Category Archives: Necklaces

Metal Work, Necklaces, Pendants, Philosophy, Wire Work

Perfectionism: Good or Bad?

June 23, 2010 Karen 4 Comments

Perfectionism is a relatively common topic in gifted education literature. Miriam Adderholdt’s book, Perfectionism: What's Bad About Being Too Good, was a must-read on many graduate course lists. Although perfectionism can have both good and bad sides, we often view it through a negative lens. I’ve thought about it lately since I’ve been working hard on learning to make sterling silver bezels and am never totally happy with how they turn out. Am I becoming a perfectionist? The following quotes from Adler and Maslow made me feel better: “Adler (1956) said, "the striving for perfection is innate in the sense that it is a part of life, a striving, an urge, a something without which life would be unthinkable." And Maslow (1970) described perfectionism as the "full use and exploitation of talents, capabilities, potentialities, etc." Maslow believed that striving for perfection through self-actualization is the absence of neurosis rather than an indication of its presence. Winner (1996) noted that gifted children are well known to be perfectionists, "But being a perfectionist could well be a good thing if it means having high standards, for high standards ultimately lead to high achievement" (Winner, 1996, p. 215).

Even the idea of perfectionism does not fit within my organic design style. I truly enjoy just seeing how something turns out rather than doing a great deal of picturing how I want the design to look. If a color or shape changes as a result of too much torching, I usually just go with it and benefit from happenstance. How does this fit with perfectionism? Hamachek (1978) suggested that perfectionism exists “along a spectrum ranging from normal to neurotic.” He would label a normal perfectionist as someone who gets pleasure from painstaking effort and neurotic perfectionists as "unable to feel satisfaction because in their own eyes they never seem to do things good enough to warrant that feeling."

Even when the design work follows happenstance, I finish each piece to the highest level of perfection my technique allows and then I’m usually happy with the design. I believe it is possible, however, to become so absorbed by the idea of perfecting a piece that we lose sight of the art. I remember a friend who made a seed bead bracelet and then continued to add another bead here and there for several months. She never felt the bracelet was finished (perfect). I thought it was beautiful in its beginning.

Working on the bezels each day. I thought my first few were nice, but then I looked at someone else’s work and realized I have more technique to perfect. I believe the trick is to keep striving for the best I can do, gain joy in the process, and continue to grow. Positive perfectionism . . . I hope so!

Bracelets, Necklaces, Pendants, Philosophy, Techniques, Wire Work

Jewelry Vacation

June 17, 2010 Karen

Since I wrote about summer camp in the last entry, why not vacations today? Summer also reminds me of past vacations when the children lived at home and the break from school was “our time”. I can’t help but wonder if some families are doing as we occasionally did by taking their vacation at home. When we did a home vacation, no one worked and I didn’t cook. (Was that the best part?) Since we moved reasonably often, home vacations gave us the opportunity to really explore the area in which we were living. One week while living in the Dallas area, we visited the Children’s Museum, Museum of Natural History and the Aquarium among other things. These were short relaxing jaunts and we had the time to enjoy each one without hurrying off to the next big adventure as was often the case on an out of town trip.

Yesterday, I thought about a jewelry vacation. It sounds like this could mean relaxing and taking a break from designing jewelry, but that wasn’t the case. I took a couple of pieces of jewelry on their little vacation. That term could be a misnomer since it was more like a road trip, but the pieces did go somewhere! As I’ve mentioned before, I like to wear my new designs to see if they will hang correctly, feel good and also to see if they get noticed. The bracelet shown here is made of copper that was torched and then polished. I added dangles on the jump rings linking each circle. Although I spent what seemed like an enormous amount of time filing and sanding this piece, it still developed a problem on its vacation. (This is not unlike some children – excluding mine, of course.) I noted a couple of spots that were still a bit rough when I used my wrist. It was good to locate these and fix them before marketing the piece.

The necklace in the photo also got a vacation yesterday. It is made of brass with copper and silver wire and copper chain. This one did well and only required a slight turning of the jump ring to be fit for human wearing.

I think these vacation-road trips work well even if the trip just takes the design piece around the house as I work. The trips can reveal any design or technique flaws and give me a chance to make things right.

Hmm . . is that what vacations do . . . reveal your need for relaxation and give you a chance to make things right with the family? I guess I’d better think about that and practice the latter a little even before our vacation. My husband might really appreciate that and It certainly couldn’t hurt!

Metal Work, Necklaces, Pendants, Wire Work

What’s in a Name?

June 9, 2010 Karen 8 Comments

There used to be a television show called “Name That Tune”. People always thought I would be good at it since I was a piano teacher. Yet, I was a total flop when it came to that show’s tunes. I couldn’t name them. Now if you ask, I could hum a few lines, but that was it. Even now, I cannot remember the name of the song I’m searching for in the music store.

