First you draw. As you draw, you dream.

Then you audition. You make a mock up and try out your ideas. Maybe you create your piece out of paper; maybe you sculpt in clay. It’s a time to choose how best to make your idea a reality. As you create guidelines, a road map, you give something abstract its shape and structure. What course of action will you take and in what order? What techniques will you employ?

When I create a piece of jewelry, it is the sum of the choices I make. I choose to follow an organic route where things flow and find their shape as I work. My plan is a dream. Dreams change and evolve. With each act I create conditions, and those conditions inform my next steps and choices.

Last and first you begin to work. Last, because the planning is behind you. First, because this is the start of something new.

This bracelet was a huge challenge and wonderfully satisfying. It was exactly as I imagined it, and completely different than my wildest dreams.

I cut out the shape with a paper template. I formed the metal with hammers and stakes. I reticulated the metal with my torch. I flush set the stones. All of this was as I planned. In these ways this bracelet was a mirror of my original idea.

BUT…

As I cut out the metal, I changed my mind about the size of the bracelet, and I exaggerated the curves.

When I formed the metal I used tiny stakes to hammer against instead of the larger ones from my plan. I curled the edges of the metal instead of larger sections, leaving the curves to make the statement.

I reticulated (a melting, super-heating technique creating ridges and patterns in the metal) the silver in more exaggerated ways than I’d imagined, creating little holes and soupy looking spots.

The reticulated silver became predictably more brittle, but I chose to change the order of operations, so instead of forming my piece when it was malleable, I chose to form the bracelet after I had made it brittle. I pushed the edge of possible.

When I create a piece of jewelry, it is the sum of the choices I make. I choose to follow an organic route where things flow and find their shape as I work. My plan is a dream. Dreams change and evolve. With each act I create conditions, and those conditions inform my next steps and choices.

This bracelet is a favorite because I love to plan and dream. I love to hammer and form. I love the feeling of free fall when I veer off course, and know I am meant to do just that. Let go.