In March
2012, I was looking at the design process through the eyes of Jessica Stoops
who had just won an Editor’s Choice award in a contest sponsored by my favourite
magazine, Jewelry Stringing. You can see my original post here.Today, I came across a blog post Jessica wrote on Artisan Whimsy, a social networking site for jewelry designers. Her post is titled, “My Steps For Designing a Necklace”, and it further examines this process.
She makes it
seem so easy. Why do I struggle with it? This is an ongoing dilemma for me.
Jessica's five easy steps to designing a necklace sound simple enough. Do I over-think the whole process? Am I too much of a 'perfectionist'? Perhaps I'm just not as creative as I'd like to be?
Anyway, I am going to sit down and work through all the steps as she lays them out. I hope to have one piece completed to show you by next weekend. Wish me luck!
Thanks for the link! I am a beginner in jewellery design (or anyway, that's how I see myself) so it's always very useful to hear how others think through their design process.
ReplyDeleteShe does make it sound so simple, doesn't she. I think I would describe my own design process as quite similar to hers (except I don't go online to find the right components - I use what I have to hand), so why don't I produce such amazing pieces? Other than the obvious answer of "talent" (as I can't do anything about my "talent" or lack of, I ignore that part of it!), I guess the key is tacit knowledge. I can't figure out how to do links within comments, but there's quite a good Wikipedia page on this. That's something you can only acquire by practice, working within a community, and getting feedback from experts. Especially the feedback bit.
So I do actually design using the basic process she describes. But, I learn to do this better through my blog and through the comments more experienced designers are kind enough to leave :-D
Sarah, I think part of the problem is that we are too critical of our own work. Others think it's fabulous, but we judge ourselves too harshly.
DeleteThat is very true. Especially we are self-critical/perfectionist and thus end up paralysing our own creativity. It's good to be able to be self-critical and reflect on what we could do better, but we have to learn to keep that in check and only use that facility when it's actually helpful - or we'd never get anything done!
DeleteI agree i think we all judge ourselves too harshly
ReplyDelete