Sunday, November 8, 2015

Post Script

The 31 Days Challenge has been a wonderful learning tool for me. Writing the series on Jewelry-From Concept to Sales reminded me that I can make a schedule keep it, and enjoy writing daily... which I had honestly forgotten. 2014's challenge was full of challenges in itself, so I didn't actually get the full feel for the experience. I allowed life's little problems(and sometimes huge problems) to get in the way. This year, I vowed to give myself the time to get the task done, and to allow other areas in my life to manage themselves.

My 13 year old son was one of those areas in my life that I allowed to manage without my full attention. This is a good thing. I feel that I micromanage way too much, especially when it comes to him. He is old enough to figure out chores, schoolwork, and athletics without my constant supervision. It worked out fine. There were no fires in the house, the trash didn't pile up, the laundry was neatly piled and waiting for me.... OK, so I haven't taught him that chore yet... but, he did amazingly well when it came to working out problems without my intervention at each step. I have learned that my stepping back and letting my son figure out for himself that completing tasks is to his benefit, and part of the growing process... which is what I'm trying to accomplish all along, isn't it? He is learning and maturing, and that's my whole goal with him, for him to grow into a competent and mature adult.

So, I'd say this was a chance to learn for not only myself, but for my son as well. He saw the dedication to working with other people, not just writing itself. Having guests on the blog that I interviewed was a nice challenge within the challenge. I could have chosen to write for 31 days about myself, about jewelry, about working with jewelry, or the whole sale of jewelry, without ever talking about someone else.  But that would be so boring and you know me, never boring!

I am such a fan  of the people that I interviewed. I have either taken classes , tutorials, or just plain admired them for so long, that I wanted to show them to everyone and say, ...Hey! these people are great... look at their wonderful work! I hope that each and every one of the featured jewelers has views on their websites from this blog. People need to see their work. Whether it is the simple, rustic work or the diamond encrusted beauties... each has a wonderful place in the jewelry world. Each a master in his own right... each person featured is a treasure.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank each person that helped with this blog series. Without their help, I wouldn't have been able to finish the series. Each was a pleasure to work with, and I learned so much along the way. Richard Salley, Al Martinez, Lorena Angulo, Lea Avroch, Ginger Davis Allman, Cristina Hurley, Scott Screiber, and the people at Brian Gavin Diamonds, especially Emily Henson, without who's help I would have never gained access to one of the largest jewelers in the world.

This has been a wonderful experience and I really hope to participate again next year.Throughout the coming months, I will have more jewelry, more tips, more interviews. My hope is to continue this blog, after a short break for holidays and family time, and to continue, monthly, sharing artists, their work, their stories, more indepth stories about them. Having a bit more time to delve into each artist's work will be wonderful, I might be able to post several posts about each artist.

So far, I have in store a unique young man from England who's story is rather unusual, his ties to jewelry are amazing, and I think he will be an appropriate start to the followup to this blog. I hope you will join me starting the middle of January.

Thanks for visiting, I hope you have enjoyed this series, please stop back again!


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