My hand is made of some high-density, inert bloody rock. Or Glass. Or something that is not conducive to drawing at speed. Day 6 of supposed "Vacation" and I have a case of cabin fever so acute that I could happily drive my car on nought but fumes and wishes to the North Pole and camp there for a while. Every idea in the universe is scratching at my mental door but my poor pathetic hand simply can't keep up. Half finished sketches that don't actually resemble anything are starting to take up too much space and the eraser might have to make and appearance.

The aim, of course, is to produce good stuff and lots of it. Enough to show that damn process with which I need to reconcile myself. At the moment, the process can bite me. Idea after idea comes barking up my tree but by the time I get half of it down on paper, that idea is long gone and the next one is half way up the trunk and into the lower branches. (Sort of a refined degree of procrastination, I'd say? Being able to put off work because you are too busy working...) The funny thing, is that this is the perfect example of how I should have been careful what I wished for. I was so worried that I wouldn't have any ideas that I didn't think about the focus it takes to bring each idea into a workable design that I can run with and eventually take to the bench. Having sweet Felicity Arkwright is one thing but too much of a good thing  is bad etc. The best work it would seem, comes when there are ideas, but not so many of them that each new idea becomes a distraction, with enough meat to get one intrigued enough to work on it and refine it into a plan with a viable execution that will result in something awesome.

The opposite is also true. When one is stuck on one single solitary thing for too long, it becomes poisonous. Whether it's the design, the figuring out or the manufacture, too many hours fighting with one piece/design is likely to drive one totally nuts. At the risk of sounding  disgustingly trite, each piece is sort of like a road trip. It begins with an idea. A possible destination. One looks at the map, figures out how far away it is, where in that town, city, village whatever, one wants to go. Then a route is planned, how is one going to get there exactly? What pit stops are going to be made on the way? And then one's equipment is checked, how is the car? How much fuel will be needed? Then one actually has to get moving. Planning one's route on paper is great, but there are always going to be "detours" that require solutions.  ALL of this is required to get there in one piece. With design and manufacture, the same can be said for each step of the beloved process from vision to product. If one plans to make one piece and it is estimated to be done in 2 weeks, spending forever on it is like getting lost on the way somewhere. It is as frustrating and tiring and expensive. Luckily with jewellery, a lot of the time you can just melt the mess and start over (not so with a car, you get lost, you find a GPS) and no one is any the wiser. Well, except the client. Melting metal sadly can not rewind time.

This is the reason my last piece was such a colossal headache. I had no map and half a tank when I started and that just got worse and worse. This shall NEVER NEVER BLOODY EVER happen again. The ideas are here, there and everywhere but now I need that amazing gift of concentration. To be able to just focus on one of them and then the next one in the kind of serial monogamy that I really thought I would be better at...
Then I get on with the manufacture of things after I have a cornucopia of new designs from which to choose.

 Plan? Yes I think so. Now, where is that road map...?