If you could only make one more ...

Interesting question this week - posed to me by the lovely Liz Cullen.  If I could only make one piece of jewellery during what remains of my life, what would it be?

Ooh ... I have to tell you, that question almost made me break out in a cold sweat.  The thought of only being able to make one more piece of jewellery is so hideous my mind kept trying to sneak round it and find a way to cheat.  But I forced it back into its cage and withheld coffee until it gave the matter some serious thought.  I mulled over the pieces I have already made - would I make a full woven necklace with a matching pendant?

There's a lot of work in one of these, granted - but the rest of my life?  Unless I get run over by a bus tomorrow (and fingers and toes crossed THAT doesn't happen), I'm going to have a fair bit of jewellery-less life left.  So I broke one of the bars on the cage, dribbled a bit of coffee in and allowed my mind to cheat a little.  I'd loathe not being able to create with my wire and beads, so I'd probably be cheeky and make a giant piece of wall 'jewellery', similar to my Four Seasons piece - but much bigger!

Technically, I might still be allowed to make that, as it's not jewellery, in which case I'm going to stick with the embellished necklace as my piece of choice.  But if not, I think I could see me working on an ever-increasing wire scene.  Yes, I KNOW it's cheating, but I don't care - so there!

So if you could only create one more example of what you make - what would it be?

Giveaway!

A quick interim post from me - I'm having a giveaway over on my Facebook page to say thank you to all those of you who follow my ramblings, like, comment and of course buy my work.  I'm truly grateful to you all for not making me talk to myself (I've found it's generally a short and unfulfilling conversation!) and this includes those of you who follow my blog too.  So please do pop over to my Facebook page and enter to win this ocean-themed mini pendant.

The giveaway closes at 8pm next Friday 4th July. :)

Origins of a Jewellery Maker

I was asked yesterday why I started making jewellery.  I can't actually remember if I've covered this before (although you're welcome to trawl through all my previous blog posts and check!) so here is an answer of sorts.  You may have seen me write elsewhere that I 'fell into jewellery-making' by accident.  It's true.

I've always had a creative bent - my favourite subjects at school were art and English language - but like a lot of people, when I left school, I just needed a job to pay my bills.  It was during the recession in the early 1990's, so it's not as if I had a lot of choice.  Non-creative job eventually secured, I did what I had to do - got on with it.  Was it fulfilling?  Not particularly, although there is something very satisfying about earning your own money and paying your own bills.  (The novelty of that wears off quickly, but it's an ethos I still live by!)  And that's what I continued to do for the next 20 years - get on with it.  My only creative outlets for many of those years were writing fiction, which I've mentioned before, and making food and other items for my dollshouse (yes, the love of all things miniature lives on in my pendants!).

Then in 2006, while I was doing some work for a haberdashery company, I found some boxes of beads on a shelf in their warehouse - you know the type, a few different beads in pretty colours, with some basic findings.  On a whim, I bought one and had a play with it.  Did I instantly discover I had a talent for it and produce perfectly finished items?  Of course not!  My first earrings were very basic, made with plastic beads and base metal findings and as for the technique - let's just say calling the loops 'round' would be far too kind (as you can see, and I hope my photos have improved, too!).

But ... less than impressive experiments aside, I was nonetheless hooked.  I started to look around for more beads, then more - in fact, I'm surprised eBay didn't crack under the strain.  I can't actually remember when the love affair with wire first began - I do remember that I bought some basic tools with some birthday money from my uncle, and I was nervous that I might be rubbish at wireworking and have wasted the precious money!

It turns out that, with practice (lots!) I wasn't entirely rubbish after all, and the bending, twisting and hammering began in earnest.  I love being able to make all the components of a piece of jewellery myself - that's not to say I don't use beautiful findings made by other people, because as you know, I do.  There are many things I don't and can't make, but there's always some skilled craftsperson out there who does.  And you know I'm absolutely addicted to beads - the glamour hasn't worn off after all these years.  I've progressed from plastic and mass-produced glass beads to handmade lampwork and polymer clay, but I'm equally as fond of the humble seed bead, along with a nice sparkly bit of Czech glass.

And of course wire is my favourite material - relatively inexpensive, unless you're working with precious metal, and so versatile.  I can't translate everything that's in my head into wire - wish I could - but I'm not going to give up trying! ;)

The Importance of Hobbies

Hobbies.  It's a frivolous word.  And a frivolous thing, perhaps, but I think having a hobby - or several - is really important.  But isn't making jewellery your hobby, I hear you ask?  Well, yes - it certainly started out that way.  And it still is, in many ways - I've lost count of the number of times my hubby has said to me 'You're working?  Again?' as I'm sneaking out the wire to fiddle with in front of the telly.  It is, of course, my job, and a lot of my working hours are spent completing work for customers, (something I love doing) but finding myself inspired by something fresh and turning it into a piece of jewellery - just because - is the icing on the cake.

It's not my only hobby, though.  As you know if you follow this blog, I have always been a voracious reader.  This dates right back to when I first learned to read, and my Mum and I used to get the bus into town so that she could treat us both to a book from the secondhand bookshop in the square.  Then we'd spend the bus journey home reading - terribly sociable, I know!  Books have ALWAYS been my means of escape from a real life that occasionally sucks.

Similarly, when you're not reading someone else's story, why not write it?  I love words - the way a carefully chosen phrase can convey an emotion, something that hits you right - well, wherever it is you feel things most.  Is there anything quite like finishing a book that makes you similarly sigh with satisfaction and almost weep that the journey is over?  Writing is the flip side of that coin, but it's no less satisfying when the final word is written, and the characters still exist in your imagination, somewhere far outside of the pages.

