This month's topic is about favorite jewelry we have designed and created. I had to give this some thought as I have a lot of favorites, but it's impossible for me to name just one. Then I realized that my favorites represent the stages of my jewelry making journey.
First it was stringing beads together; sounds simple, but I really enjoyed selecting colors that worked together, as well as deciding which sizes and shapes were good matches. I think mastering bead stringing before moving onto other techniques builds a good design foundation. It was also during this time that I started painting wood beads to use in my jewelry designs.
Painting beads inspired me to try to combine my love of painting and my passion for making jewelry by painting miniatures and turning them into pendants. Pairing the pendants with painted beads took my creativity to a new level. These are some of my favorites:
During this time, I became fascinated with the wire wrapping and wire weaving pieces that I was seeing on the internet. They were so beautiful and intricate; it wasn't long before I wanted to try. I quickly found out that working with wire didn't come naturally to me but I enjoyed it so much that I was determined to learn these skills. After much practice and frustration, I was finally able to produce work that I was proud of.
This spiderweb is a special favorite because it's one I came up with completely on my own. No looking at magazines, reading books or using tutorials. I felt really good about this design.
These next ones are the result of using tutorials to learn the techniques. I am forever grateful to the designers who so generously share their knowledge and skills by publishing tutorials on their blogs or on Youtube:
Eventually, I became interested in working with resin. The first thing I tried was coating my painted pendants with resin; I was and am extremely happy with the results.
At the same time, I was trying to figure out a way to incorporate nature's gorgeous fall leaves and summer flowers into my work. Preserving them in resin seemed like a natural progression. It took much experimenting and many fails to achieve success. It pleases me no end that these beautiful leaves with their amazing patterns and colors are permanently preserved for people to enjoy.
This is where I am now - still experimenting with resin. Using leaves, flowers, insects and other natural materials along with small charms, I am creating small scenes and preserving them in resin. I've just barely scratched the surface and have many ideas in my head. At the moment, these are my favorites from this period - that might be because these are the only ones I have finished so far!
I guess I'd say that rather than having favorite pieces of jewelry, I have favorites from each learning phase I've been in. To me, they represent growth as an artist, mastering new skills, learning new techniques and that by looking back and visiting these favorites, enables me to see where my journey has taken me. It makes me wonder what future work will look like and which ones will be added to my favorites as the journey continues.
To see what other members of the Jewelry Artisans Community have to say about their favorites, please click on the links below:
Ganison Atelier
My Bijou Life
