Sunday, November 22, 2009

5 Things You Love About Making Jewelry - But Shouldn't


I found this on ammjewelry's blog and thought it would be fun to share with you! "Join me in playing this game...name "5 Things You Love about Making Jewelry, but Shouldn't!" I read this question some time ago on my daughters blogs in a basic form, and thought it would be fun to pose this question to my blogging buddies."

MY five things:
1) I love the feel of metal as I form it, cut it, bend it, twist it, saw it, heat it, etc... It's (usually) under my control. I tell it what to do - it cooperates, or I force it. The very first jewelry item I made was with teeny tiny seed beads. They didn't cooperate. Thread is not my friend. Metal is.

2) I love spending money on all kinds of supplies for jewelry making. Whether it be tools (yes - lots of tools!), metal, dust masks, safety glasses, storage containers, display items, classes, books, stones (the photo above is my haul from the Bellevue Bead Festival this afternoon), photo stuff and oh, did I mention... Tools?

3) It's challenging. I am constantly learning new things by taking classes and doing loads of experimentation with metal. I've never been a creative person before, so this is opening up a whole new world and I love every minute of it. I fail a lot as I learn. I re-do things, I melt my failures and reuse the leftovers. There's always something else I can do with a piece when it doesn't work out. The thrill of seeing someone like my jewelry enough to buy it is worth all the failures.

4) It's a fun way to pass a lot of time and to make new friends. My hubby works a lot of hours. If he knows I'm not bored, he feels better about working so much. I gladly do this for him! Right.

5) I like fire. I read somewhere today (I can't remember where or I would give credit) that 'Every jeweler is a pyromaniac with a purpose'. When I started this, I was afraid of fire. Imagine that. How silly!

Do I have to stop at 5? There are so many more reasons I love this art/hobby/life!

Then, Holly Wilcox's blog added 5 things you hate about jewelry making. Mine are:
1) I'm sadly in need of a good night's sleep. I make jewelry through the wee hours of the morning, and then I dream about making jewelry.
2) My hands are a mess. I'm in desperate need of a manicure, but why bother?
3) I rarely take time to read books anymore. I'd rather make jewelry instead.
4) I'm hooked on social media - blogs, facebook, and email take up far too much time, but I love them.
5) I hate it when I have a bad solder day. Fortunately, that happens less often than it did 6 months ago.

That's it for now. I'm off to get some sterling out of the pickle pot - I've got work to do!

Have a great week everyone and wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving!

4 comments:

  1. I love reading lists like these but would be useless if I tried to do my own list because I agree with nearly all of yours and you write it so eloquently. So, I suppose that would be one of my 'hates' - I struggle to write about my jewellery in an artistic flowing way. I 'love' creating the jewellery and photographing it but feel I could do better with my descriptions.
    Thanks for sharing.
    Kristin :)

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  2. Very well done Sandy. Thanks for sharing. I'll have to give this some thought about what would be my 5 faves and 5 dislikes.

    Happy Thanksgiving to you too!

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  3. Hi Kristin - I hate taking the photos of my jewelry. I think I never get a good enough shot and it takes me so long to edit them.

    Kathleen,
    I'd love to read your list of 5's. I didn't really think about mine at all before I started writing - just went off the cuff.

    Blessings to both of you! - Sandy

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  4. Nice post! I enjoyed reading what you like most about making jewelry. I felt the same way about teeny tiny seed beads, haha. I feel we have a lot in common, except I haven't found my inner pyromaniac yet! ;)

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