Thoughts on Creating with Intention
As an artist, my mind is always brimming with designs, colors, textures all waiting to be put down on paper. I heard somewhere that being an artist is like having 2,984,203 browser windows open at once. That seems like the constant state of my mind. With that, it seems impossible some days to get all of the ideas out of my mind into some sort of record. My sketchbooks are filled with scribbles and shapey things not worthy of sharing with others, but they're the contents of my mind being recorded on paper for when I need them next. Have you ever had a fleeting thought or idea and regret not writing it down? That's why I sleep with a sketchbook near my bed and my email is filled with late night "to-do" emails to myself so that I remember that thought in the morning. These are all the random things that come into my mind as I'm drifting off and suddenly, I'm aware that I need to have it recorded.
There are times I wish I could create faster or that all of my ideas that I love could eventually become a piece of jewelry or art. And then I realize that it is okay. An artist is not a machine meant to churn out pieces without a second thought. Without the time span to fully be immersed in an idea or design, it's easy for the meaning of something to dissolve or for a better design to form.
I have realized that it doesn't matter that we are not creating 20 designs a week or that we don't have something new and fresh for every single instagram post. Each piece is carefully considered in its process of evolution. Is it being made just to be made or will it bring beauty or functionality in a way that will spark joy in someone? The process in which our engagement rings evolve is exciting and literally makes me jump and dance around the studio. (I refrain from doing this during our custom consultations haha). There is a moment when you have been looking at 6 different ring compositions for a couple weeks, moving the stones around, taking away stones, adding others, that the design just becomes itself and asks to be created. Out of all of those designs, one steps forward out of the contents of your mind and presents itself as ready to become something. It is bliss to feel a design truly emerge.
Once a ring composition is ready, it is deconstructed and repositioned in multiple manners to make sure that the design is just right. Anyone who has gone to art school has had a professor that has taken your piece and asked you to turn it upside down or flip things around to make sure that your eye hasn't allowed you to settle. That there may be a better design lurking within the first.
This process of designing, thinking, revisiting, redesigning, discussing, and committing to a design keeps the creation process moving forward at a leisurely pace. There is always a group of stones on the bench that are in fluid motion, waiting for that moment where everything is just right for them to become a design. I like this cycle of design because I never feel separated from the things I create or the things I wish to create. I am rarely not in love with a piece because of the time my mind and heart spend with it. Your mind, eye, and heart should always be ready at the same moment for a design.
I am proud that each piece we create is never an afterthought, that we don't have a huge library of wedding bands that are just alright. I am proud that each one is made with intention to be beautiful and to be loved. By us. For you.
xo Theresa
