The Twisted Path to a Design

Apparently for me, the shortest path from the beginning of an idea to the final creation is not a straight line, but a twisted maze of experiments, variations, and new ideas.  I do get to the final destination, but it often has no resemblance to my original idea.    Case in point was my bracelet project yesterday.  

I had decided that I wanted to make myself a bracelet, something that I could wear most of the time, that would remind me to stay centered on the crux of issues, not get swept away by interesting technique.  As always, my first inspiration was color, so I originally thought of a multi-strand bracelet with a simple clasp, that would combine colors and feels that are grounding for me - a little peridot, some smooth black pebbles, faceted pyrite for a little touch of midnight, some pearls because they add depth to everything, and some apatite for its beautiful teal color.  

But I couldn’t come up with a 3 strand design that I loved.  It just wasn’t looking organic enough.  Of course! What I needed was a center piece of silver with some sort of metal formed design.So I made several variations of ideas, and realized the bracelet would have to be very wide if it was to accommodate the silver piece, and that would defeat my idea of a simple bracelet that I could wear most of the time.  

But by then I had decided that a silver piece  that was hammered and formed would really be the bracelet I wanted, so my design took a 90 degree turn to become a silver cuff.  

The idea I had for the cuff was a vision in my head, but since I had never made it before, it became fairly experimental.  You start out with a flat sheet of metal thinking you know what will happen when you hammer and bend it just so, but as is always the case the first time, the metal went in a different direction. I love my cuff, I love the way it fits, and it is funky and very organic with suits me.  And this is one of the reasons I usually do not document my idea for a design because the materials always take me on a different journey than I had planned, and the outcome often better than I could anticipate.