Burnout & Inspiration

Sapphire ~ Diamond ~ 14K Gold ~ Iron ~ Stone ~ Sterling & Leather

I was talking to a friend this week, another artist, she is burned out. I feel for her and honestly it’s hard for me to relate. I suffer from burnout for about 3 minutes and then it passes when a thousand light bulbs go off in my head for the zillion ideas I will never life long enough to create. I guess I should consider myself lucky?

Ok, Luck, you sassy little fellow you, bestowing your gifts on only the ‘Lucky’ few, let us consider the alternatives for myself (everyone is different~ I used to be an RN) which are as follows: Get up at zero-dark thirty and commute 30 minutes one way to a hospital leaving your home at 5:45 am, kids getting up on their own eating nothing/eating garbage, kids coming home on their own~doing God knows what while I get home whenever someone decides my day is done, driving 30 minutes home, leaving my house at 5 am because of 3-16 inches of snow or 20 below zero, working in a place that does not even know my name, caring like crazy about what I am doing at work and no one else gives a damn, taking care of people was priceless ~ I truly loved it, taking care of people that want it all ~ want it now ~ want it fast and want it free ~ not so priceless but it has to be done anyway, having a day at work when I cannot get a drink of water/use the bathroom let alone eat something ~ this is common for every nurse I have ever known, getting a raise based upon secret shopper phone calls when I never answer the phone (hmmm?), making less money than every carpenter I know and I can save your life, working until 65 with no benefits into retirement (this always baffled me as other public servant careers-police, firemen, teachers, librarian…funded retirements at 55 years old), exposed to MRSA daily, exposed to ????? disease daily…..

Ok, my burnout is gone for like 5 years after rehashing all of that. If you are suffering from burnout are there reasons why? Are you making things you don’t like? Are you making things for too little money? Do you need a challenge ~ bored and need a new skill to practice? Are you tired and not taking care of yourself? Are you an introvert and you need someone else to be your ‘frontman’?  Do you need to find a way to make more with less or work in a more streamline way? (I am really good at that.) The best thing to do is to make plan: create weekly, monthly, yearly, 5 year, 10 year, lifetime goals and write them down! Pin them up somewhere you can see them during the day. Change your goals as you change. Be very specific with your goals. Number one thing ~ get out of bed and work. Work a 40 hour work week or more at your job as an artist. Log your hours. Time on the computer does not count. It does take work. I work a lot. My motto is, ‘Yes’.

Diamond ~ Gold ~ Rustic Hammered Bands ~ ‘Lucky Seven’ Ring custom order and used customers own gold and diamonds

I have had a ball the last couple of months creating and making custom orders for all kinds of people from every place in the world. The reach the internet has is amazing. The customers have been from all walks of life and they have all had their own story to tell behind each piece of jewelry. I have even spoken with several of them on the phone to get their order correct and it’s a treat for me. A simple phone call is so much easier and fast to decipher than an email. A lot gets lost in an email and most of the time I am ‘seeing’ what they are ‘saying’ incorrectly. If you have a custom order send me an email and then let’s talk.

On Thursday last week I drop off work at J Jeffery Taylor Jewelry and Fine Art Gallery in Fish Creek Wisconsin. I was nervous. I have been comfortable with my other gallery and they were comfortable with me. So, it was a new start and a change that I was really anxious about. It is a jewelry gallery and I am humbled. My work being next to other artists I greatly admire is just a dream to me. The place is stunning. You can visit their website at jjeffreytaylor.com. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around making items of jewelry that cost as much as some cars I have owned, but you only live once and I’m not leaving this earth while yawning….

Tee Pee Canyon Agate Earrings Garnets and Rough Sapphires At J Jeffery Taylor

Leather Sterling Bracelet https://www.etsy.com/listing/287939961/leather-bracelet-sterling-silver?ref=shop_home_active_10

Custom Order… the stone was the most beautiful I had ever seen… Aqua Nueva Agate and Amethyst

This is my daughter and I last year at Art Street in Green Bay. I have my first show of the summer in a couple of weeks and need to make a lot for that show as I don’t have very many one of a kind pieces left right now. If you follow my instagram feed you will see photos of work daily as I am making it, #wildprairiesilver. Sturgeon Bay Fine Art Show is May 28th and May 29th, Saturday and Sunday of Memorial Day weekend (not Monday). It is held in Sunset Park in Sturgeon Bay ~ right on the water. The main bridge (highway 57) in Sturgeon Bay is closed on until July 4th…oh, cry, the detour goes right past the show… hmmm….. I think we will be busy.

Happy Spring! Hope to see you at a show this summer!