Q: What is cold, dark and stinky?
A: My garage … which is also the home of my recently assembled jewelry bench.
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Maternal Journey was started as a creative outlet and side business that my husband and I launched in 2008. The concept was inspired equally by my experience of becoming a mom and my need to create with my hands. Carving waxes that would become cast silver pendants was a solution that could be done anywhere with minimal equipment and minimal mess. We brought the whole thing to life over a number of months of designing, planning and producing.
That first year we even sold some jewelry. And not just to my mom.
We also learned a lot of lessons about side businesses, and websites, and how difficult it is to photograph little tiny shiny objects, and how much more you want to design and produce if you only had the time, and how “reviews” on other mama blogs can be awesome but can also end in nothing but a shot (and eventual crash and burn) to your own ego (read: no sales), and on and on.
Fast forward a couple of years.
I received an inquiry about designing a custom pendant. This kind of thing came to my inbox on occasion and it had never yet panned out, so I didn’t get my hopes up. To my delight, this customer actually did come along with me (and a nine-month gestated baby in my belly) on a little design excursion and I created a pendant for her to wear as she started off on her own maternal journey. She was a generous and deeply spiritual person. The piece we designed together is called “Co-creation.”
Fast forward another couple of years.
I have my two boys and my husband and my busy career life; my beautiful Women’s Circle and other sweet friendships to nurture; my family across the miles; my head full of knitting projects and new recipes to try. And yet I still have this itch to make the jewelry.
And so we set up the bench. And bought some additional tools and supplies. And since it all came together I’ve even had an hour to two to sit out there in my dark stinky garage and dink around with silver wire, abalone beads, and wax. There are more ideas in my head than I can possibly make happen in real life, but having that space to be creative and make something happen is as much about possibility as it is reality.
Which is not to say that I don’t hope to be sharing something new in the way of jewelry design over the coming months. More to come on that.
maternaljourney.wordpress.com 