I’m a big believer not only in learning from your mistakes, but trying to re-use the products of failed experiments in future endeavors. It’s hard to convince me to give up on a project, because I’m usually pretty sure that if I play with it enough, I’ll make something worthwhile.
So, after my first attempts at jewelry-making, during which three of my first several pieces melted down into strange looking silver nuggets, I saved the nuggets, thinking I might be able to use them in future pieces.
Silver Nugget No. 2
Once my procedure became a little more certain, I decided to pull out the silver nuggets for a series of unusual looking pieces. The nuggets, which had melted into the ceramic of the kiln and in one case the glass of my microwave, had some unusual shapes and textures, which to me looked like something from the surface of the moon. And this was how the “space jewelry” series was born.
The first piece was straightforward. Weird looking silver nugget as the focal piece, surround by two jewels on either side.
The second piece was a little more whimsical. I topped the nugget with a pyramid of different colored jewels that backed up against what was left of the band from the failed, melted early project.
Ironically, as I was firing this piece, another piece went up in flames.
It seems I had become overconfident with the timing of jewelry, and had decorated what was intended to be a pendant with materials that were not fire proof. I removed the “space ring” from the kiln and polished it up, not contemplating what I assumed was just a pile of ash melted into the kiln and possible irretrievable.
Believing my kiln space to have just been cut in half, I consoled myself with the thought that I could still fire small pieces on the remaining side. When I went back to examine the ash, however, I discovered that in the pile of soot, the pendant was still lumpily intact and sort of pendant shaped.
Thus, the third piece in the space jewelry series was born. And, as they sing in the classic musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, from the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success!
The final product was two “space rings” and a pendant.
Sure they’re weird, or “whimsical” if we’re being charitable, but nothing went to waste, I have three finished pieces of jewelry instead of “nuggets,” and another learning experience was born. You have to try things to learn what works and what doesn’t, and you never know which happy accident might end up turning into something great. It’s always worth a shot, right?
