Remote Working…
Good morning lovely blog and social media followers and thank you so much for all you comments and congratulations on my Halo Award win!
This ring went off to its forever finger last week. As usual it started off its life as a collection of my clients old but sentimental jewellery that she wanted to bring together into one piece.
This was a commission where I didn’t get to meet the client as they live too far away from me to visit, so all of discussion, design brief, drawings etc was done over email.
To be honest, I think I actually find this way of working easier than face to face meetings as it gives me time to really think about how I transform their precious heirloom jewellery into something new.
The design process, at least in my brain, is a funny thing that needs “lots” of unconscious thinking time. I kind of just need to sit on an idea for a while before I can get it out of my head and down onto paper (or, iPad these days!).
This is why it’s always difficult to answer the question of “how long does a particular piece of jewellery take to make”. The actual making is only a very small part of the whole process!
I don’t charge my thinking time on an hourly rate. That would be impossible to work out as each commission is different. As I mentioned earlier, this time isn’t really conscious and will be happening while I’m doing other things. It can sometimes be a little annoying if my brain decides to wake me up with design thoughts in the middle of the night, but I guess that’s just part of being an artist. You never really switch off from your work.
