I find that January and the first half of February I encounter more unhappy, mad or discouraged people than any other time of the year. Is it the “after the holidays blahs” that may erupt from standing on the bathroom scale or looking at the bank account or credit card bill? Is it the calm after the storm for merchants and designers following the holiday craziness (we hope it was crazy)? OR is it the fact that in most locations it is still cold and miserable outside? Most of us have certainly had our share of the latter this season. I think winter darkness and the lack of enough bright sunshine can cause many of us to feel low. Therefore, I think I’ll start referring to these months as the “biting” time.

I can tell by the look on my spouse’s face when I’m bitey. I’m basically short tempered and can find fault with almost anything. I’m also very impatient when things aren’t happening fast enough to suit me. Another clue is when he suggests that I might need to go hammer something!

I have a friend that occasionally  says “bite me!” This statement often occurs when someone has been complaining to her, she has provided solid reasoning and the person is still griping. So she says or at least thinks “BITE ME!” Can’t you get arrested for carrying out that action?  I think her statement is appropriate when you have tried everything you can imagine to appease someone and they are still disgusted or unhappy.

My 90 year old mother probably put it best. Yesterday, I took her from “the home” out for a bite of lunch. Upon returning, she thanked me and said she thought that now she might make it through the rest of the week without biting someone. Assuming that she meant this figuratively I could certainly understand the statement. You don’t have to move a mountain to get out of the biting mood. (By the way, Mother’s nurses were pleased I took her out for lunch!)

When designers are overly bitey, we become dissatisfied with our work and this can lead to low productivity. My query this morning regards how we might turn this around in order that the work benefits from this mood. I want to use the criticalness that goes along with a bitey mood to help me perfect some of my technique. That crooked wire wrap that looked fine on the last sunny day looks awful today and I’m going to fix it. Instead of leaving the orange beads in the completed necklace where they really don’t belong, I’m going to take it apart and fix it. Maybe bitey can be good!

Ways to get out of a bitey mood include getting out the biggest hammer you have and whaling away on a piece of heavy sheet metal; drilling an excessive number of holes in metal to create a see-through effect; using a disc cutter to cut out more discs than you could possibly need; and working with large copper tubing which often requires a good deal of might. On the light side, you could put on a summer hat and pretend it’s warm today. I DO NOT suggest practicing the use of your jewelry saw or any other technique that requires finesse.

Of course the list of remedies for bitiness could go on and on. Yet, I fear that the best remedy is one we can’t control – the weather. The good news is that at least the seasons are moving in the right direction. So, bite something quick! The season is about to end.