So What's With All the Rings? A RAW blog carnival

 I'm pretty sure a lot of people think I'm crazy by now. After a year of making a ring everyday (still not finished by the way! 7 more days! And yes, the entire collection will be posted on the blog...eventually) why would I want to commit to another 52? I guess I should start with why I decided to join RAD last year: I was stagnant. I wasn't creating regularly and I wasn't moving forward. I'd fallen into the rut that so many seem to find themselves in after leaving college. The support group was gone and no one was holding me to deadlines. At first I loved the freedom, and then I wondered if I would be able to motivate myself to continue working. Working after I got home from my day job, after I got home from my night job (have to work a lot to pay off those student loans), after I had prepared a meal and all I wanted to do was collapse. When I came across the RAD project via Crafthaus I knew it had just what I needed to get myself going: deadlines. That thing which I dreaded, even hated while in school was the thing I knew I could no longer avoid. It was start meeting some deadlines or continue to wonder why I was paying for a degree I wasn't using and continue to stagnate.

What I wasn't prepared for when I joined the RAD group was how quickly I would feel connected to the other artists. A connection based on creating and struggling and meeting deadlines. The support was unbelievable, and the productive atmosphere was just what I needed to get moving again. The year was full of ups and downs, but I worked through it. I experimented, I cursed, and I had a great time. When the topic of starting another "something a day" group came up I was barely hanging on with RAD. There was no way I was going to torture myself for another year no matter what the creative gains. But a ring a week? I could handle a ring a week. I could probably produce some quality work if I had an entire week. I pushed the idea to the back of my mind and let it tumble around for a while. RAD was a struggle even before everyone else was finished. I started only making rings out of paper so that I could watch tv while I worked and pump them out quickly. Was I falling back into that hole or was I just really sick of rings? I wasn't sure.

RAD 39

RAD 23

RAD 27

Then one day while driving to work I was thinking that even though I'd been creating continuously for a year I was all over the place. I would return to the same themes or materials from time to time, but many times I was in a mad dash at the last minute to find something, anything, that I could turn into a ring.  I'm not sure there was any other way to deal with RAD than to go with the flow or go crazy. But what I really wanted to do was work on a cohesive body of work, to begin with something and work it through to the end. And just like that a concept formed. The translation of paper craft in metal. I decided that a significant part of my final RAD rings would be paper and would serve as models for RAW.

Maybe I am a little crazy, but I'm not sure there is much I would trade for my experience with RAD, and I'm really excited about my goal for RAW.

Find out why other people took up the RAW challenge:

Thomasin Durgin - www.metalriot.blogspot.com
Amy Nicole - www.rubymtnbeads.blogspot.com
Janice - www.doxallodesigns.blogspot.com
Aleksandra Micic - www.micicart.blogspot.com
Lana Chu - www.ginkgoglass.wordpress.com
Evelyn Markasky - www.markasky.blogspot.com
Lorena Angulo- www.blog.lorenaangulo.com
Kate Jones-- www.katejonesdesign.blogspot.com
Maria Apostolou- www.createjewelry.gr/blog
Rebecca Bogan - www.Adobesol.com/blog
Laura M (Zoeowyn)- www.zoeowyn.blogspot.com
Kimberly (bahamadawn) - www.bahamadawn.blogspot.com
Catherine Witherell - www.happydayart.typepad.com
Michele Grady- www.michelegradydesigns.blogspot.com
Joan Furilla - www.jfurilla.wordpress.com
Kathryn Cole- www.kathryncolejewelry.blogspot.com
Marcie Abney - labellajoya.blogspot.com