Be Passionate...

This isn't my first blog. In fact this is my fifth - I admit, two never get off the ground given I was locked out of one and then I tried a different server from blogspot and really disliked it. My other two are still going, emilyluciedesigns is about my personal practice as a jewellery designer and designeresearch was about my research for my Master of Design. One is very personal, the other is very subject specific but neither really let me talk about the things which intrigue and excite me.

At the end of September, 2009, I finished my Masters, but during the course, the course leader continuously told my class, "be passionate; it sustains you."

To understand what I'm passionate about, you have to know a little about me. I am a 24 year old jewellery designer and my work tends to be quite narrative, or at least initially based within literature and poetry. My degree work from 2008 focused on the poetry of Norman MacCaig and the landscape and architecture of Scotland and from these I translated them into chess sets focusing on the tourist trade and politics.

I'm not particularly politically minded, in fact most of my political knowledge comes from comedic satire on the television but that's where the narrative led my design and I love that. I love that when you Google one thing, it leads you to find another, then another and then something you never considered and that can spark something new.

All the blogs I love, have this wonderfully quirkiness to them. They tend to be jewellery, design or craft based, but they're full of serendipitous discoveries as the authors go through their lives. My younger sister is a good example of this. I encouraged her to write a blog, as a means of archiving her research during her fine art degree, but she posts music she loves, her current obsessions (quilts) and images of the pieces she is working on, as well as the work she admires. It is a mismatch of everything which buzzes through her brain. Whereas my random research get archived in files on my computer, in my bookmarks or in sketchbooks and that's no good.

What I'm hoping to achieve through this blog is just that, for it to become a place I can enthuse over the things which inspire me and have driven my passion for my craft - and no, I don't think CRAFT is a dirty word. So, I hope to post jewellery, textiles, music and as much randomness as I can and if me and my family are the only ones who read it - then who cares? I don't want to lose my enthusiasm for design, especially as one day I would like to teach jewellery and the worst thing I experiences was the tutors who seemed to have lost their passion.

So to any readers I pass on this advice: Be Passionate! It sustains you!