/// WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN INSPIRATION STRIKES YOU? ///

Yonks ago I made some copper candle sticks, and found I had drawn their form in four different notebooks - then immediately forgot about them. The design came back to haunt me again and again until I finally made them, but so many are lost forever if not captured in the moment. 

I used to mindlessly doodle a design on a random piece of paper a lot, only to find I have drawn it a few times in various different books/craps of paper. I’m getting better at design development acknowledging the idea when it happens now, and make time to explore it further. I am getting much better with time management; when you first start you have SO much to do in every area, even down to getting your website up and running, choosing packaging, syncing payment systems these are just the tip of the iceberg. I won't pretend I'm now at a place where my time is spent creating and only creating, as a self employed artist that will never happen as we have to be the person in charge of every single department of our business, but I am managing to carve out more time for the important things - creating, designing and making.

With jewellery I tend to do less sketching and instead work on the piece, creating what I can see in my head. Sometimes it works and looks great, other times it is not worthy of being outside of my head and it will go into the scrap pot. And occasionally it just needs a little bit of tweaking to turn it into something I like.

Sometimes an idea will hit me while I'm teaching, which is great as I can discuss it with my students and get their feedback. When this has happened they have told me they enjoy seeing how the process works for me, how I take a design from the initial idea and run with it. Occasionally I can tell they may not be as excited about it as I am, but that also helps. If I'm dismayed its not met with excitement that shows me how much I am excited but it, and should definitely follow it up. My work is always about making what I love, and hoping that the right person will love it as much as I do!