I've been thinking a lot lately, about how to navigate this world right now. I have to say, I’m finding it all really difficult. Especially today, after seeing the news this morning. There have been some lovely, positive things happening in my own life, but then I see what’s happening to other people and I feel guilty, helpless, and then somehow complicit. I don't want to present a litany of awful recent events, as I'm also conscious that I don't want to make anyone else feel bad. We are all stuck in this position of seeing things we can't change, and wanting to feel like we are at least bearing witness, but also having to function in a day-today sense, which can often mean not knowing, not looking at social media.
It's all enough to make you want to go and sit in a dark room all day. And I find myself shrinking away from 'showing up' (whatever that actually means). I’m not doing enough, I’m not doing real work – all of these thoughts are hard to shake. But I've also noticed that whenever I get like this, I receive a lovely email or review from a customer thanking me for doing what I do, and even though what I do feels like an incredibly small offering, these messages have really helped me to get myself in the studio, get to work, and keep on keeping on.
A lot of the jewellery I make is big and bold and angry, but there is another side, the more quiet designs that always begin as an idea of something I want to wear. I like the idea of jewellery that serves a private purpose, that can talk to you when you need a little nudge of encouragement. The materials may not be precious, (I could write pages about this – when I was in art school I worked in collage often with newsprint, and was constantly being told they weren’t archival and I had to 'consider my materials’) but I like the alchemy that happens when real love and care goes into an object no matter what it is made from.
And as I often say I use glow-in-the-dark pigment 'to be with you in the dark times’ and it seems the times keep getting darker. Maybe it’s something left over from my childhood, but I don't think I'll ever grow out of the thrill of something glowing in the dark. One customer said she left her Be Brave bracelet on her bedside table and it helped her through her own grief when she saw it glowing at night.
So small steps here, but trying to keep going, and I hope you’re finding some sort of balance too with it all.
Sending love and hope and strength,
Sarah xx
Sarah xx
