The discussion of perfectionism has been quite interesting. I have
(or had) a poster at work with the words: “Good, fast, cheap – pick
any two.” Since my “real” job is in place where quality control is
constantly struggling with production pressures, this conflict is very
clear to me on a daily basis.
The new corporate buzz-phrase is “six-sigma”, which boils down to
"let’s not make any mistakes". D’oh. Need I say more on that?
In my jewelry, I have no way to achieve perfection, since I have to
abuse my wire to a rather incredible degree in order to get it tied
into the knots. Every pass through the knot involves another
almost-kinked bend, another stressed area in the wire that needs to be
annealed at least once before the piece is finally ready, for fear of
cracking and breaking. I used to hate it when I’d get almost done and
break a wire; most times I just scrapped it and started over, but
there’ve been times when I had to bite the bullet and solder the
break. I’ve never had one come out so bad at that point that it’s lack
of “perfection” destroyed its beauty, and I’ve learned to relax a bit
and let things go, resulting in even better work as time goes on.
In my opinion, the pursuit of perfection is good only as long as one
can realize that it’s a direction to be heading in, not a place to end
up.
my last thoughts on perfectionism. when i used to make casting models
the company i worked for developed a philosophy (sort of my fault!)
that no flaws in the model meant no problems down the line in
production. we went so far as to measure our wt. in the thousands of
a gram in silver high production pieces. as this was a diamond hack
company this philosophy was only partially true as there are many
other points that a casting can be damaged or flawed in the
production process. but i digress. the result of this was to give my
supervisor (a major control freak) a weapon to make me nuts.
everything had to be perfect. this was when i learned the difference
between superior work and fixing something just because it wasn’t
totally dead on. . . the end came on a model that wasn’t totally
right it took two working days to fix it to my bosses satisfaction. .
as it turned out there was an order for ten pieces at a profit of
about seven dollars. this was in no way a good thing - many people
suffered the rage of upstairs and it was impossible to explain why i
took sooooo long on one piece., as my normal average was three to
four finished models daily. the point is that even in a production
model, were the flaws will be endlessly repeated the term enough is
enough does apply. the final thought is in some rare cases when a
piece has given me major problems that won’t go away and setting it
aside just hasn’t worked there is one last resort. I’ve found
running the torch up high and murdering the piece - hang the cost -
often free’s up my mind to solve the dilemma with a different
approach since the troublesome work is now a puddle!! smashing it to
bits with a hammer is also effective. works for me
After reading Dave’s story about “the obviously handmade” bear claw
pendant I have to tell a brief story of my own. Several decades ago
one of my students was trying to pass jury to join an elite craft
group. One of the three pieces which she submitted was an absolutely
gorgeous necklace she had made with picture jasper and Australian
opal she had cut; she totally hand fabricated everything, including a
very detailed, intricate chain. She was bereft when this piece was
kicked back by the jury, without comment. About a week later, via
word of mouth, she heard that she had “failed” because she had used
machine made chain(too perfect)! Bereft went to outraged! She was
eventually accepted into this group, went on to become president of
the group, and changed the way they did jurying.
Hopefully you have some fun doing “the work”; if you do, and people
are happy with what they buy from you it is a win-win situation.
Noticing I was somewhat perplexed by his reaction to my “damaged
goods”, he said that was the characteristic he really liked about it!
It was OBVIOUSLY handmade, and that was the appeal it had. How’s THAT
for mind blowing?!?
I have had that reaction too, and some thought the piece was more
valuable or precious for knowing that it was handmade. You can never
account for taste. What good is perfection if it takes the “soul” out
of the piece??
On the blockage subject, I have been a writer, singer, stained glass
window maker, and assorted other sorts of hobbies/professions where
the main thrust was creating something. When one is blocked it means
"take a break." It also means relax. I have been so frustrated with a
piece for foiling my intentions I have threatened to melt it into a
lump, only to come back the next day, look at it and say to myself,
“jeez, now that’s not so bad! …not perfect, but not too bad!” One
day I even grabbed a hunk of thick silver wire and started hammering
it as hard as I could…soon getting caught up in the way the metal
turned and formed itself. Then for the heck of it I fused it into a
bangle. I ended up making three of these lumpy hammer-marked fused
bangles which are actually very nice. And I learned about the
metal’s reactions to hammering and heating.
But most of all, I found the fun again.
Have the most fun! Making things out of metal and stones is so much
fun… you get to play with chemicals, tools, machinery, fire,
precious metal and gemstones… the work looks so ugly while you are
making it and then, like a swan, its beauty rises to the surface.
I love that part…
Mary Barker, HPCU IT - MTS @mary_barker
(650) or TN 857-7372
E-Fax 801-340-9408
she totally hand fabricated everything, including a very detailed,
intricate chain. She was bereft when this piece was kicked back by
the jury, without comment. About a week later, via word of mouth,
she heard that she had "failed" because she had used
There’s a saying, “If you have a hero, look again, you have
diminished yourself in some way.” I would be especially careful
looking for heroes on juries or in academia.
One point that Julia Cameron made in her book (and I did go
through the process that she presented) is that in order to make
good art one has to make bad art - or something along that vein. In
other words the "doing" is what is important. This has been very
helpful to me in being "generous" with myself to be less rigid with
preconceived ideas of where the work needs to be (the
"perfectionist" perspective)
This brings to mind a piece I started back in November. I was
experimenting with a new chain form and trying to make a necklace.
It wasn’t working very well so I put it aside until just before
Christmas. At that point, I decided it was just the worst piece of
&*%$ I had done in quite a while and completely dismantled the
necklace. Then, since I have an abhorance for wasting material that
borders on pathelogical at times ;-), I studied the pieces and came
up with two new designs, one of which my aunt immediately wanted to
buy :-).
— Dianne Karg, in Toronto, Ontario - who has finally caught up with
reading back issues of Orchid!! Yippeee!
www.wrapturewirejewellery.on.ca
