Studio Saturday - Pearls of Wisdom Take Two

Welcome to Studio Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner.

This week's winner is Carlene - you've won one of Heather's Little Hoot Bead! Please email us your mailing address.

Today's Studio Guide is ABS guest editor Melissa J. Lee. Let's see what's going on in her studio right now.


I've been thinking a lot about little pearls of wisdom recently, very little pearls of one to three words. Creating a few word charms was on my list of things to do for the past six months, and I'm finally sitting down to make them. I love incorporating a bit of text into my jewelry design, mostly lines of poetry, or secret messages in binary code or in (that exotic language) Pig Latin. However, I wanted to try something even simpler and shorter - individual words and short phrases (in English), none of which are inspirational in the traditional sense, but which might be taken as celebrating certain aspects of a wearer's personality. The task of actually deciding what to say turned out to be more difficult and much more personal than I expected. Really, in the end, my choice of words probably says a great deal more about me, or what I aspire to be like, than anything else.


Here's part of a quote that will be familiar to any New Hampshire resident. If you put aside the license plate for a moment, though, I actually find these words to be kind of inspiring, as an exhortation to live the creative life. It may sound corny, but for me, right now, independence means having creative freedom.


I think as we grow older, we forget how to play (or simply don't have the time for it). I made these charms (intended for a bracelet and earring set) as a reminder that a little mischief can be a good thing, whether you're an adult or a child.



This link is part of a set of two and is still a work in progress - guess what the other link says? Unfortunately, I accidentally broke the "loves me" link while prepping it for the kiln. Yikes! Good thing I'm not superstitious (well, not much). As with the word charms above, I've been thinking about the importance of "childish things". The old children's game seemed like a good subject for a pair of lighthearted earrings, which is the use I envision for this set, once it's finished.

So my question for you is this: if you, too, incorporate words into your actual jewelry design, what words are you likely to use - words of love, words of hope, words of inspiration - and what do you think these words say about you? If you don't actually use words in your jewelry, what individual words inspire your jewelry design? What words move your creative spirit?

Please leave your comments here. The winner from next week's random drawing will receive one of my word charms. Thanks!