Practice, Practice, Practice...

So, the Big Brown Truck stopped at the end of my driveway yesterday and delivered into my hot little hands something that I have been wanting for a couple of weeks now.  I finally received my copy of Bohemian Inspired Jewelry by Lorelei Eurto and Erin Siegel (you can order through Amazon).  I love this book.  It has lots of great pictures and easy to follow directions...not that I follow directions all that well, but they are in there and are easy to understand.

The thing that struck me, as it always does when I look at these type of books, is how perfect everything looks.  Beautiful pictures, beautiful jewelry, and I do understand the hard work that goes into producing something like this, but a part of me is always a little intimidated.  There is that voice inside my head that says that I'll never be able to produce something that looks like that.  And then I take a picture of my work, and I think, ah crap, see.  You can't do that. You can't make something that looks that great.  I know that the authors don't intend for their work to do that to their readers.  I also know that this is my own head being a big pain in the a**.

So, the question for all of us who experience that bit**y voice is, what to do about it?  My solution is to practice, practice, practice.  Jewelry is not the first art form that I have worked (played) in.  I've always been one of those crafty type of people.  I've been in art exhibits and sold other forms of art.  However, that voice has ALWAYS been there.  I think it's supposed to be there.  The one thing that I know that quiets it for me is to practice the fundamentals of my craft.  Build a strong base and add to it.

In that vein here is what I did today... you can find the original on page 70.

It doesn't look exactly like the original, but then again, it's not supposed to.  I wouldn't sell this to anyone, but  it was great practice, and it looks enough like the original that I'm satisfied.

I also mentioned a tutorial that I found that I really liked.  Lesley, from the Gossiping Goddess  (http://thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.com/), had this great tutorial and contest going on for some stacking bracelets.  I had never seen this technique and really wanted to try it.  So I did.

This was fun.  Supper easy to knock out and another new thing to practice.  Again, I wouldn't sell these, but for my first attempts, they are pretty darn good.

Anywho...I love my book and I will be creating more out of it.  I love that I cleaned up my work area today with the intention of creating something.  I saw something that I wanted to try and I did it.

Happy creating to you all, and remember PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.

Lisa  (it's kind of silly to continue on like nobody knows my real name)