taking one step back
/Been a few weeks since I’ve launched the site, made a sale or two, posted and blogged and self-promoted. To say that this has been quite a ride is really true, feels like I’m being pulled forward, by my own will mind you, but not by my own energy.
New projects are calling from the creases of my attention, momentum building, requiring me focus and be disciplined; develop stock for the store. But I want to re-energize, I need to. Need to get grounded, need to re-visit old assumptions. There have been a number of steps forward in rapid succession; I want one step back see where I’ve come.
I set a number of projects aside temporarily to focus on launching the store. That’s real life man, you can’t do everything all the time. Everything has its place on the bench as is it were. Sometimes the items stack up; sometimes there is space available for new pieces. That’s the way of things I’ve found.
loop in loop chain examples
So now that the tried and true stock items are created and set aside I can come back to center. So I’ve been back to my roots at the bench for past few days: Balinese chains.
I never tire in my pursuit to unravel the secrets of these chains. The act of creating them is so challenging and rhythmic; enforced Zen if you will. There is only the next link, responding to both what has come before and simultaneously leading the way to what the chain will be come, leading to the next link. You can’t force it, both literally and figuratively, you have to work with the pattern, with what’s happening real time. I loose the sense of time all together and am most present in these moments at the bench – sharply aware of everything around me.
raw silver chain made of 14 gauge links
The latest chain has turned out to be more of an experiment than anything finished; how far can silver be pushed, how large is too large for chain links? I may have pushed to the limit on this one but as my wife reminded me the other day, “no time making art is ever wasted”