A Journey of Making: How I fell in Love with the Handmade

by laynefreedline on April 29, 2011

Dear friends, I would like to introduce to you my friend and shop assistant Erica Delp, who has joined the blog writing team for Layne Designs. She will be sharing lots of fun stuff both technical and creative. -LF

by Erica Delp

Even before I began developing my talents as an artist, I was always enamored with handmade work. Each piece I came across seemed almost like a unique being with its’ own fingerprint and personality. Over the years, I have collected many handmade treasures and have lovingly placed them around me at home, at work and even on myself because seeing and touching them brings me so much joy. I let my imagination capture me as I think of the people that made them, the years of their life they have devoted to their craft, what their process is, and how they dream up their creations. I am astonished that human beings are capable of producing such beauty and I feel incredibly lucky to have even a small piece of this.

Now that I am producing my own art and have a “behind the scene” perspective, my respect for the handmade industry has increased significantly. Each piece that I produce is not only an idea born in my mind, but also the combination of knowledge, practiced skills and the physical efforts of my body to flesh it out and bring it to life. As my hands work to mold and shape the metal, I get the poetic notion that the work begins to claim its’ own identity and I wonder if I am making the art or if it is making itself. I think in the end, it’s a little bit of both things that are happening. When I leave the studio, often my fingers are sore, my eyes are weary and my mind is tired. But there is no better feeling in the world than when I hold one of my new creations and think about that I can now bring beauty and inspiration to someone else’s life just as so many others have done for me.

My first pendant!

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