What is it about humankind that we feel we need to leave something lasting that will outlive us? Although I don't make jewelry, metalwork and beadwork with the specific intention that it will outlive me, many of the items will. But will they be valued? Or will they be Goodwill or garage sale items that will be snatched up by others, disassembled, and remade into the next artifact? And if so...is that so bad? My beadwork can easily be disassembled into constituent parts and reused. After all, they are small pieces of glass with holes in them and those pieces can be restrung in infinite ways. But my metalwork and enamelwork may be a different story - they are harder to disassemble, harder to remake into new items. I have hopes that my items won't be thrown into corners and ignored. I have hopes that my designs will spur someone else to understand the playfulness behind them. In the high ideal I hope they become collectibles. In the more realistic ideal, I just hope that they bring joy to future owners. I suppose that's not a bad way to obtain my own small bit of immortality.
My holiday gifts have been received (my sister hasn't acknowledged her gift, but everyone else has so I assume that she also got hers). So I thought I'd share a photo of what my friend Sharon received. I had a lot of fun making this bracelet and it is similar to items that will be up for sale on my Etsy and Art Fire websites later this year (ideally by the end of January, more realistically by the end of February - LOL).
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