2011 Roundup: Starting a handmade life

As the year 2011 comes to a close, I can’t help but think about lessons learnt, especially after switching my life’s career into the beautiful terrain of crafts.

I learned so much from spending hours researching, learning, and applying techniques to make everything from jewelry to a number of other crafts. I can spend hours writing a media plan, or putting together a PR campaign to launch an international brand in the region, but spending the same amount of hours holding a pair of pliers and making jewelry isn’t quite the same.

My crafts and handmade jewelry journey, which transformed my life inside-out, taught me:

Patience

When you make a mistake with the PR plan, you can simply adjust, re-think, delete, and copy-and-paste. But it’s a completely different story when you are twisting wire the wrong way, beads getting scattered all over the place, or pliers refusing to cooperate with you. Going handmade teaches you patience…. a lot of it.

Handmade Integrity

When I started making jewelry, I wanted to please other people’s taste (which is quite tacky – I’m sorry to say! – especially around here!). But now I make pieces I would personally wear, regardless of what the predominating taste is… and I do not use plastic in my jewelry, although around here plastic reigns supreme!

Skeptical Trust

Trust is a good thing, but one should give it away with people who are worthy of it. Yes, I thought craft world was a beautiful, honest, shimmering world of honesty and “greatness.” Until I met a woman who made me realize otherwise. I learned that opportunists are everywhere. And this world of crafts is no exception. But this doesn’t mean one shouldn’t go on… all kinds of experiences are there to teach us something and to make us stronger.

Happy 2012!