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I’ve been thinking a lot about scale lately, particularly in regards to painting. My current painting process of working with watercolor markers on paper seems to lend itself to a small scale, despite my attempts to work bigger.
And why have I wanted to work bigger?
Yesterday, I went to post the above picture on Instagram, then hesitated.
Why?
Because lately, I’ve been questioning whether it’s worth my time and energy to be sharing so much an a platform I (we) have so little control over. I even wrote an entire post about it on my other blog.
And of course, thanks to Digital Minimalism, I’ve already cut back my time spent scrolling on Instagram significantly.
Last week, I headed to New York to show my jewelry line to store buyers. It was a lovely couple of days hanging out with some fantastic fellow jewelry designers and getting to see and connect with my buyers in person.
But on the way home, I started thinking about a trend I’ve been noticing with brands and advertising lately, especially in the jewelry industry. I’m seeing more and more brands shouting about how they are being transparent in their pricing by “cutting out the middleman” and passing those savings on to consumers.
On the face of it, it seems like a worthy cause, one that directly benefits the end customer.
But my experience in New York last week got me thinking… “what’s so bad about the middleman?”
After I posted this image to my painting Instagram the other day, it sparked quite a discussion. But I still wanted to share it here, because I do stand by this statement and it’s importance in the art making process. (And really, the process of learning anything new or taking up something we did once, but haven’t done in a long time.)
As I’ve been getting back into painting, there are times when I’ve found myself paralyzed before starting. (Especially on days when I’m not really sure what I want to paint.) But I also know that the key to getting better at anything is to do it and do it often. Which is why I decided to adopt this mantra: it’s ok to make bad art.
I’ve been thinking a lot about hemlines lately.
It all started during January’s one dress challenge, when someone commented that I should cut off the bottom of the wrap dress. (In her words, “to be a total badass.”)
But I didn’t want to cut off the bottom of the dress, because the truth is there’s nothing I like better than a midi length dress (or skirt).
But ever since that comment, I’ve been trying to deconstruct why.
Yesterday, I got served an ad for the facetune app, and frankly, I was horrified. Not only can you remove blemishes and smooth out your skin, but you can literally change the shape of your facial features. All, so the app claims, your seflies can get more likes.
Since I’ve been photographing my jewelry more on myself, and posting more images of myself (without makeup), I’ve also been thinking about the faces we’re used to seeing online and in the media.
We’ve been told for years to take the images we see with a grain of salt, because literally everyone famous has been airbrushed or photoshopped. But now, thanks to technology, you don’t have to be famous to get the smoothing treatment. You can literally smooth and alter the shape of your face, all with the swipe of an app.
Lately, I’ve been following more people in the body positive community online, and the Militant Baker recently shared a post about the importance of changing our media diet by following more people with diverse body types. I think the same needs to be true for faces.
Because if all we see online are perfectly facetuned faces, it can only make us more critical of the actual faces (ours and others) we come across in our everyday lives.
So here’s my face, as it is. No makeup (except for lipstick), under eye circles, pores, and a zit I forgot to photoshop out.
Oh yeah, and a new Contra Necklace with a gorgeous stone I’m obsessed with. (And that’s available in my online store!) Because I’m trying this radical thing where I assume that real people (not smoothed out selfies) wear my jewelry, and I’m photographing it accordingly.
In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been posting a lot more pictures of myself around here lately. That’s because I’ve made the shift to modeling my jewelry designs on myself. (And learning to like pictures of myself in the process.)
But the result is that I’m feeling a little bit at a loss as to what to call the kind of blogging I’m doing these days.
Anyone who knows me knows I rarely wear makeup.
This is partly out of laziness (I don’t like to take the time to put it on, and I NEVER take the time to take it off) and partly out of principle. (I’m convinced that I’ve never had major acne because I almost never wear makeup. I realize this isn’t true for everyone, but it does seem to be true for me.)
And after reading an article on Man Repeller, about why founder Leandra Medine doesn’t wear makeup, I felt even more justified in my decision to spend most days with a bare face.
Still, I had one hangup.
I always felt self-conscious posting selfies (or other images of myself) to social media unless I was wearing makeup.
