Thoughts on craft
Making is a process of curiosity, understanding and skill.
We learn to see our subjects and objects of inspiration more intimately. Raw materials manipulated to translate thoughts into form. We come to understand the materials and how to work with them. We begin to look at our surroundings in a different way, become open to inspiration and become curious about how things are made. Looking at the world through a creative lens can lend itself to cultivating a natural respect for resources and care towards the environment.
An appreciation for craft has trickled down to me through the women in my family. Knowing our way around a sewing machine and a pair of knitting needles is a thread that connects me to my family and ancestors. My mother told me about my great grandmother living simply and remotely in the mountains all her life. Among her many daily tasks she used to make the finest shawls. We still have one, something we treasure and marvel at. She spun her own wool yarn from the wool of the herd of sheep that her husband tended to, on the lower slopes of snow capped mountains. The shawls were a simple necessity in the cold winters and yet they were handknitted with pride and care, the edges were shaped into delicate scallop patterns, the fabric so light that a shawl could be pulled through the hole of a wedding band. Any craft requires care, curiosity and skill, but the fruits of this labour pass through many hands and are treasured for lifetimes.
I distinctly remember a moment when I was growing up in which I became aware of the sense of flow that can be reached through allowing myself to become completely immersed in a painting or a pencil drawing. I could spend several hours undistracted, blissfully focussed on mixing paint, blending colours, following pencil strokes that seemed to direct themselves. When I would re-emerge from this state of flow it was like awakening with a renewed sense of calm, tolerance and vitality. The sounds and objects in the space around me seemed to reappear and come back into focus all at once. I had just realised that the process itself more than the final piece gave me such a sense of peace.
Thinking about craft through the lens of history creates a sense of romance for simpler times. Although many of the processes around jewellery making have remained relatively similar for centuries, continuing forward in craft traditions it makes sense to create work that is of our time, that embraces innovation and reflects our current tastes and tools. Today the tools we have at our disposal have evolved, but the effect of that state of flow through creation remains. Straddling a line between digital and handmade throughout the design process of our collections grounds us in our current setting as designers and makers.
One of the joys of designing jewellery is that it’s only function is to bring joy and to mesmerise. Freeing up the design process to get creatively carried away, experiment with the fabrication process and new materials that are constantly being developed. There is such deep and beautiful history to refer back to within jewellery making, as well as a scope for innovation within the craft, a feeling of potential to still create something meaningful and original.
-Izabella
