Five quotes: Jewellery

The jeweler allows me to wear the sapphire blue lake on my finger, the emerald green leaves around my neck, and take the citrine sunset with me wherever I go.  Jewelry has become my daytime link to nature in an office with no windows.  And if I have to work late, there's nothing like diamond stars and a pearl full moon against an onyx night sky.  

Astrid Alauda, 'Office With No Windows'.

My husband gave me a necklace. It's fake. I requested fake. Maybe I'm paranoid, but in this day and age, I don't want something around my neck that's worth more than my head.  

Rita Rudner.

Let us not be too particular.  It is better to have old second-hand diamonds than none at all. 

Mark Twain.

The story of Harold Ross, the New Yorker and me is a mere footnote to the story of our time, and we might as well face the truth that to researchers of the future, poking about among the ruins of time, we shall all be tiny glitters.  But then, so are diamonds. 

James Thurber. 

The most precious jewels are not made of stone, but of flesh.

Robert Ludlum. 

With thanks to The Quote Garden.

Wikipedia

"Knowledge is power." 

– Sir Francis Bacon, Meditationes Sacræ. De Hæresibus. (1597)
English author, courtier, & philosopher (1561 - 1626)

Like many people, I use Wikipedia frequently for innumerable things. I often use it when I need instant information on various stones or materials that I use in my jewellery, which means that Wikipedia helps me to earn a living. With that in mind, I made a donation to the Wikimedia Foundation this year during their annual appeal. It wasn't much, but it's a start. Below is the thank-you E-mail I received in response.

_______

Dear Emma,

Thank you for your gift [...] to the Wikimedia Foundation, received on December 8, 2010. I’m very grateful for your support.

Your donation celebrates everything Wikipedia and its sister sites stand for: the power of information to help people live better lives, and the importance of sharing, freedom, learning and discovery. Thank you so much for helping to keep these projects freely available for their more than 400 million monthly readers around the world.

Your money supports technology and people. The Wikimedia Foundation develops and improves the technology behind Wikipedia and nine other projects, and sustains the infrastructure that keeps them up and running. The Foundation has a staff of about fifty, which provides technical, administrative, legal and outreach support for the global community of volunteers who write and edit Wikipedia.

Many people love Wikipedia, but a surprising number don't know it's run by a non-profit. Please help us spread the word by telling a few of your friends.

And again, thank you for supporting free knowledge.

Sincerely Yours,

Sue Gardner

Executive Director

_______

I am immensely grateful to the people who created Wikipedia, and who run, edit, and support it. To me, Wikipedia represents everything that the Internet should be about: 'sharing, freedom, learning and discovery'. The existence of Wikipedia alone justifies the invention of the Internet. It may not be perfect, but for the first time in human history we have a way of sharing reliable information about anything which is freely available to anyone.
Knowledge is power, and Wikipedia offers free knowledge. No strings attached.
I don't think the value of that can be overestimated.

Tweet

Short and sweet: don't panic

There are eighteen days until Christmas, and not just my blog readers but almost everyone I can think of will be busy – if not frantically busy! So let's keep this short and sweet.

Here is a suitably short and sweet – like an iced biscuit – blog post by Crissy Herron of IndieBizChicks.com. It contains four quick tips to help you keep your sanity and your business in one piece over the busiest time of year.

Don’t Let Your Biz Fall Apart During The Holidays

Also, remember the immortal words that are inscribed on the back of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: 

And here's my own best bit of advice for this time of year: 

Keep Calm, 

Carry On, 

And 

Enjoy. 

Tweet

Five quotes: Integrity

No amount of good deeds can make up for a bad attitude. 

Attributed to Optimus Prime. 

To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice. 

Confucius. 

You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him. 

James D. Miles.

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.  

William Shakespeare.

Don't try to be different. Just be good. To be good is different enough. 

Arthur Freed.

With thanks to @suresandy1, @feistycoach, and The Quote Garden.

Tweet

Ignorance is power

Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible. 

- Doug Larson 

When I first started trying to make a living as a self-employed jewellery artist, I knew nothing. 

In the following three years, I learned how much I did not know. 

I am now slightly horrified at how ignorant I was, and how little research I did. 

I am also immensely grateful.

If I had known how hard it would be, I might not have done it.

First Light Over Glacier Bay by thechadandhope on Etsy

 The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible ... and achieve it, generation after generation.
- Pearl S. Buck 

(With thanks to @grapechick for tweeting the Doug Larson quote.)   

Tweet

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 

Tweet

When you feel like giving up ...

When you feel like giving up, 

remember why you held on for so long in the first place. 

(Source unknown.) 

With thanks to @motivationlive for tweeting this.

Here's a link to Chris Guillebeau's excellent blog post 'Ever Feel Like Giving Up?'

Tweet

The Journey to Ithaca (read it slowly)

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the angry Poseidon -- do not fear them:
You will never find such as these on your path,
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your soul does not set them up before you.

Pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many, when,
with such pleasure, with such joy
you will enter ports seen for the first time;
stop at Phoenician markets,
and purchase fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensual perfumes of all kinds,
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
visit many Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from scholars.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would have never
set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor,
Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become,
with so much experience,
you must already have understood
what Ithacas mean.

- Constantine P. Cavafy (1911)

With thanks to Chris Guillebeau for quoting this on his blog.

Peace be all your journeys.

Lawrence of Arabia

"Nothing is written unless I write it."

- T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence Of Arabia.

Lawrence Of Arabia is a long, fascinating film. The line above sticks with me.
The Bedouins with whom Lawrence travels fatalistically say, "It is written!" whenever they encounter a situation that they feel cannot be helped. 'It is fate; it is beyond our control; it is futile to try to change it.' In one scene, the redoubtable Lawrence retorts,

"Nothing is written unless I write it."

How much could we change if we stopped believing that it couldn't be changed?

Going too far?

Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

- T.S. Eliot.

An Old Chinese Proverb

I am completely enamoured a fan of Chris Guillebeau's 'The Art Of Non-Conformity' blog. The guy makes more sense in two sentences than most people make all day.

Recently I finished reading his e-book '279 Days To Overnight Success'. Specifically, it's about making a living as a professional blogger, but, like most of Guillebeau's writing, it is also about doing anything that people say cannot be done.
At the end of the e-book, he concludes with this old Chinese proverb:

the person who says

something is impossible

should not interrupt the

person who is doing it.

Long live those of us who believe in doing the impossible. 

Dryad

I'm going to indulge myself slightly by showing you all a Whiteleaf piece that I made recently.

Its title is 'Dryad'. A dryad, in Greek mythology, is a tree spirit (specifically, an oak tree spirit; different plants had different spirits).
I had had the chocolate-brown agate leaf pendant hanging around for almost two years - it was something I bought when I first started making jewellery - and I had various plans for it, none of which worked out as the hole was too small. That meant I had to string it. With greens and browns and rust colours, I thought; Autumn colours. I got out all the suitable beads I had, realised that some gemstone chips naturally graduated in colour and size, and the design invented itself. 
I'm showing it off because it is quite different from what I've made before ... but I'm very proud of it.

I reshot this piece three times, because I'm not a good photographer and my camera seems to hate photographing gemstones; especially agates and jaspers. Doncha hate opinionated electronic equipment?

'Dryad' is currently listed here on Felt.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programme. With a quote from Samuel Goldwyn:

“I don’t think anyone should write his autobiography until after he’s dead.”

Perseverance: the new black.

Annie is the jewellery maker of Ferosh Kitty Designs. Recently, she was Zibbet.com's Featured Zibbeter. On reading her interview, a particular sentence caught my eye: "And I’m a believer that perseverance is the new black!"

I love black.
Black is only one colour (in fact technically it's not a colour; it's the absence of light and therefore the absence of colour); it doesn't have shades or tints the way green and blue and other colours do; yet it can be dangerous, formal, mysterious, intimidating, enigmatic, aggressive, clean, precise ... think black cats, ninjas, hit men, top hats, limousines, formal calligraphy, the night sky ...
Black does not compromise. You can't negotiate with it. It is what it is, and if you want a lighter or darker tone then you're just going to have to look elsewhere. Black just is. When all other colours have faded away, all that will be left will be black.
(Literally.)
'Perseverance is the new black'. I like the nod to fashion there. It seems appropriate for artists to talk about perseverance in visual terms. 

Perseverance is a common trait of those who change the world. Research Thomas Edison, Sir Edmund Hillary, Marie Curie, or any other important person, and the chances are high that perseverance was the key to their achievement.

As Calvin Coolidge famously said, 

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

(If, like me, you love quotes, here is an excellent trove of perseverance quotes. You're welcome. :-D)

Perseverance is the new black.

When all other skills and abilities have faded away, perseverance will still be there.
If you want to achieve something great, perseverance is not just the new black: it's the one and only black.

Why do you need to get away?

Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, you ought to set up a life you don't need to escape from.

- Seth Godin.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

I'm probably preaching to the converted if you're reading this blog, but I often wonder why people drift through life waiting for the weekend ... for the holidays ... for their lives to become free and interesting.

Why do you wait for your life to change when you could change it yourself?

If the reason you're not changing your life is because you can't really be bothered or you don't really want it badly enough, then stop whining about the life you have now. If you don't like it, change it; if you don't want to change it, stop complaining about it. 
If you feel that change is impossible, you have two options: make change possible, or learn to live with your situation.
But in all honesty, change is rarely impossible. What stops us changing things is not so much our ability as it is our fear.

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
- Epictetus.

Epictetus was a Greek Stoic philosopher. (His life was quite interesting - here's a link to the Wikipedia page about him).
I could write pages about the dozens of ideas in this simple sentence of his, but I think it's better if great words are left to stand alone sometimes.