Year of Jewelry Week 2: Let's Do It Again!

On January 12, 2012
Week Two! So far so good. This week’s theme is “Let’s Do It Again!” which, admittedly, had me stumped for a day or two. And, ultimately, the thing I felt most drawn to do in response is the very thing I do only under great duress. Which is… earrings. Duplicates. Mirror images, seemingly a perfect solution to my creative dilemma, but scared the ever-lovin’ bejeezus out of me nonetheless!

My work usually occurs so organically and without an ounce of pre-meditation, I normally have no clue how to duplicate a piece I’ve made, unless I begin with the intention to do so. And this has been my mantra the entire duration of my wire-wrapping life. But (and here is where I cringe and confess a long-denied personal fault) I discovered the real source of my angst and trepidation in regards to replication…. laziness. Pure laziness. There. I said it. And I wont begin this year hiding behind this sad personal truth of mine.

For some artists, earrings may be a creative “escape”, a simple exercise in expanding stock, perhaps even an enjoyable journey of repetition. For me, however, earrings have been the black hole in my creative process. Just the thought of design duplication gives me the willies something fierce! Why? Because I just can’t be bothered, and that’s the God’s honest truth. Usually. Now I’m not going to say this generalization holds true in every instance, for every piece, but mostly I have twenty more inspirations in my head and only 24 hours in a day to create them, so replication is typically the last on my agenda.

And (insert whiny voice here)… they are just HARD. I applaud all the artists whose focus lies exclusively on earrings (and much to my shock and amazement, there are many). The act of duplicating something so intrinsically individual as wire wrapped jewelry is a incredibly taxing process unless you’re born with the patience and tenacity of a bear in a beehive. Admittedly, I’m more the buy-my-honey-from-the-store kind of girl.

Now, with all that said, having admitted the soul-sucking truth of it, I opened myself to the idea of earrings, and the opportunity they pose for creative expansion, and NOT creative abandonment. And to nurture this idea, I chose to nestle my “flow”, less with diagrams and preconceived ideas, and more with the organic fluidity of spontaneity I might not otherwise be able to represent under a more structured creative process. This approach poses a replication difficulty that organized plans might lack, but if I was going to do this at all, I still hoped to honor my own creative recipe however I may.

But that’s where the real work began.

I had to duplicate a design I didn’t plan. And, let me tell you, it was an eternally frustrating process, and though I finished these deceptively simple earrings, available for viewing here, with a whoop of satisfaction and pride after a six month focus on pendants, I was already mentally promising myself I would never make them again. Which is complete malarky, seeing as how I just HAD to have a hematite version for myself! Ha!

A lovely amethyst bead with a slight faceted surface and a corresponding lavender Swarovski crystal bead, and I had myself a great set of elegant earrings that felt light, hung great, and caught a great shine in both artificial and natural light.

And, though I find earrings to be an abominable and deterring complication, around which I can’t seem to wrap my one-track-mind, this weeks theme inspired me to make a concerted effort to create a pair of earrings at least twice a month. Not a huge step, but any step is better than a conscious decision to remain inactive, boring and… worse… SAFE.

What may seem like a cute, but unassuming, pair of earrings to others is, to me, a wonderful and new expression of self.