Preserving memories and fixing (my own) mistakes…
Some of you will already know this, but in a previous life, I used to be a secondary school teacher. Back when I started my training, one of the first things that my teaching mentor said to me, was being a good Design and Technology teacher wasn’t about being good at making things, it was more about being good at fixing mistakes!
I think this is probably one of the qualities of being a good designer/maker too, and oh did I need this skill with this piece!
I’m a human being, just like we all are, so I make mistakes too. I made one when making this ring, in that originally, I’d put the gold on the outside. The trouble was, it was my client’s sentimental gold, so it wasn’t just a case of remaking the ring!
I never throw any scrap metal away, so I still had all the little bits of gold that I’d cut off the edges to make the wavy design. These, along with the rest of the ring, went back into my melting pot, and I had to “very” carefully heat the silver enough so that I could remove the gold again. A bit of a scary process, which really took all of my “fixing mistakes” skills to another level!!
That level was found though, and I’m so pleased with the end result. The gold, taken from the client’s dad’s ring, is now on the inside of the ring, where it needs to be, as the idea is that she can still wear it next to her skin every day, as a beautiful memory piece. The outside of the ring, however, is now a design that’s much more to her taste. The centre sapphire was taken from the original ring, and the surrounding green sapphire’s are fair trade ones from Nineteen48 ltd. The design is all based on the shape of the river, with the gold being the river and the stones representing both water and all the little bits of life and treasures that the river supports.
Now fast forward a couple of weeks, to yesterday and there were tears of joy when the client collected her new ring! It doesn’t seem to matter how many totally satisfied clients I have, I still find it a bit scary when a piece is collected or I await feedback from one that I’ve posted. Yesterday’s reaction though really is what makes me want to carry on. It reminds me that actually, I’m not just making sparkly things, I’m helping to preserve memories! ❤️
