This is a good question, I have struggled with it myself. After
having a museum show for the 3 generations of my family who make
jewelry I heard the phrase " mature artist" from the curator who put
the show together. Now socially I didn’t qualify as anything
resembling a mature artist but what she was talking about was an
artist who had a body of work which could be identified with the
artist who made it. So that idea obsessed me for a couple years, what
the hell, of all my obsessions it was fairly harmless. I enjoy
working in my family’s style, I enjoy making really modernist pieces
and I enjoy pushing my craft to it’s limits so what was MY style?
Well, it has resolved itself just by working and making jewelry and
I equate my obsession of having a signature style with my obsession
of finding something that the market will want to buy faster than I
can make it ( and in the process fulfill all my financial dreams). I
decided to quit trying to figure out the market, quit trying to come
up with a signature style and just work. I have created a few
signature pieces since then and when they are created I think THAT’S
a signature piece but to try and figure it out in advance was always
hopeless.
Financial dreams are dreams, my work I love and my style evolved
with out my trying, so much worry about nothing.
I have always found it enlightening to gather representative pieces
of all of my work in one place (or photos for those pieces not
available) and arrange them in chronological order. This gives you a
chance to see the progression of your work and how it is developing.
You will be surprised at what you will receive by doing
this. Often you view your work a piece or two at a time and you lose
sight of how you got to where you are in the design. It also gives
you a good look at where your work is headed, what styles are
prevalent and what your strong and weak points are. You have to be
very objective when you do this, but you will be surprised at what
you see happening. Give it a try and you might just see a signature
style ready to hatch, or a direction that you are headed in or one
you lost sight of that needs to be revisited. Make some notes about
what you see and feel about your work as a whole. Strong points, weak
points, directions to take or avoid, blind alleys that you went down
that didn’t pan out, all of that sort of thing. Revisit your notes
every few weeks or months and see what is happening. Helps me and it
might just put you on the track you are looking for.
Dear Frank, what a great idea, and I will do it, but I am going to
keep my notes in the picture sleeve because I think that this would
be a great first step toward a portfolio. Also a great place to keep
your photos is Etsy. I just opened my Etsy store 8 days ago, and i
really like the way it sets up and shows my talents. So I am going
to take weekly shop shots and rotate my stock. Give me a peek, and
give me input. I am getting a better camera with my first few sales.
Check me out at Etsy.com shop name AlaskaStixsnStones all one word.
Am looking for imput. thanks, pat
Wanted to thank everyone so much for taking the time to respond to
my question. I read each email very carefully and learned a lot.
This is something that I have been struggling with for quite awhile.
It was wonderful to know that others had experienced or were
experiencing the same thing.
Thank you again. I can now relax (a little!) and know that with
continued practice and hard work my own signature style will develop
in its’ own time.