Break these jewelry design rules and things will end badly! Fashion police will get you! Your boyfriend will stop loving you and your friends will look away in shame! All right, this is my idea of dark humor. In reality, you’ll go on with your life and it won’t matter all that much that you are wearing a mismatched jewelry set.
Jewelry design is an ongoing endeavor. Every morning you get to pick out a new set of earrings, and there will be things about them, that you will like, and things that you won’t. In my psychology class, our teacher told us, that no matter what, there will always be people, who don’t like something about you. In fact, whatever you do, there will be someone, who will absolutely disagree. My point here is take things lightly, so that your jewelry choices come from authenticity and creativity, not from apprehension over what other people will think of you. That is in fact my jewelry design principle number one: personal taste wins over a fashion trend. Don’t get me wrong. Experiment with new fashions. There is always a new trick out there, a new look, a new way to add beauty to your life, but that joyful feeling of excitement, that overtakes you, when you see a jewelry piece you love or when you come up with your own unique jewelry design, is your best fashion advice. Wear, what makes you feel the way you want to feel, be it glamorous, flirtatious, original, adventurous, or even careful, neat, or pretty.
Some readers will say at this point, that this approach just doesn’t work for them or it doesn’t work for everyone. I have seen some poor fashion choices, that made me wonder what in the world the person was thinking putting THAT on. Oh, c’mon, I’m sure you’ve done that too. As much as I don’t like judgment, it rears its ugly head once in a while. What if this person has a high standing in society? What if, in fact, they are a big name designer? Would you wonder then, if maybe YOU were the one missing something? Maybe at first, what they were wearing was not fashionable at all, but it caught on and it became a new fashion trend! There is your jewelry design principle number two: experiment with new things. There is no place for being conservative in art; it’s highly experimental. Jewelry design is art, in fact, a very living and utilitarian form of art, which might not always be displayed in a gallery, but might have more impact in our day to day lives.
My two principles so far might tell you that the best way to go is to pick whatever you like and experiment with it. That is what I’m saying, but with a catch. Getting jewelry design ideas from others can be very helpful in expanding our own creativity. As a child, I attended art school, where we had a history of art class, and the most memorable thing about that class was this one little fact about ancient Greek sculpture. Now I know, that sculpture is a bit off topic, but I’m telling this story to illustrate a principle. Ancient Greek sculpture could have two support points only, but when Romans later took over, and destroyed the sculptures, the only way renovators could have those sculptures standing upright was to add a third supporting point. My point is those ancient Greeks had some kind of secret skill. Artists and designers do learn some valuable skills, that might not be available to a person, who has never been immersed in that subject. In order to build your bag of tricks, it is a good idea to learn jewelry design techniques. My next post on jewelry design “Jewelry Design Made Simple” will introduce a few ideas, that can take your jewelry to the next level. Of course, it’s up to you to use them in your jewelry selection or your jewelry creation. That’s my third jewelry design principle: learn jewelry design techniques in order to have different tools in your bag.
There is also a fourth jewelry design principle for the everyday user, that I’d like to talk about. If you have kids or you keep very busy, I think you’ll find this one very relevant: functionality always wins over fashion. It is so important, that I’m devoting a whole post to it. Be on the look-out for it.
