Our first-time guest today is Meredith Jordan, designer and creator behind WildWomanBeads. Thank you for joining us, Meredith!
Pulling
thoughts together to write this blog, I had a good laugh as I tried to describe the almost whimsical way I go about creating a pair of earrings. Some of you
are sure to laugh along with me as you recognize yourselves in my process. Let
me start with the search for components.
There
are so many gifted component artists in our bead community who keep upping
their game at what they make for us to use in jewelry designs, and, most often,
there’s considerable competition to claim
some for our own designs. I recently watched a show in which one component
artist sold every component pair seconds after they posted. There must have been
twenty or more designers following the show with trigger fingers itching to BIN.
As I have
watched wonderful, colorful, creative components come into view and vogue, I
made a decision that I would choose only components that truly made my heart
sing. I knew I would never be the fastest person to BIN. I need to look at a component
and pay attention to the colors, textures and design. If they make me come
alive, gasp or jump for joy, I go for it and sometimes come out the winning
binner. If they don’t make my heart sing, they weren’t mine to work with, no
matter how much I may want something from that artist’s collection.
This
takes time. Sometimes, to be true to my own ideas and designs, I have to pry my
fingers off the keyboard before buying something just because it was beautiful.
I have to
train myself to listen for the “still, small voice” inside me that says, “Oh,
yes, these are for you!”
This
is my nature as an artist. I’m an introvert, and my reference point is
necessarily an internal one. I simply ask myself, “Do these beads (or charms)
bring me joy?”and wait for an answer. Doing this, I sometimes pass on some
glorious components because, if I don’t swoon at the sight of them, they are obviously intended
for someone else. On the other hand, I might come across something that rings
my chimes, and I’ll leap, even if I have no idea what I’m going to do with it.
It may sit in my collection for weeks or years until a day I open a box to find
I already have the perfect bead for my next project.
Which
brings us to a project. I have to be moved to create something by the intrigue
of the components themselves (which is why choosing which components to use is
such an important first step). I rarely carve out designated time to create. I
can be in my nightgown, on the way to bed, when I take a last look at my table,
and suddenly, it’s one in the morning, and I’ve just finished a new pair of
earrings. Or I could be stumbling into the kitchen in the early morning, thinking
about breakfast, when I glance at the table and discover that a new pair of
beads is a delicious match for charms that have been sitting on my table for
weeks.
It’s
lunchtime before I look up again, and the pup is begging for a walk. It’s not
this way all the time. Sometimes I brood over someone’s new beads, charms or
headpins, trying to force myself to design something fresh. But the best of my
designs come from those times when I just wait patiently for that inner voice
to sound out.
(This is also one of the perils of having an in-house studio through which I must pass to reach any other part of my sweet little home.)
If
I’m making a pair of earrings, the beads will talk to me. I hear a very clear
“No, that’s not it,” when I put something together that’s “good enough” but not
quite what sets my heart to dancing. I’ll hear a sigh of relief when I take a
piece apart and move the beads around until I find that sweet spot where it’s “just
right.”
Here’s
what I’ve learned in my 15 years as a designer: There’s a voice inside that
guides my work: an inner compass, a muse, my True North. If I fall into a rabbit
hole of wanting whatever is popular at the moment, whether components or
designs, I may turn out something good, it may even sell, but I’m left without
the sense of delight I feel when I’ve paid attention to the components that
sing to me, listen to the beads speak, and find my way to a final design that
I’m truly proud and happy to send off to a customer.
Of
course, we all create in order to sell our wares, and I don’t mean to
trivialize that as important to our lives and our families. I just mean to say
the deep satisfaction found in living the artist’s way, or life, comes (at least
for me) when I remain true to my own true creative nature, when I follow as it
speaks to me, and when I humbly bow to honor the joyful artist that lives within.
I'm ending with a happy shout out to
some of my favorite component artists, whose work inspired the earrings you see here: Cathleen Zaring, Kelly Luttrell, Kristi
Bowman, Paula Kroft. Vincent and Nooma Cav, Emily Ciaurro, Jana Severin, Sasha
Crow, Kristin Louthan, Jeni Houser Alasad, Sabrina Koebel, Carolyn Driver,
Helen Backhouse and Nicola Morse!
