When I first started this blog what, a year and a half ago
or two years ago, I wasn’t really sure where I wanted to take it, exactly which
direction, in trying to inspire other wire jewelry making enthusiasts. Well,
much has changed since then as I’m now a bit more accustomed to writing as a
blogger. Certainly my thoughts on how to make wire jewelry have expanded,
tightened up and crystallized a lot in that time.
The one thing that I did realize when I first started this
blog was that although I wasn’t certain how I’d impart what I know about wire
jewelry making, I was certain that I wanted to help wire jewelry designers
learn to do something different and push the limits of their work to find their
own originality if I could. That’s a bit of a lofty goal and maybe even a bit
presumptuous on my part. However
it’s taken, the point of this blog post is on how to make better wire jewelry
with more ease.
In any event, when thinking about all this and this blog, I
decided that it might be helpful to share with you all how I think about wire
jewelry and how to make wire jewelry because I do think about it most of time.
I guess you could say that it’s a very common thread constantly running through
my own head. So, I realized that maybe that, actively thinking about wire jewelry,
might be a very good focus for this blog. The simple fact that I think about it
so much is, I believe, what makes me as an artist able to come up with a lot of
unusual or never-seen-before jewelry. Focusing one’s attention is often all it
takes to come up with the unique or the unexpected.
TRACK AND RECORD YOUR IDEAS
Once you start to focus your attention and actively focus on
wire jewelry, you may find that you start seeing it everywhere. That’s
sometimes how focusing works. You really train your own brain to pick up cues
about something that you may have previously missed both visually and sort of
psychically. I originally started out by tearing out photographs of wire
jewelry that I liked or admired from jewelry making magazines. Sometimes I
would cut out a particular wire jewelry tutorial to learn a specific technique.
I’ve kept these files neatly organized for years and continue adding to them
along the way. This is an excellent way to sort of jumpstart focusing your
attention on the subject.
Inevitably as you’re doing this, you’ll start getting your
own jewelry making ideas and having a notebook around to record all your ideas
is also an excellent thing to do. Now, I, personally, did not do this many
years ago to my own detriment. I used to think that I’d remember everything
because, after all, it originated from my own thoughts, right? Well, I quickly
learned that I can forget them as easily as I can conceive of them so my series
of logs and notebooks started building up pretty fast. I write everything down
and to facilitate that, I keep my “ideas” book open and handy at all times in my studio. I even have a
dedicated pen that I do not move on top of the latest page I’m adding all the
wire jewelry making ideas on.
LOOK TO HISTORY FOR INSPIRATION
One of the first things that made me want to make my own
jewelry was finding a book on Modernist jewelry from the 1950’s. I love
Modernist furniture and have spent years meandering through consignment
furniture shops and stores looking for special pieces. It’s been a rather
successful endeavor I must say. Being so in tune with that aspect of a clear
style of design helped forge my way into wire jewelry making most certainly.
The book that helped me focus on wire jewelry is called,
Modernist Jewelry 1930-1960 by Marbeth Schon and is full of the most wonderful
jewelry making eye candy. Calder was part of this movement along with several
other art jewelry designers that are now famous.
Finding a book like this could help you sort of solidify
your own preferred style as a wire jewelry artist and add to the focus that
I’ve been talking about. What’s your favorite style of jewelry? Traditional,
Modernist, Contemporary? What technique are your favorite wire jewelry pieces
done with? See if you can find a book or even several that function as
reference books to tighten your focus on your own work.
ANALYZE THE STRUCTURE OF THE JEWELRY YOU LIKE
After you’ve done the above and have settled in to your new
ways of focusing your attention and tracking all of that, you might want to
also now start analyzing the basic structure of the pieces of wire jewelry that
you’re most drawn to. How was the piece built? What’s the underlying structure?
Does the piece have a frame that it was built on? Can you figure out what or
which technique was used to make the piece? Can you change the basic design? Or
make it better, different or more interesting?
Here’s a list of additional questions you might ask yourself
when thinking about how you could make your own wire jewelry with some ease and
originality:
How can I do it differently? Could I come up with a
different, easier or more interesting structure for the wire jewelry?
If I’ve built something with just one wire, what would
happen if I used two or three wires instead? Or more? What would happen if you
bought a wire jewelry instruction or tutorial for something and you decided to
work the piece with a heavier gauge wire instead of the ones used in the
tutorial?
If a piece of jewelry is round, could I find a way to make
it square or even oval?
If it has a clunky wire clasp, could I come up with a way to
make a more graceful clasping or clasping system. Could I make some wire
jewelry findings that no one has made before? Or one that I’ve never seen
anywhere before?
If the trend is to make round neckpieces, could you instead
find a way of making the same piece flat? Could you flatten rounded pieces
somehow? I mean without rolling them under your car tires? What if you rolled
the piece under a rolling pin?
While I’m sure jewelry designers may work in a wide variety
of ways that differ from this approach, thinking and then focusing my thinking
in very concrete ways, has been the method that has always been most beneficial
to my own work and brings out my greatest originality. This process truly does
help me know how to make better wire jewelry with considerably more ease.
Twenty some odd years later and I still rely on it.
