01.27.20 Something's bugging me...

While I (almost) always have a work plan when I go into the studio, it's usually about the stones I've chosen for that week - I don't set out to make a collection, or a group of pieces around a single theme...

...the realization that I have created a group of related pieces comes later, usually when I am updating my Etsy shop, or have finished all my work in progress and start thinking about what to do next.

I do a lot of things with a Southwestern theme, boots and saguaro cactus on turquoise, I've even done a couple prickly pears recently.

I've done a few birds, and as it turns out, I've also done bugs...quite a number of them.

It started in my first kinetic jewelry class, a couple of years ago, with De Pastel...when I decided to use a small monarch opal with a caterpillar on the back, because it made me think of Heimlich (who is bright green, as is the stone), from the movie A Bug's Life.




I'm not entirely sure WHY I thought of this particular bug - perhaps it was because when the movie came out (in 1998) it quickly became my daughter's favorite (she was three at the time) - and we watched it A LOT!


In any case, I wore the pendant recently, while working on some new pieces...including one with a dragonfly on the back. It occurred to me, for someone who doesn't like bugs...I sure have put them on a lot of pendants.

I made another kinetic pendant, with a small red and black stone (a bonus cab from one of my vendors) after making Heimlich, because I thought it looked like a ladybug (also one of the cast of characters in the movie).

I've done a "hunny" bee, inspired by Winnie the Pooh, and most recently the aforementioned dragonfly (which sold so quickly at a holiday trunk show, that I made another).

I purchased a couple of beautiful black mother of pearl cabs late last year, and when they arrived, I laid them side by side and thought they looked like dragonfly wings...that's generally how the cutouts evolve - it's not so much that I buy a cabochon with a specific design in mind (although that happens), more often the ideas flow once I have the stone in my hand.



Often, I'll buy a stone because I like the way it looks, with no real idea of how I will use it; with some pieces the designs pop into my head almost instantly, with others it takes a while, and there have been a few where the stone didn't speak clearly to me, and I made (and unmade) the piece more than once.

So there you have it - there's not as much method as madness in my design approach...but so far, it seems to be working.

Until next time.