Thou Shalt Make Good Things

Happy New Year!

I put aside any thoughts of blogging during the last stretch of Christmas, trying to soak in the season and solve some jigsaw puzzles with my mom. Now I have at my fingertips a new year... and for the first fifteen days it seems I've done little more than think.

At first I was thinking about and amassing lists. Things to do, ways to reorganize, foods to stop eating, exercises I should probably be doing, stores to pitch to, and markets to apply for. In my experience, not only do lists get lost in the shuffle of papers (or torn up for cat toys) but they also soon get way, way, wayyy out of hand.

On paper I tend toward grandeurs of instant success. My first year of attending markets went really well (thanks to my customers!) and I'm excited for Emily Claire Studio to grow bigger this year... and I'm sure I will in some ways. But when I write a list of what I want, I get wrapped up in wanting everything RIGHT NOW! And that does nothing but take away from the now.

In the end, a list is just ink on a page. As an artist and a crafter, list-making is an easy procrastination, another way to say "I'll start that in a minute..." For me, I often think I am accomplishing something "business-y" by creating lists or searching through an endless slog of online distractions that promise to tell me how to market myself or sell my product.

I'm an artist... but I'm not owning it. I've become absorbed in the shiny lights of the internet and I must wrench myself loose, get my hands dirty in my work. 

So I'm done. I won't make any unnecessary lists this year. I won't let myself think too much. 

That's my resolution. 

Instead, dear readers I will make. 

I will make beautiful, handmade, artisan jewelry awash with goodness and gemstones and originality. I'll let myself get messy and let the studio desk get dirty. 

And when it's done I will sell it at wonderful markets to fabulous people whom I love.

Thou shalt not let one one scrap of a list touch thy crafting space. 

Not one shopping list, not one receipt. 

I will be all about it this year. ALL ABOUT ART!