A Reflection On Artistic Voice

Please pardon the absence, my good friends, I had been spending a quite a bit of the summer both spending time with family and keeping my mind busy with creative nuances.  In the ever-constant discoveries of finding new things to learn, I started to wonder - will I always stray, or will I find a permanent niche?

Well, we can answer that question in a generality - I enjoy transforming interesting - recycled, broken, found, claimed, vintage, etc. - items into wearable accessories and art.  They create an aura of nostalgia, reminiscence, eclectic romance and quirkiness - as well as being an eco-friendly movement in accessories.  There's something that happens when I find something - anything - that I can pull apart and preserve into a piece that someone could carry with them for as long as they like.  It's also a way to revisit and reimagine some of the jewelry pieces you just can't bring yourself to let go of, but you just can't bring yourself to wearing them for some reason.

And it doesn't stop there!  I found myself buying toys, pulling apart musical instruments, scouring thrift shops for jewelry I could snip and cut to remake into something new.  The idea to 'remake', to repurpose something to give it a new history not only is the ultimate 'recycling' movement, but it carries on a legacy that the piece had in it previous life.  It's said in Chinese legend that the precious stone jade captures the essence of the wearer's soul and keeps it forever; saying that, giving jade as a gift was considered to be an incredibly personal gift.  To me, repurposing a piece of jewelry into an entirely new creation serves the same purpose.  Everything I've ever created with my own hands has a piece of my soul inside it, because that's where creative nuances are kept.



I've collected an insane amount of beads.  It's ridiculous.  Some are store purchases, some are from pieces of thrift-store jewelry I've pulled apart, some are from previous pieces I've made and didn't like.  It's a funny thing when your past voice catches up to you - you don't like the sound of it.  As artists, we are our own worst critics, almost never thinking our work will be 'understood'.  I've learned to create for myself and myself alone - so as long as I'd wear it or gift it, I stand behind it.  We can only trust ourselves and our artistic instincts, because usually it's the only thing we have to go upon.

So, here I go with trusting it.  A lot of pieces I'm really proud of, some I know I can do better, and the ones I don't like don't see the light of day - or at least, not for very long.  So, here we go with a transformation of artistic voice, becoming more focused and more accurate on execution.  So, I'm hoping over a course of time I'll be revamping the Etsy shop with a new branding image, with a more cohesive thread in the line - without any inhibitions!

Onward and upward!