A month has passed and with it one third of the Summer Jewelry Challenge. Time certainly does go by quickly theses days and it is only getting faster. That realization is part of what makes me determined to live each moment to the full and be present in the moment…even the hard ones I would normally rather escape from. Time is a precious thing and so often in the past I would have a bad day and just think to myself that tomorrow will be better so it was okay to write the day off as a bad one. Well, there are some genuinely bad days, but I want to learn from them and see if shifting my perspective might redeem the day or some part of it. I read an article by Rachel Stafford not too long ago that had the idea of “looking for the flowers among the weeds”. The “flowers” represent the good things or moments in each day. So when I have a bad day full of “weeds” I try my best to look closer and gather a bouquet of “flowers” out of them. It isn’t something that comes naturally to me, but I am retraining my mind and with the Lord’s help I am seeing improvement in my ability to find the good things (flowers).
Well onto what I created this week! I have been talking about wanting to make another piece of my own without following a tutorial. Confession time…I can talk about something that I want to do for a while sometimes and if I feel like I won’t succeed then I will continue to talk about it and never do anything about it. Ideas are a safe thing in general…it is the action that is scary. 🙂
I am pleased to share that I did actually follow through on making my own piece without a tutorial. It was a good experience for me. I never know how things will turn out, but I picked a bead, cut the wire, and started weaving. The bead I chose is a lampwork ocean bead made by Molly Cooley. She makes the most beautiful beads and her night time ocean beads are my favorite. I picked up several of them shortly after Christmas, but I have been afraid to wrap them because they are so lovely and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to do them justice. I have gained a lot of confidence in my wire wrapping so I took a chance and tried it. I was not disappointed in the results either.
Here are pictures of the completed pendant…
Didn’t it turn out lovely! I am so surprised at how well it turned out without following a plan. I was wondering if I ended up adding too much wire work and overshadowed the bead, but my husband said the effect of my wire weaving is like you are looking through a window and I liked that idea. 🙂
Some of the differences that I noticed in the process of making my own creations versus following a tutorial were interesting.
Following a tutorial…
~things stay neat and orderly
~materials and amounts of them are already figured out
~there is a clear plan and steps to follow
~not much thinking is require
~time it takes to finish a piece is considerably less
Creating my own…
~things are a mess and wire is everywhere, sometimes with several kumihimo bobbins with weaving wire sticking off multiple half finished wraps
~not sure of materials so I cut my base wires extra long and usually put about 30+feet of weaving wire on my kumihimo bobbin
~no plan and usually no idea where a project is heading
~lots of thinking is required and sometimes trial and error also
~lots of time involved because I like making pieces with lots of wire weaving
I am enjoying learning how to take all the things I have learned to create my own designs. I have a long way to go and one day I might come up with something that is really unique, but for now I will just enjoy the journey I am on without feeling like I should be somewhere else.
Last week I didn’t have time to oxidize my necklace, but I did this week. Here are some pictures of it oxidized…
That is all for this week. I hope that you have a blessed week, but if it turns out to be a hard week I hope you can locate the flowers among the weeds!
This is lovely – your wire work really set off that gorgeous bead to perfection!
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Thank you very much!
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