This month 12 years ago, I started my metal clay studio. Wow. The first time I came across silver clay online I even hesitated with this ‘clay that becomes silver’. Good thing the next day I revisited the website to do more investigation, and then gave silver clay a try! I wrote a bit about this in my previous post here.
Turned out -after overcoming a brief period of technical cluelessness and doubtfulness- that metal clay is an ideal medium for me. I love how I can completely shape the clay to whatever I want, and then the final result is in silver (or other metals)! How special.
Until now I create jewelry as well as teach metal clay, and I’ve won awards with my pieces too. Metal clay is such an inspiring medium, I have so many designs on my sketchbooks that I haven’t yet made into reality.
In this post, I’d like to share a few points that I find essential to keep developing my artistic endeavor in a positive direction. Although what I share below focuses on my jewelry making, I believe they apply to other art fields too, kind of my general mindset when doing anything artistic, I’d say.
1. Keep Learning New Techniques
Whenever I can, I join courses. There are different types of jewelry courses, in general I could divide it into two: the certification program and then workshops by artists, on a class or online.
On a certification course, I can learn a set of skills and to become an instructor of the techniques. My aim for certification course projects is usually to make my pieces as the ‘next sample pieces’. That way I could really dig and find out every corner of the techniques. Trying to get things as perfect as the model pieces is a challenge, and that’s exactly where I’d work on. Since the certification courses usually mean training to become an instructor, getting a set of sample sorted out at the first place is a great advantage! ;)
I’d hop on to the first chance to learn some new, exciting techniques.
Left: Pieces I made during the Art Clay Silver Origami jewelry certification in February. Right: An extra ring I made on the last day of the certification.
Then, there are workshops by artists. I also call this ‘project workshops’. The workshop is developed by an artist, based on their aesthetic and technical approaches and usually presented around a certain theme. When following a workshop by an artist, I usually create a modification of the provided samples by adding my own touch. I also try to learn as much as possible from the wonderful creative artist.
I myself create and offer project workshops and I understand how much time, work and effort go into putting a project workshop together and I appreciate that the artists have made it possible for me to learn from them. I have been fortunate to follow workshops created by some amazing artists, and I learn a lot every time.
One of my own project workshops: Silver & stone, focuses on creating a unique stage that highlights the beauty of a stone cabochon
Besides the courses, nowadays it’s fairly easy to find other resources to learn. There are many artists who share their techniques through tutorials. I create tutorials on a regular basis, usually in Finnish, and the ones in English could be found on this blog. Manufacturers and jewelry supply shops also often show how-to projects using their products, which is great.
From the courses/workshops/tutorials, my aim is to learn the techniques, that I then could use to develop my own methods and creations. A new technique (setting a tiny stone, rolling the clay, making a mold) could spark an idea. The more I learn new techniques, the more open is the ‘idea book’. Some techniques I learned I never use again, but nevertheless those contribute to my progress since I become more clear on what I like to do and make.
2. Be Inspired by Anything EXCEPT other Jewelry
(Plus: when do I Google ‘jewelry’)
However beautiful, however old, however popular the other jewelry are, I don’t (want to) search for inspiration from other jewelry.
If I plan to make a friendship jewelry, I don’t start with Googling ‘friendship jewelry’. Instead, I begin by asking myself:
How do I want to express my appreciation to my bestie (my mum is one of my besties btw), do I want to show it through a flower bouquet? Chocolate? Letter? Being kind of an old-fashioned romantic at heart, I like the idea of a love letter very much. So I get down to sketching out some ideas.
After I get my ideas realized on papers, I get on Google. Using the keywords, I do a research, if there’s anything out there that looks like what’s on my paper. If there is, then I get back to the drawing board and change my initial design. This is a default step in my process. When the subject matter is a common thing such as a cat, flower or love letter, this research becomes even more important. This is something that I choose to do, since I personally want my designs to offer a fresh approach, even on a super classic topic.
When I have my sketch sorted out, I go on to the next step, the trial and error using model clay, and then continue with the actual making of the piece – often becomes a trial and error process in itself – until I get to the final product.
Our modern live with social media was my inspiration for my Award Winning piece #DoPositive. Read more in my post here.
When searching for inspiration, I apply this on every field. For jewelry inspiration, I would look anywhere except other jewelry. Just like when I want to make a painting, I don’t look at other paintings for inspiration.
3. Be Authentic
It’s gotta be meee! Sounds selfish, but that exactly is the point, in a good way. I want my creation to come from my true self. This is not about being beautiful, perfect, technically amazing or about impressing the world. It’s not about reinventing the wheel either. It’s about my story, my message. Over the years, I’ve learned how the more art work (=hard work) I do, the more I get clarity on how I would create things that are according to my true self.
Being an artist, to me, at the end is about being authentic when expressing your ideas. “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken”, said Mr. Oscar Wilde. I find that applies for creating too. I think, the best artists are the ones who are the most genuine. Artwork is like an open window to view the artist’s ethos.
Whether it’s about the way I dress or create jewelry, I want it to be authentically me
On pic: my Love Letter pendant, always carrying a special message :)
I hope there’s something useful that you can find here! Let me know if you have any questions or comments.
All the best wishes, always
xxx
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Najia
These are wonderful thoughts. I’m not nearly as experienced as you in clay -dabbled in it for years until 2 years ago when I retired from practicing law to devote nearly full time to art. I’ve never thought about using modeling clay to fiddle with designs before pulling out the silver clay and watching it dry out as I fiddle with design. What sort of clay do you use to model? All I have is Sculptey oven bake clay.
SVVA
Hi Najia, Thank you for your comment! Any modelling clay can basically work, but I like to use air-dry clay that looks and feels a bit like silver clay, such as DAS clay, so it would be easy to visualize the design and to check out the workability of the idea. If I plan to use a stone, glass cabochon, etc, I’d incorporate it in this stage as well. When I’m happy with it, then I’d go further with the silver clay. I always introduce the modelling clay stage to my students, a very useful step! Btw with modelling clay that looks so similar to silver clay, it’s important to keep them apart to avoid mixing (yes, it could happen :D). How wonderful to devote full time to art!