The Year in Review 2021

 My creative journey took me to new levels of learning and inspiration this year.  The decision to return to jewelry making late last year was a good one, it paid off.  

I bought two new books for technique and instruction to guide me, along with several new tools to achieve that.  I highly recommend one or both of these if you are genuinely interested in metal jewelry work.  The first is Metalsmithing Made Easy by Kate Ferrant Richbourg, and the other is Making Metal Jewelry by Jen Cushman.  They both cover a wide variety of designs and techniques that any beginner could achieve.  The only problem I had was getting to all of the projects in one year!  I prioritized my favorites, but I still have many more to do.

I started the Facebook Group JGD Stones and Metal in March of 2021 so I could invite my friends and their friends to learn about jewelry techniques and share our experiences.  We are a private group of 77 members to date.  I have shared countless YouTube tutorial videos and shared my blog posts there.

I successfully recruited three Featured Artists with a simple format of questions and answers about their work, photos of their work and processes and links to their websites and pages.  I did these as blog posts and shared them with the group.

Overall the year has been a success.  I set reasonable, attainable goals with realistic expectations.  Sometimes it works out!

Thanks for joining me on this creative journey.  Next month I'll share some of my goals and ideas for 2022.