Reinvention

"Finished" is a very subjective state of existence.  In getting a handle on my inventory these last couple of months, and in choosing which new directions to pursue first,  I've been looking at my jewellery with fresh eyes.  I've created pieces that seemed truly done at one time.  I thought through the design process, I did the work, I polished the final result.  But then, given some distance in time, I'm seeing new directions for some things.

At left is a bangle I made in Haliburton.  I wasn't overly thrilled with the final shape.  Granted, it was an exercise in technique, more than design, but I finished it the best I could.  Then the inspiration of last week's etching workshop at the printshop hit me.  And so the bangle I didn't love became the cuff above that I absolutely do.  Now I see the infinite possibilities for this bangle design.  Absolutely infinite!  And narrower ones in silver and brass....

Another design I put together quite some time ago was a series of earrings like the ones on the right.  I had quickly sold a similar pair at Devon House and thought I'd hit on a design that appealed.  So I made more of them.  But they have not proved as popular as the first pair.  What to do?  I exposed them to different audiences, still no takers.  But then I saw them in a different light one day.  Less as a failed design, more as components that could be reinvented.  I've had customers ask if I make earrings on posts.  And it was then I saw the potential in these to reconstruct them into something my customers might be looking for.  The results are below, with the spin-off bonus that I like the look of the remaining copper cups on their long shepherd hooks so much that I've claimed a pair for myself!

Aren't they cute?  I'm really pleased with them.  And even if I'm the only one who thinks so, I can hopefully learn from this experience, so that what initially seems like a dead-end design suddenly does a cartwheel, and voila!, become something new.