Gift Economies & Gratitude

The old ways of running this business have been bothering me.

I didn't really know how make a shift, until I had been faced with the idea of stopping the business and making jewelry all together after the passing of my father.

After my dad passed away, I just wasn't sure if I would feel creative anytime soon.

Initially, I told myself that I didn't want to make jewelry anymore (this post and this post talk about that).

Those knee jerk reactions weren't addressing the problem though. I needed to get to the root of the issue.

Other thoughts have surfaced and they had been in the back of my mind for years. The big thought was looking at how I have been running my jewelry business.

For years, I had been doing as I was told.

Creating exclusivity, creating scarcity, marketing my sales whenever I would have one as being a "one-time-only" offer. Creating a multitude of works that "might" work for a specific customer, but that didn't really call me. Posting everyday on social media, trying to stay relevant and in the eyes/minds of my customers. Going above and beyond to create an aesthetic and style, and carefully curating everything I did so that my work could fall under the label of 'brand'. Letting go of the idea of creating the more artsy pieces, using more and more conventional materials, refining to the point of losing soul.

I was simultaneously seeing other jewelry influencers creating these communities entirely off of political awareness. It all appeared very giving, but something about it felt very fake for me. Was this a tactic to appeal to a crowd? Was it genuine? Or was it to make a sale at the end of the day? I'm actually not criticizing, these questions mostly stem from me not feeling comfortable in building community through my political views (even if this post talks about our capitalist system and how it isn't working for me as an artist).

An idea and a feeling came over me recently that I had to give back to the land.

I just finished reading a short book, The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer, that gave words to how I have been feeling.

What are the smallest ways to show gratitude? How can we give back to our communities in alternative ways?

This whole summer, I've focused on creating a garden. A garden for pollinators, a garden for birds, a garden that would attract wildlife, a garden to heal the soil; a garden that would feel abundant not just for myself, but for my neighbors and for the wildlife that surrounds me. I want to use some of the funds that I generate from making jewelry to plant seeds, to donate seeds to my local library, to research how I can create microecosystems where a variety of wildlife can survive our changes in climate.

Another way that the book taught me to show gratitude was to say a prayer before I work on any project. Every time I plant a new flower or tree, I tell the land how grateful I have been to showing me the way. I have stepped into the studio to work on a few personal projects, and I acknowledge that the space has offered me immense creative joy and allowed for me to be successful (however you wish to define that).

How can the idea of a gift economy expand? There are so many ways, but these are just the small steps that I can take daily.

I'm ready to return to art, to return to a way of making jewelry that doesn't just appeal to everyone but rather empowers who you want to become. I'm eager to make less items so that I can make something more meaningful and beautiful at the end of the day.

Thank you so much for sticking around.

Take care,

Caitlin