how do things end. . .

. . . up the way they do?

Hello! Happy November, and thank you so much for taking time out of your day to give us a look.

I don't know how others design jewelry. I've never sat with anyone else while they were designing, nor had discussions about it. But for me, very often, I don't know what I am going to end up with. Sometimes it's great; other times not so much. But either way, it's a joyful adventure and a learning experience for me. And yes, I'll admit, sometimes a little bit, or more, of frustration. 

I hear people talk about sketching their designs, and that sounds so wonderful. They can visualize the beginning and the end. I do have some visual but it often ends up different. If I'm making wire or sheet metal pieces, those I do lay out on paper. Anything else generally starts with a lot of handcrafted components out on the table, and I take the ones that yell the loudest. "Me, me, pick me! "Nah, not me, I don't feel like working today." :)

From there, I ponder a bit where I want to go; I go through colors, textures, beads in my mind until something clicks, and then I might pull out many possible complementary things, glass, bone, metal, chain, linen, etc. I often do basic try this, try that. A lot of trying. And if after whatever amount of time I find reasonable, if nothing is working for me, I go back and start again with the other things I had out that are in their containers on my table, out of the way but close enough to pull them right back. Or something else entirely might pop into my head. That is basically how it goes. Not at all scientific. There are many times that I want to work with a specific something. Sometimes I can; sometimes I cannot. I think the bottom line is that it ends up being all about how I feel. My head doesn't get too involved. There are even the rare occasions when I'm not sure how it all got put together and all of a sudden it's done! Love when that happens. :) I would very much like to know if others work in this relatively haphazard fashion, or how do you generally work? 

Over the weekend I selected these sweet, little, pale blue handcrafted ceramic drops by Lorna of Balela Ceramics. She has a distinctive soft and muted style in much of her work, yet will also throw out the most gorgeous bright and shiny blue beads here and there.

You can find these earrings here

These drops were sweet and a bit whimsical. I wanted to "rustic them up" a bit so I selected stone-like ceramic beads, also by Balela Ceramics, and a simple handmade copper bead. That was all I had at that point. So I cut a long piece of copper wire and wrapped it around once, finished up the top, and then went back down to the other end of the wire and decided to wrap a whole bunch of it in a deliberately wide and messy fashion. I would have stopped there except that there was an ugly vacant space left below the wire, which showed only the bare loop at the top of the dangle and it all looked not so nice. But I didn't want to wire all the way down; I wanted the dangle to be able to move. So I added back in a bit of whimsy and created a series of "swags" with tiny 2 and 3mm beads along the bottom, sides and back of the wire. No more empty space, and I liked the result. 

You can find these earrings here

And that is how they ended up the way they did!

Thanks so much for visiting us. I hope you enjoyed my musings today, and I'll be back in two weeks' time. :)

Norbel Marolla
She Flies Again