Winds of change part 2

I feel I need to elaborate on my thinking from yesterday. 

For very long now, I have been making all the findings and all the elements in my pieces on my own. Ok, not the chains. I draw the line at the chains. But otherwise - everything has been hand made by yours truly. And with all this thinking going on the last weeks, I started to wonder about this. 

WHY has it been so so important for me to say that my pieces are 100% handmade? 

The answer has not been easy to find. Sure - there's the ego thing. "LOOK... I've made all of this, ain't I clever?" But that is only part of the answer and after much soul searching I have to admit that I think I'm guilty of doing the one thing I always tell others not to do. 

I've been comparing myself with other artisans. 

But not just any artisans - oh noooo - I've focused on the best of Etsy. Of course. *eyeroll* On the silversmiths that have empty shops all the time becuase the sell out everything they make. The silversmiths with a fan base the size of a small country. The silversmiths that have become legends among other silversmiths. THOSE are the ones I compared myself with.

Excuse me while I laugh at my own naivety.

What I seem to have forgotten in this blinded worship is, that these artisans all have their own distinct style. Styles that appeal to a broad range of customers that collect things of beauty. That gladly pay an arm and a leg for the gorgeousness. My style is ... that I don't have a style. I'm all over the place. I like super modern -  I swoon over victorian. I adore simple - I love over the top. You could argue this would appeal to an even broader range of customers, but... somehow it doesn't. My theory is that, if you are going to spend a small fortune on a piece of jewellery, you want other people to know or recognize the style. And if they don't - you at least want them to swoon when you tell them who it is. It's the same mechanism as someone wearing the latest Dior dress, Jimmy Choo shoes, Vuitton bag etc. Be it on a smaller scale.

And THESE are the ones I decided to compare myself with and emulate. 

*falls off chair laughing* 

Man, I can be silly. Get me right, these artisans are amazing and we should all aim for the stars when we try to evolve... but just becuase they make their pieces 100% by hand doesn't mean that I become one of them by making my pieces 100% by hand too. Which brings us full circle back to style. Looking at the other artisans I can say that they DO have a distinct style. And it's not in their photos - it really is in their pieces. It's their style. 

And to put it brutally - I can never be one of them becuase I don't have a distinct style. 

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not cutting myself short. I'm not pitying myself. I'm super proud over all I've done with Black Daisy Designs. Back up just a few years and I had never even touched a jewellery plier and now I'm about to start a REAL company designing, producing and selling my own jewellery. In many ways that is a success story. No wait... that IS a success story. But this also requires me to be honest. To think. To act. To adjust. And this is me trying to think like a business woman. 

• Take a step back.
• Evaluate the situation.
• Identify the problems.
• Find solutions to the problems. DON'T overdo it. Keep it simple.
• Implement the solutions.
• Adjust.

Gosh.... I thought this was only going to be a short little addendum to my post yesterday but it turned out to be much more. LOL Well... it is my blog so I can do what I want. But it is so very helpful putting it down in writing like this. I get to read through my own thoughts time and time again and it's amazing how much you can learn about yourself that way. I suppose it's like keeping a diary or a journal, a way of keeping track of my somewhat erratic thoughts. 

♥

/anna-karin