Skip to main content

You Can Do Everything Right...

and still get a bad result.

That's how I felt all weekend long.  It's that time in your creative journey and you stop and say, "Well, this sucks and I'll never make anything great".  I hear this happens to a lot of artists.  But here's what happened to me last weekend.

I'm trying to come up with a unique design.  So I'm sketching all sorts of things but I get Artist's Block. Then I realize I have to make a pair of silver hoop earrings.  Yay!  It get's me away from designing.  Making hoop earrings is pretty straight forward.  
  1. Cut four pieces of silver.
  2. Make a circle with each piece.
  3. Form circle. No gaps!
  4. Solder
  5. Pickle
  6. Reform circle
  7. Make sure ends are visible.
16 gauge sterling silver hoops.  Soon to be sexy earrings for that sexy someone.

Sounds simple enough, huh?  Except for two of the hoops popped  open while reforming. AND I could still see the two ends.  Ugh!   I got frustrated.  And thus began beating myself up.  My mind was saying...
  1. You're not good enough.
  2. You can't even make a pair of simple earrings.
  3. Why are you even doing this?
  4. You suck.
  5. You're not creative.
All these negative thoughts came pouring in.  I think it lasted until I went to bed. 

I have to admit that there was a faint voice in my head trying to say something but those negative thoughts were drowning it out.  I finally heard it right before I fell asleep.  It said,

"You have to be more patient with yourself".

Well ain't that the truth!
  
Remember...try not to beat yourself up.  But when it happens don't forget to be more patient with yourself.
  
Namaste
Kalaya

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Risk to Bloom

It all started with an acorn button and grew from there. In an earlier post I mentioned this button swap blog hop, that I am participating in, and how I was immediately drawn to the acorn button.  Every day I would hold it in my hand, feel its essence, exam it, and then put it down.  This lasted for about 2 weeks. Then I remembered I had etched an oak tree on to brass when making buttons for my partner Kylie of Lotus Out Loud .  And... so begins the journey of creating something with this wonderful acorn button, which only started yesterday. Haha!  Etched brass was copper riveted to a piece of oak.  Merci beaucoup Papi for finding some oak!   I am using what Jesse taught me in his workshop .  It was the first time trying his technique.  It worked beautifully! The riveted brass was then captured with a piece of pierced copper. Voila! And then the day came  when the risk to remain tight in...

Wabi-Sabiness

Hola everyone! New Orleans is hunkering down because we are about to get "Wintry Mix".  Whatever that means and in south Louisiana we just do not know how to drive on ice and so great havoc ensues.  The city has decided to shut down.  I know...it's some crazy stuff down here! Anyways... my mother saw some stacking rings I made a couple of weeks ago and requested a set.  So I sat in my studio and thought about texture and a word I wanted to inscribe.  I meditated, sitting there in my chair, and spinning myself in circles until I got dizzy and had to stop.  Oh wait...I digress. Back to the subject. My mind has been preoccupied with wabi-sabi lately and I thought that this is just befitting.  My mom is totally sabi!!! I inscribed the word sabi inside of the silver ring and thus began my journey. Sabi means (in the most simplistic definition)  the beauty or serenity that comes with age, when the life of the object and its impe...

Helloooo...Is Anyone Out There?

Yes I know.  I have been off the blogger for awhile.  I swear I've been working!  ;) I have been busy trying to find my own path and I think I have finally found it. Ha!  A lot of "I"'s in that sentance.   So that being said, what exactly have I been doing? Participated in an Upcycle show at RHINO Gallery. In this show we were to use at least 75% recycled material.  This piece was  inspired by the 43 students of Ayotzinapa that were taken on September 27, 2014 and presumbly met a violent death at the hands of corrupt officials and a drug gang. . The initials of all 43 students were etched into the .38 caliber casing. I cried after comleting the piece.  It was so powerful to me. Ghosts   Designed and made earrings. Astro Earrings Sugar Skulls Did a commission. Comission Annnd made one big pendant. Louisiana Opal, sponge coral (grandma's), oxidized silver, 14KY, 22KY Am I having fun yet? ...