Some others appear to be more interested in names than I am. For example, my friends at Wildtype Ranch http://wildtyperanch.com/) who sell pasture raised Angus beef, carefully name their cows. For example, a few years ago, we purchased a cow from them named Lola. Instead of saying that they are moving cow number “xxx” out of the front pasture, they just say they’re going out to get Sally or another gal.

Today, I read about a Texas business (http://www.buttersbrownies.com/) where the owner names her brownies. While one brownie is “Jane” it’s counterpart without nuts is “Sane Jane.” She has even named a brownie after her ballet teacher.

All this naming business made me wonder if I should be naming my individual jewelry pieces. After all, if you look at products on the etsy marketplace (www.etsy.com) most of them have clever names. I have a few designs named such as the wave bracelet and the pot luck bracelet, but each of these has variations and the single pieces have not been named. Is it time for names? Could you offer some ideas?

The first two pieces that need clever names are pendants. I haven’t yet made a hole in each, but you can get the idea. Pendant #1

Pendant #2 (this butterfly has a crooked middle!)

Necklace #1 Necklace #2

All four of these pieces are up for names. If you think of something clever, please chime in and “Name that Jewel!”

Color, Metal Work, Necklaces, Techniques

Coloring for Fun

June 7, 2010 Karen 2 Comments

Remember when getting a new box of crayons was exciting? Did you like it when you were old enough to get that big box of 48 colors? I always liked to color, but not necessarily in a coloring book. Just give me a big piece of paper and I was happy. I wasn’t an artist and didn’t try to color anything in particular; I just liked to run the colors back and forth across the paper.

I don’t think I’m the only adult who still likes colors. Working as an educational consultant, I carried large containers of colors and markers that were used for various projects during the workshops. I particularly remember one group of high school teachers who got so excited about getting to color that I thought I would have to put them in “time out” to settle them down. Most of their workshops just required note taking; so coloring while learning was a treat.

I could hardly wait for my grandson to come for this past visit because I knew he was finally old enough to work with color. We chose watercolors instead of crayons and had a great time splashing it on the paper. We just worked with one color using the Driscoll Lipscomb approach from The Gift of Driscoll Lipscomb by Yamaka. In this children’s picture book, an artist gives his little friend a single color pot of paint each year on her birthday. She spends an entire year exploring it. I think it’s a good approach for little people and am reminded that “less is more”. Don’t ask who had the best time when we painted.

Color again burst forth over the weekend when I was torching some copper sheet for a necklace. I inadvertently left the torch on the piece too long and before I knew it, the piece was solid black. Yuk . . . another mess up. Since the piece was too hot to throw in the trash, I quenched it in water. To my happy surprise, the copper was a nice shade of red and following an hour in the tumbler it was quite useable. Who knew????? I used the red copper for a disc necklace like those described in the January 27, 2010 post. There was enough copper for earrings and I used some dried corn from an old Native American necklace for the chain. I also used Renaissance Wax to help preserve the color of the copper. I like this kind of coloring. Staying with the single color idea, my grandson and I did have one other experience – painting with pudding. This was even more fun than finger painting with shaving cream and with pudding, you get to lick your fingers! Yum! Did you know you can even finger paint your face this way?

It’s really a shame that we have to grow up. I want to go back to childhood and let someone else do the clean up. Unfortunately, I think using the torch to color is about as close as I can get to being a kid again. Yet, I could just go get my own new box of 48 crayons!

Bracelets, Creativity, Necklaces, Techniques, Wire Work

Swirling

June 1, 2010 Karen 2 Comments

Summer makes me think of home in Medford, Oklahoma, where my two best friends and I spent much of our time twirling. I don’t know if we really thought one of us would be the next great drum major, but twirling those batons was great fun. Unfortunately, I was clumsy and sometimes when I threw my baton too high and I didn’t catch it properly, it would smack me on the head. (I can hear my immediate family saying “now we know what’s wrong with Mom.”) I had a similar whacking problem when I tried to twirl two batons at once. Luckily, I survived those head bumps and lived to tell about them.

The best I can do now is swirling rather than twirling. I’ve been working with this basic swirl for a series of short articles on creative thinking for Magpie Gemstones (www.magpiegemstones.com). If you don’t already subscribe to the newsletter from this site, I think you would enjoy it. I’ve made all manner of different swirling shapes for the upcoming articles and tried to find new ways to use them creatively by applying fluent, flexible, original and elaborative thinking. I’m enjoying wearing a couple of bracelets that I made with swirls. These are quite plain and layer nicely with other bracelets.

bracelets two

Additionally, playing with how to use these swirls in necklaces has been more of a challenge. These pieces fit nicely and mold well to the neckline. It is, however, somewhat difficult to display them. I’ve worn a couple of these and people seem to like the way they look.