So why do I think having a hobby is important?  I cannot comprehend the concept of boredom.  If ever I hear someone say they're bored, I'm amazed.  How does anyone have time to be bored?  As long as I have a blank page and a pen or pencil, I'm able to occupy myself.  There are so many things you could be doing with your hands or your mind, why would you relinquish a second of your precious time to ennui?  To me, hobbies - interests, passions, whatever you want to call them - are so important because if you have nothing else to fill your time, they give you purpose, and if you're only able to fit them around jobs/illness/less than fulfilling lives, they provide an escape and a route to personal joy.  And there is always room for more joy in this world.

So tell me, what hobbies bring you joy?

Dorset Interlude

A couple of weeks ago, we went away to Dorset for a long weekend.  We'd been promised (threatened with) abysmal weather, but in fact most of the heavy rain seemed to happen overnight.  This meant that we woke to glistening rain-slick greenery, sparkling in the spells of sunshine we hadn't dared to hope for.  We made our first ever trip to the rock formation known as Durdle Door.

The view was stupendous, but it was quite a trial for me to get that far - I'm afraid of heights, something which is made much worse when it's windy.  And my word, was it windy!  I actually spotted a little girl leaning on the wind as if it were something solid - she was clearly delighted by this, while I was by then heading for the car with as much speed as I could manage against the wind, hoping I'd make it in one piece!

We also enjoyed the sight of the kiteboarders in Sandbanks, who were taking advantage of all that wind - although I'm still mystified by the fact that anyone would pay millions of pounds to live there. ;)

As we were staying right next to some beautiful woodland (and I mean right next to - the trees were overhanging our log cabin), we took advantage of the time of year to tramp through the soggy undergrowth and enjoy the profusion of bluebells blooming there.  Hubby even saw a fox (Did I?  No, of course not - I was wandering around aimlessly taking a million photographs of things on the floor as usual).

It was a lovely chance to recharge our batteries and to enjoy the beautiful Dorset countryside and coastline.  And did I take any wire with me, you ask?  Well, just a bit ... here's my Violet Tree set - started while watching The Eurovision Song Contest.  Hey, even I need a bit of culture now and again ... ;)

That tricky subject ...

That tricky subject I've been avoiding blogging about.  Actually it's two in one - inspiration versus copying.

Firstly, a word about copyright.  In the UK (and many other countries) an original artistic work is automatically copyrighted.  You don't need to register it - you need to be able to prove the work is yours, of course, but it is automatically protected by copyright.  This includes your own photographs - so if you lift a picture from the internet, you need to find the source and ask their permission.  Of course I know this doesn't always happen, but it should.  If you use an image without gaining permission or crediting the source, it's breach of copyright.

And so to copying a design.  What is the difference between taking inspiration from someone's work and copying it?  Inspiration is an idea forming in your mind in response to something you've seen.  That does not equate to reproducing the item exactly.  If you copy the form and style of an original work it is just that - a copy.

So how do you define an original work?  That is tricky.  In the jewellery world, most ideas and themes have been represented somewhere along the line.  It's all in the detail.  An example: I make tree of life pendants.  So do thousands of other people.  It is not a unique idea, and you couldn't possibly copyright a standard design.  But here is something I made earlier:

Yes, it's an apple tree.  Nothing unique there.  Apple trees have no doubt been depicted in one way or another for thousands of years.  If someone makes a wire pendant with an apple tree in it, does that mean they've copied my work?  Of course not.  But if I see one made with exactly the same execution as this one, will I consider that to have been copied?  Yes.

I am happy - no, more than happy, thrilled! - to inspire others in whatever medium they choose to create with.  But I will always speak out if I see my images or those of others being used without permission - nicely, as I'm not confrontational and the whole thing makes me feel a bit sick, to be honest - and I cannot condone direct copying.  Like many others, I work very hard to produce work that is original.  I'm sure I don't always get it right - as I said, most things have been done before - but I never deliberately copy.

And lastly, watermarks are coming!  I've resisted using them for so long, as I don't want to obscure my pictures, but I already use them on my artwork, and I've had so many of my own uncredited photos pointed out to me recently, that I can resist no longer.  The only thing that worries me is all the hundreds of images already out there, that I can't retrieve ...

Random Facts ...

As I have somehow managed to leave most of the stuff I need at home today (Wednesdays are spent in my hubby's workshop), I've decided to write a slightly different blog post today.  A while ago, one of those daft things was going around Facebook where you are supposed to comment, then tag your friends to play - I usually ignore them, but this one intrigued me.  It simply said to state 10 things that people may not know about you.  It was interesting - not so much to do, as obviously I already know these things! - but to read the things other people revealed.  So here are a few random things you may not know about me, although some you may, if you've been following my blog and Facebook page for a while.

I took A-level art at school, chose to forgo my place at art college, and barely picked up a pencil for the next 20 years.

I have two stuffed toy seals and a monkey who always come on our holidays ... ;)

I've enjoyed writing fiction since I was a child writing by torchlight under the covers.  I've written 3 full-length novels, along with many more finished and unfinished stories - all unpublished.

I've been a vegetarian since I was 21.

I met my hubby (some of you will know him as 'the post boy') nearly 24 years ago, while I was still at school.  It took us 12 years (most of those living together) before we decided we'd probably keep each other after all and get married.

I taught myself to touch type when I was 20 - came in handy with all those stories ...

I worked in accounts for 21 years before giving it up to be poor and happy as a jewellery-maker.

Lastly - and this will be the shocker - I'm not a natural redhead. :P