I've been meaning to get back to my record player but as I've griped here many times before, my computer is so slow and crappy that it's a really obnoxious process just to do one music post.
I have a few Baltimore things to post soon.
I'm also less motivated because I get so one-track minded about jewelry stuff.
I've been learning to anodize titanium and niobium, while also trying to keep up with resin projects. I've got a lot of finished pieces just languishing in a closet. Photographing them is more of a pain than making them.
If I could pull my thoughts together in written format, I'd have more to say about the creative process, and ideas, etc.
I used to be an okay writer.
Jewelry is better, even if I am not better at it. When I consider how it improves my life, I put it into this somewhat pessimistic framework:
At my age and career skill level, my life is not going to change much. Nothing new coming at me. My life is at a plateau and very likely to maintain the same for years to come.
One uncertainty that I get to enjoy is the skills I'm learning. I know that one thing that will change is that I can keep improving, and look back with satisfaction of skills I may have gained.
I also try to think of new approaches to my creative process, without ever trying to be an artist or anything like that.
On Saturday I was working in this building:
The "Brown Building."
As a lover of historic architecture, I've never been a big fan of the sight of this. But sitting inside there on a beautiful day, with just enough sunlight coming in, illuminating graphic design student projects (my preferred sight over the painting and photo in the building I usually work in), surrounded by the concrete walls and columns and ample benches to sit and polish rings... well I started to appreciate the Brown building.
However, I did drop a ring and cracked the ring shank. Ugh! If I were moody I'd have cried. Instead I just obsessed over ways to fix it without losing the irreplaceable character imparted thus far. I love my rings the best. I love many rings but my own creations are close to me, after hours of filing them in shape and rubbing them shiny.
But I have to be prepared to accept such disasters. After repairs and do-overs, the item is never quite the same but I have to try to love it equally.
Anyway, back to my surroundings with some photos of appreciation. I'm not an artist but I can still glean something from it I think.
M.F.A. Thesis Exhibitions
Around & About
Design for Annual Benefit Fashion Show by Jenae Smith '11