View Full Album

I guess I’ll stick with swirling in lieu of twirling as one of this summer’s activity. Alas, with age, we should put away childish things and I do still remember a bad bump I got across the bridge of my nose,. (But isn’t it good to stay young at heart? I wonder where that baton went.)

Necklaces, Pendants, Wire Work

Playing With Shapes

May 6, 2010 Karen

I’ve played with shaping most of my adult life. I’ve tried this diet and that fad, but my shape is stuck. As a healthier outlet to this dilemma, my current “shape” work is being done with wire. No, I haven’t decided to wire my mouth shut! I’m working with 16 to 18 gauge wire in an attempt to find a new pendant armature to put beads on. I’ve tried this before, but always attempted to work with very heavy gauge wire that I purchased inexpensively from the recycle place. This mostly just turned out to give me aching hands. Using the lighter gauge wire, however, appears to be more successful. When I find a good shape I can then replicate it with heavier wire. Initially, I planned to use the shape shown here with the side to the right in the picture as the bottom. I planned to hang it from the loop that is on the other side. Yet, upon completion it seemed more fitting as shown.

I planned the second armature the same way, but it too seems better turned as shown in the picture below.

Next, I would like to create a much smaller version of this pendant to see how it works with less openness. I can see it with more delicate beads.

At any rate, this type shaping is much better for my ego that the shaping “supposedly” created through dieting. Of course, if I just immediately filled my hands with wire and tools each time I got hungry, perhaps my body might shape up too. (somehow I doubt it!)

Metal Work, Necklaces, Pendants, Techniques, Wire Work

Two Peas in a Pod

April 27, 2010 Karen

This is a phrase most of us have heard to describe things that are very similar. When I searched the origin of the simile, I realized that most of the time we don’t hear the complete phrase, “as alike as two peas in a pod,” meaning two identical items or people. Following is information about the origin of the phrase which dates back to the 16th century.

(Source: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/as-alike-as-two-peas-in-a-pod.html)

. . . This simile, of course, derives from the fact that two peas from the same pod are virtually indistinguishable. The phrase, which is sometimes given as 'like as two peas', is quite old and versions of it date from the the 16th century. . . [the]use of 'pease' as the singular form was the norm in Tudor England. The word 'pea' came into use as the singular in the 17th century, with 'peas' as the plural. This avoided 'peases', which would have been somewhat of a mouthful. . . .

For over a year, I’ve been making a version of peas in a pod which should probably be referred to as pearls in a pod. I’ve made these in various sizes from “baby peas” to the regular size shown here.

Several weeks ago, another designer who doesn’t do metal work requested that I make her a simpler and more realistic version of a plain pea pod. As I played with her order, I began creating various sizes of the newer pod using different metals including copper and brass both torched and not torched. Then I played with filling these pods with mixed metals or pearls. I also made baby pods in this newer shape and created earrings. Finally with too many pods on the work bench, I needed to do something with them. Having hung them on pearl strands, leather and neck wires, I kept thinking I should be more original. Yesterday, thinking again about the phrase and the number two, I tried mixing the pods. I used one larger copper pod filled only with wire tendrils and one brass pod filled with pearls and silver. We might call this the ANTI peas in a pod since the pods are not at all alike. I will continue to play with this idea of “anti” and see what develops. I believe there are many other possibilities if I continue to work with this idea.

I wonder if there are there other phrases that might spawn ideas. Would the ANTI of them provide further inspiration? It’s food for thought? . . . yet I don’t even like peas!

Bracelets, Creativity, Metal Work, Necklaces, Philosophy, Wire Work

FFOE

April 20, 2010 Karen

The letters in the title do not stand for a secret society or club; rather, they represent the four major constructs of creative thinking: fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration. While the first three are needed to develop a solid and unique design, the latter, elaboration, is often shorted by highly creative individuals who are eager to move on quickly to the next great idea. The opposite can also be true if that creative is a perfectionist. The individual may find it difficult to move on because the piece is never just right.

Elaboration is the noun form of elaborate, which Webster (1995) defines as “planned or done with careful attention to numerous details or parts” . . . The application of the term elaboration to a discussion of creativity suggests that an idea has been embellished, developed, polished, or enhanced. (Meador, Creative Thinking and Problem Solving in Young Learners, Libraries Unlimited/Teacher Ideas Press (Available at Amazon.com)

Elaboration requires scrutiny of the original idea and, just as a writer adds adjectives to a sentence to make it stronger, a jewelry designer may add more detail to the basic piece with stones or wire work. In the picture examples, one photo shows elaboration of the original wave necklace that I started making a couple of years ago which is shown in the other photo. These look like very different necklaces and while one person may prefer the original, another may like the elaborated piece.

