Become a Maker Month - Less is More
June continues as Become a Maker Month (BAMM)! Anyone can be a maker and this month we're showing you just how easy it is. If you missed our first blog post introducing Become a Maker Month, complete with kits, supplies, and tutorials for getting started, you can find that here. You can also find a post full of tips and tricks from our expert designers here, Julie Bean's guide to jewelry findings, and Deb Floros' tips for planning original designs. This week, our designer Sara Lovecraft is sharing the lessons she's learned as a jewelry designer.
Throughout my journey as a designer, there have been many lessons that I have had to learn. Many of these lessons I pass on to new jewelry makers. These lessons include many cliches that I’m sure you’ve heard a hundred times : don’t sweat the small stuff, give yourself grace, do what feels right to you, don’t worry about what anyone else is doing, practice makes perfect, and so on. All of the things are true, and I still include many of them in my instructions but there is one lesson that was particularly hard to learn but one of the most valuable as a maker - sometimes, less is more.
Of course I mean this in the most practical sense, simple designs will always be in style. Minimalistic trends make their rounds throughout the years in fashion and jewelry, showing up like flared jeans and chokers in fashion magazines and online like clockwork. However, when it comes to designing jewelry, I mean less technique is sometimes more. I tell makers every chance that I get, a beautiful piece of jewelry does not have to be a representation of every skill or technique that you know!
I wish someone had told this as I was just entering the industry. I spent hours trying to come up with lavish designs where I could show off all the skills that I had learned, creating what I considered masterpieces of jewelry art! I would spend sleepless nights trying to come up with ways to incorporate multiple techniques and finding ways to show off how adept I was at everything. For a long time, I felt like if I didn’t do this then I wouldn’t be showing the world my talent or that I wouldn’t be taken seriously as a designer. What I didn’t know then, but have come to realize over the years is that being talented and masterful means knowing when something is truly beautiful - not technical.
A simple beaded chain with simple loops or a strung strand of beautiful beads is sometimes exactly enough. Is it ok to brag a little and show off your favorite wire weave techniques in one fabulous design or six different knots in a macrame piece? Absolutely! Wearable art pieces are still some of my favorite things to create but they don’t have to be every single piece that I make. I let the body of my work and the growth over the years be the true testament to my talent and a better representation of who I am as an artist more than any one piece could ever show.
