Planning out jewelry designs versus doing it on the fly

Things I learned last Sunday:

There is such a thing as making the ball on a ball headpin too big.



When fusing, there is a fine line between over-heating and under-heating and I haven’t found the line yet.

I want a torch that has a narrower point, yet puts out a good amount of heat… but only runs on map or similar gas and doesn’t have to be mixed with oxygen. Haven’t found such a thing yet.

Sometimes it’s good to draw your design ideas out on paper rather than discovering the expensive way that just “playing around” with 12 gauge fine silver, making a ball headpin then flattening it with a hammer can make it look rather phallic. Not the look I was going for.

Okay, I *think* I’m getting myself in order in regards to… what to do next.

I’ve been at a loss because I wasn’t organized. Doing “studio work” is much different from the past ten years when I did “bead work”.

With bead work, it was an intuitive process. I never had anything planned out… I just started making a piece and went with the flow of the design.

Liked most of the results…

2010


2009


2008


2007


2006



But that doesn’t work when I do studio work. BTW, when I say “studio work”, I refer to any combination of metalsmithing, forging, wire-wrapping, metal clays, polymer clays, enameling, etc. For those things, I apparently have to have a plan… and be organized (have the right tools and supplies).

It’s a new process for me… planning out a design ahead of time. I think I feel pressure because I know my end results rarely look much like my original plan, but so long as I don’t feel the need to have my creations come out precisely as I planned, I think I’ll still get a much better result having HAD the plan to begin with… maybe I should call it a “guide” rather than a plan. Shrug.

Anyway, I spent some time this week thinking, planning, and sketching.

Most of the projects are metal clay… which would be much easier if I could find the Ziploc back that had my tools in it… namely my long razor cutters and the rubber tip brush thingie.

But at least my ideas are sketched out so I can follow a plan rather than just winging it with stuff that costs $50 an ounce.



The other part of the plan is to try to learn actual “techniques” rather than just trying to figure out everything on my own. Like… if I’d have paid more attention when trying to embed the cz’s (in the photo above), I wouldn’t have to do it all over again now.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a great believer in one trying to figure things out. That’s how fabulous discoveries are made. But sometimes it’s beneficial to learn techniques from others who’ve gone before and perfected ways of doing things… to cut down on a waste of both time and materials.


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