The point is not to make a judgment regarding which piece is the “best”, but rather to use elaboration to vary a piece so that a basic design gets plenty of mileage. I find it easier to elaborate upon an idea than to develop a totally new one.

While my definition of elaboration above written years ago is sound, I’m now using the elaboration step in creative thinking for a second purpose. It’s possible that a design can be overdone and have too much embellishment. I want to use the creative process to also determine if something should be removed or made smaller in a design. Creativity gurus would cringe at my use of the word for this, but we all know that sometimes “less is more”.

The final picture in this blog entry is of a basic bracelet. I worked through fluency, flexibility and originality to get to this point. Now, as I consider elaboration, I don’t know if it is better left alone or if it needs some detail. I’ll be playing with this design for a while. Currently, I believe the answer is YES and NO regarding detail. Some people will like the simplicity of the piece while others will find it uninteresting. Through elaboration, perhaps I can made something for both tastes.

Necklaces, Pendants, Wire Work

Housework

April 12, 2010 Karen

I paused this weekend at the grocery store to watch a cute little girl in the cleaning supplies isle with her mom. She looked to be about 5 years old and sported a black pony tail that swished when she moved. She happily picked up a feather duster and pretended to dust her surroundings. That’s when I wanted to tell her. “Housework Makes You Ugly!” Since I simply moved on, it could be another twenty or thirty years before she figures this out for herself.

Taking the statement to heart, I returned from the store and vowed not to get any uglier during the weekend. Since I wasn’t doing any housework, I had plenty of extra time to work on some designs. The pictures herein show some of the pieces I completed. The first couple of pictures show the same style armature which was also pictured in another blog. I added some dangles for balance on the one to the right.

The blue piece also has a bracelet and matching earrings (not pictured).

The fourth piece, composed of copper, pearls and amethyst is a prototype of pieces to come. I’m still playing with how to get the swinging swirls to hang just right. Watch for these again.

I enjoyed the designing this weekend; however, today, is Monday and the housework is calling my name. When I made my case about it to my spouse and used actresses that are my age but have few wrinkles as evidence, he scoffed. He suggested that it wasn’t the fact that they aren’t doing housework, but rather the fact that they employed Botox. Since my medical insurance won’t pay for Botox and I need to keep doing the housework, I’ll just have to make beautiful jewelry in my leisure moments and hope people look at it and not my face.

Bracelets, Creativity, Necklaces, Pendants, Philosophy, Wire Work

Organic-Good or Bad?

April 7, 2010 Karen 4 Comments

More than once in the past weeks, my pieces have been described as “organic”. It reminds me of when I wrote an article for a gifted education periodical and the editor described it as “pithy”. I had to go look that one up and still wasn’t sure whether or not the term was complimentary.

When my work is described as organic, I usually just smile and agree with the comment, but perhaps it’s appropriate to examine this nomenclature more carefully. Synonyms for the term include the following: natural, whole, unrefined, untreated, crude and macrobiotic. Most of those do apply to the bracelet pictured on the right, but I’m not sure what to think about the term “crude”. I think I’ll just move on from that one.

The dictionary further elaborates that organic describes something that occurs or develops gradually and naturally, without being forced or contrived. This certainly describes the work on these pieces. I begin twisting the wire in hopes that something unique and palatable will arise. Sometimes it does; yet, more often it does not. I think the important part of the process is knowing what to keep and what to let go with the latter being the most difficult part. Since I know from years of teaching creativity thinking that sometimes great ideas fall upon the design floor, I’m often reluctant to let something go. Lately, however, I find this easier since I now have a “whatsit box”. I’ll bet those of you who design also have one of these. It’s that place where you throw things that didn’t seem to work. When you peer into it days later you say “What IS it?”

Organic also means “being made of parts that exist together in a seemingly natural relationship that makes for organized efficiency”. It is this definition that fits with my belief that the designs that are unique, but flow naturally together may, indeed, be the best. While I attempt to be fluent and flexible creating more than one idea before selecting the best, it is usually the one that is unique yet emerged the most naturally that gets the nod. Forcing the design to work usually brings unpleasant results.

Both pieces pictured herein are made of sunstone and carnelian from Magpie Gemstones. The schiller on the sunstone, which can’t be seen in these photos, is quite nice and really grabs attention. Are they organic? Is that a good thing? As long as I can leave out “crude” I’ll accept the comments.

Dreamcatcher Designs