Last year I donated a gift voucher to a charity auction event. I was a few months pregnant and at the time I thought I would be able to fit the order in, being full of “he-man” hormones....I could do anything. The client redeemed her voucher for a beautiful handmade trailing flower pendant and necklace, but quite a few months later in my third trimester when those previously mentioned hormones had worn off. But I still felt I could do it. I gather the metal and began, but heat and child slowed me down so I was put off. My client, a fantastic lady, understood and was happy to wait when I was ready to make again. I had Mitchel on the 1/1/2011 and for a while I was in a cloud of disbelief and unrealistic views of what I was able to do. Time went by and all my own goals of being able to create went past 6 week, 3 months, 6 months....... At some point I let go and stopped beating myself up about time and began to make... a link at a time, a flower at a time. I worked around it, and it began to work around me. Slowly as it began to take shape I felt a sense of relief, a sense of creative normality.
Now it’s finished and it feels like I’m planting a flag at the top of a mountain ....I’m here, I’ve arrived!
I’m a different person from when I started this piece and I’m sure that’s something that jewellery artist don’t share as much with their artistic cousins: sculptures or painters. Projects take hours or days for us usually, not months or a year and then there is a sense of gratification. We move on or melt it down to start again. But this reminded me of my fine arts days. I've grown attached. Now this piece represents moments in my life.... a patch of time in my life quilt.
It has become my mark of readiness!
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