Practice Makes Perfect? Perfection Can Be My Enemy!

Just to give you a little background...last summer as I was getting more serious about having my own little business, I enlisted the help of my "adopted son" and artist/art teacher, Guy. As he listened to my ideas about my business name and logo, he drew it out on paper and emailed it to me. We talked more...and when he came for a visit, he perfected the logo, took me in another direction with the name, and came up with great business cards. We had an awesome time.  When we parted, he told me that I was going to make him a ring one day.  I did a huge LOL!

To my surprise, last October I learned how to make nesting beaded wire wrapped rings with my special ring mandrel, and sold several of those around Christmas time. (thanks in part to my friend, Rachel) I still thought about Guy's challenge for ring-making and got the LOL down to a loud chuckle.

Yesterday, I was inspired by a book I had picked up in my travels on Saturday, and sat down to tackle yet another style of ring.  I sat in my studio for four hours practicing on this new technique!  Rather than practice with sterling silver, I practiced with parawire.  As the saying goes...a picture is worth a thousand words, so rather than try to describe my efforts, here is a picture of my three practice rings:

I have to admit they are rather lame, but at least you get the idea of it.  The one that is sitting on the hand was the first one I made...and the bead swivels when you take it off.  I did LOL when I was done. I just wasn't "feelin' it", if you know what I mean.

After I was done with the silver one (on the right), I decided I would just take a deep breath and start making one in 16 gauge sterling silver.  Now in case you don't know a lot about silver wire, 16 gauge takes all the strength I have to bend...and this ring requires a considerable amount of bending.  Then I decided to hammer it before forming it to the ring mandrel.  The hammering makes the silver wire even harder, by the way.  Finally!  After bending, hammering, forming, and polishing, I had something that made me smile...really smile!  Here it is:

I was delighted with the outcome and then, of course, my mind wouldn't shut down last night. I looked at it closely and yes, I saw imperfections. Then I tried to think of another design that might work better. It was so ridiculous, that I forced myself to turn the light out at 12:30 and do a "hard shutdown" of my brain! It worked.

This morning my mind was back at it again, and I had decided not to be so critical of my efforts with the ring.  Thing is...I really want to be able to make a ring for Guy that will please that artistic eye of his!  I can only hope that someday soon I'll come up with something that he'll love.

Here is my second attempt to make a sterling silver ring.

Remember how I did a LOL at the mention of making rings?  Oh wow, here I sit trying to master it!  I'm going to keep practicing and practicing...since at the moment I don't think it's beyond the scope of my reach!  However, I cannot let perfection be my enemy...that's what makes "handcrafted" so special...you see the marks of the artist's bending tools and hammer.

And in case you're wondering, both of these are approximately size 8. (they fit my middle finger) If you're interested in having one made in your size, let me know!

Moving forward in leaps...one day at a time!
Carole