A Light-Bulb Moment

I have come down with a snuffly cold. Boo! Lots of hot tea and paracetamol....

But seeing a new piece finally come together always brightens the mood! Often when making new designs in jewellery, there are many twists and turns upon the road for me. I find it is not an exact science and the road can bend sharply off to one side and take you somewhere totally unexpected.

I think it's the experimental nature of jewellery-making that keeps me coming back again and again, thinking "what next"? How can I solve this? How can I improve it? There are just so many things to think of.

In some ways, you can't ever go wrong, (humour me) :D) Bit of Edison's how-not-to-invent-a-light-bulb thinking going on here! You learn as much by your failures as you do by your successes.

Here is the finished item - a ring I started making sometime ago, which was just a plain cast. I then realised that a stone could be set ontop and could look very nice. So I made a bezel (setting) and soldered it on, but all the stones I have didn't fit. I'd always intended for it to be a cabochon garnet but then the one I bought recently has gone missing!

So this week, I emptied the entire contents of my jewellery cupboard (no easy task!) and finally found a pearl that fits perfectly. I never intended for this ring to take a pearl. But as you work through the options available, sometimes in desperation or frustration or even a light-bulb moment, we can find an even better end-point than we ever dreamt was possible at the start.

Enough philosophising! To keep me earthed during the day, (keep going with the electricity-theme of this post pleeease!) I listened to Kiss FM. What, I hear you cry? I know, 35 years old and still getting a kick out of dance music! Obviously I still have some growing up to do ;)

I kept hearing this song by Rhianna "The Only Girl in the World". It's a masterpiece, great chord changes and it has some real Euro-house anthemic bars to it. Just love it! Takes me right back to when I was 19, this sort of music was all the rage! Get me to the dancefloor now!