On Making Mistakes

"Mistakes have the power to turn you into something better than you were before." I have found this to be SO true, in life and on the jeweler's bench.

The Square hoop earrings that everyone on island is rocking now, were a big mistake. Daryl, our summer intern was supposed to be making square bangles during his second week on the bench and mis-cut the metal. By the time I walked over, we had a lot of "baby sized" square bangles. We set them aside for a while and chalked it up to a learning experience. Elise, also a summer intern, decided she wanted them as a mack daddy pair of hoops and poof, the square hoops were born. We tweaked the design and metal gauge and launched them that summer. They were our best selling earring that year, way to go Daryl!

Sometimes, mistakes in the form of melted metal make the most beautiful one of a kind pieces. I was making a champagne ring with 3 tiny diamonds and melted the center bubble. We dropped the client's birthstone in the center and voila, she has a custom ring and is over the moon excited!

Every October we scour the workshop for cast aside pieces, we polish them up and put them in a sale bin. Without fail, we end up making multiples of these pieces because a client's friend fell in love with the piece and has to have one too!

So, I guess the message here is that if you make a mistake in life and/or in art, don't worry, just turn it into something beautiful! XO, Joyia