I'm not sure that title expresses exactly what I'm trying to say, but it's the best I can think of at the moment.
I don't like to do custom stuff. I think it's because of insecurity. I have this perception that If someone says they want something specific and it doesn't turn out the way they envision it, I'll feel responsible, and worse, I'll feel like a failure. Because of this, I like the freedom of creating what I want and if someone wants to buy it, then I'm very happy. If they don't, I might feel disappointed, but at least I created it on my own terms and am not beholden to anyone.
During my career as a jewelry designer, I have occasionally taken on custom work, but most of it was done years ago. There is some irony in the fact that now that I have more experience, I'm less likely to take on custom requests. Again, it all goes back to the confidence issue, though you'd think I'd have more confidence now that I have more experience. My take on that is that the experience, instead of bringing confidence, brought a bit of cynicism. The real irony is that this cynicism is based on nothing--I've never had a bad experience with work I've been commissioned to do, yet I have ignored emails, deferred requests, and left phone calls unanswered all in the desire to avoid that one simple question: "Can You Make Me This?"
So here is one of the places where my "issues" interfere with life in a real, practical way. I can choose to ignore it and continue as I have been (which is obviously the easiest solution), or I can make an attempt to get passed it in order to grow in both my business and personal life.
In the last couple of weeks, I've gotten two requests for custom work, one from a friend and one from a stranger. I followed up on both of them. Only one of the requests panned out, and this is the result:
I talk of my obsession with my dogs quite often. Luckily, I have a few friends who are just as obsessed as I am. This design is a collaboration of sorts; I created a collection of pieces that had "dog quotes' on them, and my friend Heather thought of using a dog bone as the shape for a pendant. These photos don't quite do it justice, as you can see my reflection in the metal. She wanted it shiny, so I have her shiny!
On another note, I spent the day taking jewelry photos yesterday and I was really pleased with the results. I'll be posting some of them in the next few days.


