Setting Intentions Cuff

At some point in my jewelry journey, I was determined to teach myself how to set tiny faceted gemstones. These super tiny gems are called melee, and I purchased packages of them to sprinkle throughout my designs.

I realized though that faceted gemstones don't really work with my designs. There was something very mechanical and busy about the look of them, and sometimes the facets interfered with my already maxmalist pieces.

They ended up sitting on my shelf for some years, until I came up with the idea to use all of them for one piece. Instead of sitting down to do an otherwise very technical project of setting a million little gems, I decided to write an intention for every gemstone I set into a sterling silver cuff.

As you can see, there are hundreds of melee gems. I haven't done very many gemstones yet, I allow the intentions to come to me and I write them down and then go to the studio to set a stone.

The whole process is about allowing the flow of creativity to strike when it comes, and to respond as the maker. I love the idea of a project being able to be worn in the process of it being created. Especially with jewelry, it infuses this whole other layer of relationship between the wearer and the piece itself. I know this will take years to complete, and I find a beauty in that.

The other thing is that I allow the gem to be set how it wants to be set. Some want to be set in the traditional sense, and others want to be set with the bottom/point of the gemstone facing up. Sometimes I play with how I push the metal to sit over each gem, other times I play with where I want it placed on the cuff itself.

Here are a few of the intentions I've written so far:

#1 Remember who you are.

#13 Deepen into your intuition. Trust the voice, listen to the voice.

#14 Look for the beauty.

#18 The world needs more roses.

My favorite one was always look for the beauty, and the gemstone fell on the floor and I had to search for it. I had to physically and metaphorically search for the beauty. There are moments with this cuff where I'm finding that the intention manifests itself in a real way and the setting of each gem requires a very specific action from me.

That's all for now. Thanks so much for reading.

Take care,

Caitlin