New Whiteleaf design: Ancient Root earrings

These were just listed in my Felt and Zibbet shops.

 Ancient Root earrings: available on Felt and Zibbet

Every now and then I create a design that I'm not sure that I like. I'll make it, and like it; but some time later - usually the next day - I'll look at the design again and not be so sure. Sometimes I vacillate for weeks over a piece of jewellery, liking it one day and wrinkling my nose at it in scepticism the next. Eventually I make a decision, taking one of two lines of thought about it:

either

'If I'm not happy with it, then there must be something wrong with it, so I'll ditch it',

or, 

'If I can't make up my mind, it can't be that bad, so I'll go ahead and list it'.

(You'll notice that even when I'm trying to make a decision, I keep my options open by allowing two potential decisions!) 

These were such a design: I liked them when I made them, but the next day I wasn't sure. They photographed well, but I procrastinated about listing them because I still wasn't convinced that I was happy with them.

Now that I have listed them, however, I have decided that I do like them. They're a tad unusual; even, perhaps, a bit odd; but in a good way - an earthy, 'gnarled old tree' sort of way. And gnarled, wizened, battered old trees can be easily as beautiful as young, fresh, beautifully proportioned trees.

I think that people are the same: there are some beautiful old people around. They have avoided growing truly old; they have an inner youth and joy, and it is from this that their beauty comes. 
Ageing is optional. Stay young forever, so that even when you are old, you will be young and beautiful.

Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. 

~ Samuel Ullman 

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