Follow-up to my previous silver-clay post
Jul. 15th, 2004 12:08 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
rhiannontherose.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
craftgrrlI could almost cry...of course, I have a fever, and that tends to make me rather emotional...
Don't get me wrong...I love to give things to people, to find that perfect something for that perfect someone...and, me being me, I love to be able to make things instead of always buying them. But, as an artist, I have a habit of becomming...attached...to my work. There have been gifts I've put 30 hours into making, nevermind planning, designing, and hunting down resources/materials for. And, with me, it's never just time. Corny? Yes. Have your cheese-cake and eat it too, even. But I really do put a lot of thought, energy, heart and soul into my work. When I was just an artisan as a hobby, giving gifts of my work as I went, there was always, should the work be un-reproducable, a chance for me to stop and consider, fight with myself over whether I'd maybe just maybe keep that one and give away another one. I also always knew the person my work was going to, could continue seeing and enjoying my work through them..and that helped. But now that I am trying to become an artisan for a living, I no longer have that luxury. While I am extremely grateful for them, commissions for original, sometimes un-reproducable works do twist me up a bit inside. It doesn't matter if I fall in love with something I've somehow managed to make...it belonged to someone else before I even made it.
If I make myself think about things (in a fashion which having a fever is not very condusive of), the piece that has me snuffling, can, aside from the fact that natural leaves were used and that ALWAYS makes for some variation, be reproduced, as well as reincarnated in a variety of versions I'm already having a blast planning out. Still, this is, I think, one of the most beautiful and professional things I've ever made. Sending it away was...difficult.
What you see there is a pendant commissioned to go with a particular, silver-purple, shimmer-textured-silk, Mother of the Groom gown. It's made from fine silver, sterling bezels, stones called spectrolite (a labradorite variant with a dull, silver-grey background and plays of purple-blue light inside..think dark moonstone), and highlighting with an oxidation chemical.
::sighs::
Don't get me wrong...I love to give things to people, to find that perfect something for that perfect someone...and, me being me, I love to be able to make things instead of always buying them. But, as an artist, I have a habit of becomming...attached...to my work. There have been gifts I've put 30 hours into making, nevermind planning, designing, and hunting down resources/materials for. And, with me, it's never just time. Corny? Yes. Have your cheese-cake and eat it too, even. But I really do put a lot of thought, energy, heart and soul into my work. When I was just an artisan as a hobby, giving gifts of my work as I went, there was always, should the work be un-reproducable, a chance for me to stop and consider, fight with myself over whether I'd maybe just maybe keep that one and give away another one. I also always knew the person my work was going to, could continue seeing and enjoying my work through them..and that helped. But now that I am trying to become an artisan for a living, I no longer have that luxury. While I am extremely grateful for them, commissions for original, sometimes un-reproducable works do twist me up a bit inside. It doesn't matter if I fall in love with something I've somehow managed to make...it belonged to someone else before I even made it.
If I make myself think about things (in a fashion which having a fever is not very condusive of), the piece that has me snuffling, can, aside from the fact that natural leaves were used and that ALWAYS makes for some variation, be reproduced, as well as reincarnated in a variety of versions I'm already having a blast planning out. Still, this is, I think, one of the most beautiful and professional things I've ever made. Sending it away was...difficult.
What you see there is a pendant commissioned to go with a particular, silver-purple, shimmer-textured-silk, Mother of the Groom gown. It's made from fine silver, sterling bezels, stones called spectrolite (a labradorite variant with a dull, silver-grey background and plays of purple-blue light inside..think dark moonstone), and highlighting with an oxidation chemical.
::sighs::
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}