Artist Prayer

For those of you out there who have a religious background and are Christians and in celebration of our Lord and Savior and remembrance of his sacrifice on this Easter Weekend, I wanted to share the little prayer I came up with many years ago when I started drawing portraits. I have this posted on the wall in my studio and I look at this often before I start many of my art projects including my recent jewelry making endeavors.  It helps to give me focus and calms me before I start. At the end of reading it and before I start, I always tell myself,

"Let's Make Something Beautiful"

So here it is...

The Artist Prayer

"My Lord God, guide my hands this day and allow me to see what I must

in order to create this work of beauty in your honor.

For my talent, patience, perseverance, experience and hope

comes from the Holy Spirit within me

and through your Glory shall it manifest itself

in my mind and through my hands."

Amen

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

An Ode to Wire Wrapping

So I was thinking poetically recently about what it means to be a wire wrapper and how I get lost in the wonder of the stones, beads and wire. How we as people can create such beautiful and awe inspiring jewelry from what nature and the almighty has provided, which can take us away to far away lands, times or places of fantasy and mirth. So, I came up with a little poetry to express my thoughts.

An Ode to Wire Wrapping

Wire is my only true passion.

Wearing beads and metal with exuberant pride,

it certainly makes me incredibly happy inside,

letting stones and gems become my fashion.

Creations from my heart to my hand,

come forth dreams of green Malachite,

and hidden treasures in my mind of, oh, so sultry Labradorite,

wrap and link, mysterious wire demands.

That handcrafted jewelry unfolds,

those strange weavings through strife,

to adorn that beautiful neck and lobes,

and with great effort comes to life.

For those who so much do agree,

that wire wrapped jewelry holds true,

our wonder of things unknown but new,

like the pattern of a leaf on a newly budded tree.

So with much shouting and wailing,

I do boldly profess my love,

for those shiny sparkly things we find most of,

wire wrapped jewelry with it's ever clever unveiling.

All righty then, that's food for thought, Hey!..that reminds me, it's dinner time and I'm starting to get hungry.Onward to the kitchen and sandwich. AWAY!!!!

Write Up on Jewelry Making Journal .com

Hi all,
So my wife has been canvassing the Internet looking at jewelry websites for design inspiration and happened to run across jewelrymakingjournal.com and was moved to contact the site owner about my jewelry making efforts. The site owner, Rena Klingenberg was most gracious in her assessment of my jewelry and offered to post a short article on how I got started along with a few photos of my work. I don't really think my work is good enough for such a venue, and I said so to my wife before she and Ms.Klingenberg  posted the article that I wrote up. I just don't feel like I'm on the same level as most other great jewelry artists out there, but I had to defer to her rantings about my talent as I shoved a finger in each ear while shaking my head.

That being said, I want to thank all of those who commented about my jewelry on this website,  and as always, I welcome constructive criticism which only helps me to get better.

I, also, want to thank my wife (Michelle Adams) for her tireless efforts in promoting my work, answering emails, responding to Facebook posts and posting on my behalf on other sites like Tumblr, Pinterest and Twitter, tracking down cabochons, shipping/tracking sold items and every other small thing she does on a daily basis. I wouldn't have come so far, so fast without her.

As time goes on, I hope to get better and perhaps turn this into a full time job once I retire from my day job, but for now I will continue to make jewelry as time permits....and of course I won't quit my day job just yet, as I really don't want to be a starving artist at this early stage of the game.

For those interested in a quick read, here is the link to the article.

Self-Taught Jewelry Artist Inspired by Deviant Art

If you have some time, check out all this website has to offer, as there are a lot of great articles along with a ton of jewelry making information.

Until next time, Happy weaving!
Daryl