My Heart's Not In It....

As I write this, there is a gold ring with 5 diamonds in the ultrasonic cleaner in my studio. I've boiled it in lye to clean it so that I can solder the ring without burning gunk onto the diamonds. I'm waiting for my steamer to reach full temperature so I can blow the softened "gunk" out of the hard to reach places. I have to size down this ring for a customer who will pick it up today.

Thus the topic of this blog today. I used to love to make jewelry. I even liked doing repairs because they often present challenges that taught me to think about my own designs and to be sure they were easier to repair in the future. I was thrilled when I was hired at the custom jewerly store where I ended up working for eight years. I learned so much during those eight years and yet, paradoxically, I ended up losing the joy of the whole process. It all became a job and somehow, even after years away from the high pressure deadlines of a store, that joy has never returned. I stopped doing commission work. The ring I am sizing today is one I made for a customer and because I made the ring, I feel obligated to size it down for her. Yep. I learned a big lesson about burn-out and now I work hard to balance my passion for making beads with the need to sell them. I set boundries to be sure that I do not say yes to something that will turn beadmaking into a "job".

I have more to say about this issue but you know what? That steamer is probably up to temperature and I need to go size the ring so I have the rest of the afternoon to work with glass before two women come to look at my beads and before the owner of the ring arrives this evening.

~J

What If?

Well, here I am, in the world of the Blog. I've titled my Blogspot, "Highland Beads....What If?" because I make glass beads and "What If" is the question that leads me to try new things as I work.

I walk with friends every weekday. We walk 20 miles a week and we never run out of things to talk about. I should be able to come up with topics for this blog no matter what. Mostly I think I will write about my passion: Creating. But, because of the fact that I've never had a blog before, I won't know till I try it. I mean, I have to leave room for the "What If?"

I love Creating and for the last four years that love has focused itself on hot glass. I was a goldsmith for many years. I still have a studio full of tools and I do have a ring waiting to be sized tomorrow. I used to work in a jewelry store, then I set up my own studio and just did commissioned work. But when I discovered glass I was thrilled about the fact that I could try new things as they occured to me. I might start out with one idea and end up going in a completely different direction before I was finished. Or, I might look at one part of a finished bead and spend the whole day working on new beads that are based on one aspect of the finished bead. So, now I focus on glass and turn down jewelry work.

I keep losing this post and having to start over as I learn what I can and can't do so I'm going to wrap this up. More about "What If" later

You can see my work at www.highlandbeads.etsy.com