This might seem like a small problem, but as a jewelry designer, posting selfies wearing my own work is a pretty valid form of marketing. (And one that my audience on Instagram responds positively to.) And since I almost never wear makeup, I almost never felt comfortable posting pictures of myself.
Friends suggested strategies for getting around this, like taking lots of pictures of myself on the rare occasions I was wearing makeup (like participating in a webinar or teaching on Creative Live) so I would have a stock of images to post later. But somehow, that never seemed to work out.
I needed a different solution.
As someone who is completely comfortable going without makeup in her everyday life, I needed to get comfortable taking (and sharing) pictures of myself without makeup.
For some people, this might not seem like a big deal. But the truth is that I’ve never liked pictures of myself. I’ve always struggled to take a good picture. The fact that I’m totally talkative means I’m usually the girl in group pics with her eyes closed and her mouth half open.
And decades of taking bad photos has left me feeling awkward and uncomfortable when anyone tries to take my picture. (Which is never a recipe for a successful photo.)
I didn’t even hire a professional photographer for my wedding, because I refused to pay for pictures of myself that I knew I would hate.
But recently, I discovered something that would change the way I viewed pictures of myself entirely.
The bold lip.
Now, I’m no stranger to the bold lip. Even though I almost never wear makeup, I’ve become a fan of the bold lip ever since the makeup artist at Creative Live gave me one a few years ago.
But, since lips are typically the last step in any makeup application, I always thought the transformative power of the bold lip worked hand in hand with the rest of my makeup.
Yes, I knew that a bold lip woke up my face, but I always assumed it did so in tandem with mascara, eyeliner, and the all important concealer covering my pesky (and hereditary) under eye circles.
Then a few weeks ago, I was photographing some new necklaces. While I often employ a model to showcase how my jewelry looks while being worn, I’ve been photographing more of my one of a kind Contra Collection pieces on myself, purely out of convenience.
While I typically go for a close crop in these photos, I realized the best way to get the shot I needed was to include my lips in the frame. After noticing my plain, dry lips were doing nothing for the shot, I quickly threw on some red lipstick.
And the results were magical.
There was my face, instantly alive and bright, without the need for any other makeup.
Within a matter of weeks, I’ve gone from a person who never liked pictures of myself to a person who has posted multiple selfies on Instagram, with a completely bare face!
Now, I don’t know if wearing lipstick means I can technically count these as #nomakeupselfies, but the truth is, it doesn’t really matter.
Putting on lipstick (especially when combined with one of my signature statement necklaces) has given me the confidence to share pictures of myself without any other makeup, which is the way I normally exist in the world.
More importantly, the simple act of putting on lipstick has let me start to see myself in pictures the way others see me. As a beautiful, confident woman who doesn’t need to conceal her (perceived) flaws.
Which, even with lipstick, is really what a #nomakeupselfie is truly about.
I spent a good part of this past weekend pulling staples from the floor after removing some nasty old carpet from the den. And that kind of exciting manual labor definitely gives a girl time to think.
Mostly, I had to remind myself that any progress on the house is still progress, no matter how slow. This definitely applies to house renovations, but I’d say it also applies to business (and pretty much anything else in life). We’ve become so inundated with ways to get quick results that it can be really hard to appreciate progress at anything less than warp speed.
So this week, I’m going to give myself permission to feel good about any progress I make, no matter how slow!
One of the biggest challenges of running a creative business has got to be finding the balance between a never-ending to-do list and time to execute new ideas. (Because as a creative person, I’ve always got so many new ideas!) And as I learned when I posted this to my Instagram last night, I’m not the only creative biz owner who feels that way.
Usually, I’m pretty good at carving out time for new ideas, but this summer, I really overcommitted myself. I’m looking forward to a little more time for creative projects as the summer winds down. Tops on my list are a big stack of books to be read, more time to experiment with creative ways to photograph my jewelry (like the image above), and making a new batch of Contra Collection rings. (Since I’m pretty much sold out of size 7 and 7.5!)
PS. The ring in the above image is available now in my online store. (Or you can join my mailing list to be the first to know when a new batch of rings is available!)