still plan to take some wire and tools with me - just in case the creative bug strikes...

To see what the other members of the JAC blog carnival have to say on this topic, please click on the links below:

Cat's Wire