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Wednesday, October 19, 2016

The Best Laid Plans

I had a vision. 

I was lying in bed--drifting, woozy, floating in that liminal netherworld where ideas come to us so fluidly. What I would do, see, is I would take a piece of copper and fold form it and beat it over some rocks, see, and then texture it and punch it and file strategic places and shape it just so and...

I awoke the next morning with vague recollections of my vision and headed straight to the studio to bring it to fruition. Fifteen minutes into the project when the copper buckled and snapped, I realized:



shit, this isn't going to work



See, sometimes our dreamy ideas seem perfectly logical and functional. And then we go to execute and we realize they could use a little more refinement. There is nothing wrong with this. Rome wasn't built in a day. There is beauty to be found in the process.

Today's pair of earrings features the salvaged results of this vision. I took the two snapped pieces of copper, trimmed them up, softened up the edges, oxidized, sanded, and turned them into simple lightweight earring tabs. And you know what? For being "failures", I'm really quite fond of them. Funny how that works. When life gives you lemons...well, you know.

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

6 comments:

  1. Nikki, your work always amazes me. These are no exception. And "failures"... no way. I love how you have worked that copper.

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  2. These are wonderful, and I love the story of how they came into being! It is fascinating how forgiving metal can be when things go 'wrong'... great earrings.

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  3. I ADORE happy accidents! These are perfect! Enjoy the day. Erin

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  4. Sometimes the plans that didn't work out turn out to be the best! These are wonderful. Your initial vision is what you wanted to see, but this is what came to be. They're great! Thanks for sharing your story. :)

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